Peptide Science - Present and Future

In the late 1980s, Peptide Societies were established in Europe, the United States, and Japan, and more recently, in the Asian and the Pacific Rim regions including Australia, China, and Korea. At the time of the establishment of the American, European and Japanese Peptide Societies, the International Liaison Organizing Committee representing these Peptide Societies, along with the Australian Peptide Society, began discussions for holding international confer ences which would supercede or be held in lieu of the numerous individual meetings, held by the peptide societies of each individual country or region. The representative of the Chinese Peptide Society participated in these discus sion in the International Liaison Organizing Committee at the meeting of the American Peptide Symposium in Nashville, in June 1997. After lengthy discus sions over several years, we agreed to organize and host the International Peptide Symposium in Japan. The First International Peptide Symposium (IPS'97) was held on November 30December 5, 1997, in Kyoto, and was co sponsored by four Peptide Societies. The attendance at this Symposium was 550 participants, including representatives from 32 different countries. We were very pleased with this outcome and anticipate an even larger attendance for forthcoming Symposia in future years. The revolution and advances in science and technology during the past two decades has caused traditional peptide chemistry to expand to peptide science, spreading from physical science to biology, pharmacology, and medicine.

Inhalt
Plenary lectures.- General lectures.- Peptide mimetics and de novo design.- Peptide combinatorial libraries.- Novel methodologies in structural analyses.- Peptides and proteins in signal transduction: Interaction with membrane receptors and intracellular role.- Structure, dynamics & folding of peptides and proteins.- Structural basis of peptide-protein & peptide-DNA interactions.- New biologically active peptides.- Progress in peptide and protein synthesis.- Glyco-, lipo-, phospho-peptides: Synthesis and biological activity.- Nonpeptide antagonists of peptide receptors.- Protease inhibitors: Biology and inhibition.- Peptide pharmacology potential therapeutic application.- Emerging functions and peptides.- Peptides in immunology/peptide vaccines.