Invitation

Meeting Chairman Dr. Toshihiko Ikeda (Sankyo Co., Ltd.)

Meeting theme: Promotion of Drug Discovery & Development and DMPK Sciences Responding to Technological Innovation and Globalization

I still remember what a famous scientist said about the law of universal gravitation: “It is truly fortunate for us that the gravitational force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between two masses. If it were proportional, our world would be much affected by invisible masses located far away in the universe, and the more remote the position, the stronger the influence, not allowing us to live normally.”.

Our good fortune in this world is that we are able to live safely by creating sufficient distance from a threat. However, the velocity of signal transduction is becoming much faster than ever nowadays. The size of the earth has effectively become so small that any event that occurred yesterday at any distant point on the globe affects our immediate environment today. Recognition of this is firmly consolidated in the word "globalization". It can be said that all sectors, politics, economics, science, sport, public entertainment and so on, are taking the globalization route In science especially, any small finding published in any scientific journal is disseminated immediately all over the world if it is considered important. In many fields including drug discovery and development, where something is created based on scientific fact, one must receive signals sent from any position on the earth by expanding our antenna as widely as possible.

In this light, I ask members of the Japanese Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (JSSX) who are going to attend the JSSX annual meeting this year to prepare abstracts in English, similar to the previous annual meeting (Meeting Chairman: Dr. Akira Tsuji). This year, I have also decided to hold a joint symposium with members of the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX) in Asia Pacific region, hoping that the atmosphere generated will encourage ISSX members to attend the JSSX annual meeting taking it as one of their home meetings for presenting their papers or exchanging information. It would enable both ISSX and JSSX members to acquire information without traveling worldwide.

A number of innovations will be introduced in the symposium this year. Some topics were invited from selected JSSX members, so the content of the symposium is expected to greater meet the variety of needs of JSSX members. Dr. Yuichi Sugiyama, the JSSX President, will launch a "Young Scientists Symposium". I should stress, however, that there is no age limit for participating in the Young Scientists Symposium; any stimulating comments or suggestions by any attendees to young scientists are very much welcomed.

Perceiving the recent movements of the FDA and EMEA, ways for Japan to embrace these new trends are to be explored in the Forum to be held at the end of the meeting. Moreover, special lectures by invited speakers as well as luncheon seminars and exhibitions will be held, too.

The judging system for the best poster award (BP award) will be changed starting this year. Members of the BP award committee will score the abstracts of applicants to the BP award and select 10 to 15 finalists according to the scores. A special room is to be provided to display posters of the finalists throughout the meeting. In addition, the finalists will receive a “certificate of finalist”, and are invited to the meeting dinner free of charge. During the meeting, members of the BP award committee will visit the finalists’ posters and select winners for the first to third places. The award ceremony is to be held before the Forum starts. I encourage everyone to apply for the BP award, a very valuable part of the meeting.

The annual meeting is a good opportunity for scientists involved in drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics to meet together, discuss topics of mutual interest, and exchange information. Please utilize the JSSX annual meeting as effectively as you can. Your participation is the key to our future.

Looking forward to seeing all of you at the 21st JSSX Annual Meeting,
With best regards,

Japanese