National Institute for Basic Biology
| Organizers | Frederic Berger (TLL) Karuna Sampath (TLL)) Toshie Kai (TLL)) Toshiro Ito (TLL) |
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| Venue | Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory |
| Date | Nov. 21-22, 2011 |
| Link | http://www.tll.org.sg/content/3rd-nibb-tll-mpiz-joint-symposium-2011 （http://www.tll.org.sg/content/3rd-nibb-tll-mpiz-joint-symposium-2011） |
| Poster |
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The 3rd NIBB-TLL (Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory) -MPIPZ (Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research) Joint Symposium 2011 was held at TLL's facilities in Singapore. Despite it being winter, Singapore's close position to the equator keeps it quite warm, with the conference seeing 30⁰C temperatures both days, and humidity of over 80%. Through lectures on the cell cycle, development, and related fields of basic biology by researchers from Japan, Singapore, and Germany, this joint symposium set out to promote an international exchange of scientific ideas unhampered by boundaries of nation or field. The Japanese lecturers for the symposium consisted of 6 lecturers from NIBB, as well as 3 other researchers from throughout the Japanese community of basic biology scientists. Including the talks by the three keynote speakers, Prof. Mitsuyasu Hasebe (NIBB), Prof. Yoshiaki Ito (TLL), and Prof. George Coupland (MPIPZ), the topics covered included the cell cycle, cell division, fertilization, development, and differentiation, among others, with research drawn from a large pool of model species such as mice, Arabidopsis thaliana, Physcomitrella patens, zebrafish, Xenopus laevis, yeast, and Volvox. Each presentation by the researchers was both interesting, and full of personal flavor, with the question and answer sessions afterwards blossoming into fruitful cross-disciplinary discussions lasting past the initially allotted time. The poster presentations were also quite lively, consisting of ten presentations, primarily by younger researchers, who spoke passionately about their subjects until the end of the symposium. With additional activities, such as tours of the TLL facilities and botanical gardens, as well as several lunches and dinners spent getting to know each other while sampling the delicious local cuisine, this symposium provided a wonderful opportunity for the strengthening of research ties on both a personal and organizational level, and was ultimately a very fruitful endeavor.
(NIBB Yoshikatsu Matsubayashi)
