Therapeutic Innovation from Dejima

The 90^th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Pharmacological Society will be held over three days from Wednesday, March 15, to Friday, March 17, 2017, at Nagasaki Brick Hall and Nagasaki Astopia. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome prospective participants and make a few requests.

With a scope of research that extends across all of human life, from the genome to the individual, the discipline of pharmacology has made extensive contributions to the fields of medicine and pharmaceuticals as a foundational and comprehensive science in which pure research and clinical practice are linked horizontally through traditional focuses on the investigation of life phenomena and disease pathology, establishment of a foundation for drug treatment, and new drug discovery and development as well as through more recent attention to topics in advanced medicine such as tissue regeneration. The importance of pharmacology continues to grow day by day due to the ongoing enhancement and development of medicine. The Annual Meeting of the Japanese Pharmacological Society, which has been held since 1927, is an event rich in history and dedicated to the further development of the discipline. Coming as it does one year before the 2018 World Congress of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology in Kyoto, our society's upcoming annual meeting is inspiring an unprecedented level of enthusiasm.

Reflecting the status of the host city Nagasaki (Dejima) as a symbol of international and multicultural exchange, we have chosen "Therapeutic Innovation from Dejima" as the theme for the 90^th Annual Meeting. It is my hope that the meeting will show pharmacological research that springs from a sustained willingness to boldly embrace the challenges of exploring unknown areas and the acceptance and refinement of the findings of that enterprise to a Japanese and international audience. Drug discovery has recently gained attention on the national policy level, triggering a new era of pharmacology. To take advantage of this opportunity, our goals are to discuss various pharmacological topics with the participants and special speakers who are active on the front lines of basic science in fields such as biology, cellular and molecular biology, immunology, and pathological molecular neurobiology, and to bring this perspective to bear in other areas such as planned symposia.

As you may know, the port of Nagasaki was opened to the outside world 417 years ago, as a result the history of the area is rich in exchanges among various peoples and cultures. The city prospered as a port for trade with Europe, leading to a brilliant flourishing of Japanese, Chinese, and European culture. In a time when samurai warriors in various feudal domains turned to learning from "Dutch studies" as they grappled with Western science, and as Japan was seeking to modernize its industry, Nagasaki was one of the first cities in Japan to introduce the latest overseas technologies. I hope that participants would open their hearts to the appeal of Nagasaki (Dejima) as a place, which has been developed through repeated trial and error as befits the diverse and varied trade that has characterized its history, and that they would learn about state-of-the-art pharmacological research in this unique setting, as well as deepen and broaden exchanges with colleagues.

I invite you to participate actively in the upcoming the 90^th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Pharmacological Society and look forward to seeing you there.

June 2016