On December 7th, 2014, the 2nd Annual Shanghai GPCR Forum was held by iHuman Institute, ShanghaiTech University. Around 200 representatives from leading academic institutions and industrial enterprises worldwide attended the Forum, sharing insights on the latest progress and development in the area of GPCR and human cell signaling research.
Prof. Jie Yin, Vice President and Provost of ShanghaiTech University, delivered the opening remarks. He appreciated the fast development of the area in both scientific research and collaborative models, and restated the commitment of ShanghaiTech University in pursuing long-term collaboration opportunities in this promising direction with academic and industrial partners.
The Forum was co-chaired by Prof. Raymond C. Stevens, Founding Director of iHuman Institute and Prof. Zhijie Liu, Deputy Director of iHuman Institute, ShanghaiTech University. Leading GPCR researchers from domestic and foreign institutions, including iHuman Institute, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, CAS, National Center for Protein Science Shanghai, Institute of Biophysics, CAS, The Scripps Research Institute, Northwestern University, VU University Amsterdam and University of Copenhagen, participated and gave presentations on various topics of the area covering structural biology, drug discovery, biophysical methods and computational tool development, reflecting the theme of convergence and integration in methodology of this 2nd Forum.
Recognizing the importance of openness and collaboration, scientists from pharmaceutical industry leaders including Amgen, Sanofi, Ono, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer and Roche were invited to attend the Forum. Speakers from Amgen and the GPCR Consortium presented their latest progress on GPCR-based drug R&D and creative academia-industry collaboration, respectively, emphasizing the huge potential and impact of collaboration in this thriving community.
The Forum was sponsored by ShanghaiTech as well as industrial partners.
