The 2017 Queenstown Molecular Biology (Shanghai) Meetings, organized by the National Center for Drug Screening, the Queenstown Molecular Biology Meeting Society of New Zealand and Shanghai Pudong Engineers Association were successfully held at China Financial Information Center located in Lujiazui, Pudong between March 16 and 17, 2017. The main theme of this event is “Drug Discovery and Basic Science”, which was concurrent with the 9th National Forum on New Technologies in Drug Discovery and the 6th Meeting of Chinese Network for Drug and Diagnostics Innovation.
Among the sponsors were Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the National Health and Family Planning Commission, Ministry of Sciences and Technology, Fudan University, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, CAS, the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China Financial Information Center (affiliated to Xinhua News Agency), Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administration, Maurice Wilkins Center of New Zealand, Novo Nordisk A/S of Denmark, the Chinese National Compound Library, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR/WHO), Shanghai Pudong Association for Science and Technology, Zhangjiang High-Tech Park, Acta Pharmacologica Sinica, Asian Chemical Biology Initiative, Chinese Network for Drug and Diagnostics Innovation and Shanghai Research and Development Public Service Platform, etc. Drs. Ming-Wei Wang (Director of the National Center for Drug Screening and Dean of Fudan School of Pharmacy) and Peter Shepherd (Professor of the University of Auckland, New Zealand) co-organized the 2-day event.
There were 4 plenary lectures and 8 parallel sessions, entitled Cancer Biology, CNS & Inflammation, Receptors & Channels, Neglected Tropical Diseases, Innovation, Development, Young Investigators’ Forum and International Journal Forum. More than 400 domestic and overseas scientists, entrepreneurs, investors, managers, graduate and undergraduate students from 26 countries and regions around the world attended the meetings. They conducted broad exchanges and interacted enthusiastically surrounding the theme of “Drug Discovery and Basic Science”. One hundred and five invited speakers from 23 countries and regions (59% of them were from overseas), including several internationally renowned scholars and 12 young investigators from Togo, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Singapore, Japan and China made their presentations. Nineteen multinational or domestic instrument, informatics, reagent and consumable vendors provided financial support to the event; 8 of them sent their representatives to give oral introductions to the audience covering various hot topics in global drug innovation, ranging from new trends, new strategies, new technologies, to new methods, new tools and new equipment. The concert, A Journey through Time and Space, elegantly performed by 7 well-established alumni from Shanghai Conservatory of Music musicians, elicited tremendous enthusiasm from the audience.
In the early evening of March 17, witnessed by Academician Zhu Chen (Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China) and Academician Kaixian Chen (Vice Chief Technical Officer of China’s Mega Project on Drug Discovery and Development), 14 scientists from Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, U.S.A., Korea, Japan, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and China executed a consensus document to formally establish the “Asia-Pacific Network on Drug and Diagnostics Innovation (AP-NDI)”, thereby successfully concluded the meetings.
Queenstown Molecular Biology Meetings are a well-known international academic forum with a history of more than 26 years, which have attracted the attendance of numerous scientists, students and entrepreneurs. This is the fifth time to hold such a prestigious event outside of New Zealand, following a successful launching in Shanghai in 2013.
