Dear Friends and Colleagues,
It is my great pleasure to invite all of you to the 8th Asian Network of Research Resource Centers (ANRRC) International Meeting to be held from September 20th to 22nd, 2016 in Kyoto, Japan. This annual meeting becomes possible by the great efforts by Dr. Yuji Kohara, an ANRRC Board member, Project Professor of National Institute of Genetics and the Program Supervisor of National Bioresource Project of Japan. I am expecting that the programs will provide all participants with great opportunity for learning other ANRRC member institutions’ activities and for exchanging important ideas and information.
The ANRRC is now well establishes as Asian Research Infrastructure for Life Science. Thanks to Professor Yeonhee Lee, the founding president of ANNRC, the ANRRC has been growing rapidly ever since its establishment and its members are now 104 institutions of 14 countries. Now is the time for the ANRRC to convince and persuade Asian people and governments that ANRRC is essential and must be supported for further development of this region.
In this meeting, I hope to hear active discussions among the members on the recent technology advancements in addition to the two topics that I raised at the last meeting, on the Nagoya Protocol and on the quality control and standardization. All these topics should affect the activities of resource centers.
The Nagoya Protocol has already entered into force in October, 2014. Resource centers are expected to play a crucial role in implementation of the Protocol. Of course, a resource center is obliged to protect its national interest. At the same time, it should also protect global interest in academic research for sustainability and welfare of the human race as declared in the spirit of ANNRC.
Quality control and standardization are major challenges for resource centers. Although the reproducibility of experimental results is central to the science, a certain portion of research results in life science cannot be reproduced by third party due to defects in experimental materials (bioresources) or inaccurate information associated with them, thus losing the public trust to life science. This is a global issue of common concerns. It should be strongly recommended that scientists should deposit their resources to reputable repositories after the publication of paper for sharing materials among fellow scientists. Detailed and accurate information on the resource such as origin, characteristics, modification of genes, microbial contamination status, and so on, must be provided together with resources. At the same time, scientists are advised to use authentic resources from reputable repositories. This means that responsibility of resource centers is increasing. We, the members of ANRRC, should commit ourselves to fulfilling our obligations pertaining to quality control and to enhancing our enlightening activities on the importance of authenticity of resources.
The advancement of new technologies is enormous, particularly the next generation sequencers (NGS) and gene-editing technologies. These technologies have been affecting various areas including bioresource projects. Many useful resources are being produced and analyzed, which will be deposited at bioresource centers. The NGS technology has made the quality control of bioresources simpler and more precise. Nanopore single molecule sequencer has made genome analysis possible in the field. Resource centers must respond properly to these advancements of technologies.
I am sure the 8th ANRRC International Meeting will be fruitful for all participants and provide an excellent opportunity for renewal of friendship among the members. Once again, we would like to thank Dr. Kohara for providing such wonderful occasions. I am looking forward to seeing you in September in Kyoto, a city of the world cultural heritage with the history of the capital of Japan over 1,000 years until 1869.
With best regards.
Yuichi OBATA
President of ANRRC
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
On behalf of the local organizing committee, I am honored to welcome you to the 8th International Meeting of Asian Network of Research Resource Centers (ANRRC) that will be held from September 20th to 22nd, 2016 in Kyoto, Japan. The meeting venue is "Shirankaikan" of Kyoto University Medical School which is located in the east part of the old capital city.
During the past 7 years, ANRRC successfully declared its foundation to the world, and has created the platform where Asian scientists cooperate to advance research, and education on the aspect of the field of biological research resources. I believe that we are ready for starting collaborative research in Asia to share our information and experience with the rest of the world. Thus, in this year's meeting, we will have basically a single session at a time in order to share information and deepen discussion by all the participants. The meeting will consist of a plenary session and scientific sessions, poster presentations (with the poster awards!). The details of the program are in progress.
I hope that all of you join ANRRC 2016 and play an active role there.
Thank you and I look forward to seeing you all in Kyoto.
Sincerely yours
Yuji Kohara, Ph.D.
Chair, Local Organizing Committee,
The 8th International Meeting of ANRRC