The 142nd Annual Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (Nagoya)

Organizer: Tatsuya Saitoh (Grad. Sch. of Pharmaceut. Sci., Osaka Univ.), Hiroyuki Arai (Grad. Sch. of Med., the Univ. of Tokyo)

Organelles are intracellular membrane-bound compartments and play highly specialized roles in the control of cellular activities. Because organelle dysfunction causes various diseases, organelles are targets for the development of therapeutic drugs that ameliorate disease symptoms. Hence, studies on organelles are necessary for the field of pharmaceutical science. In recent years, due to the rapid progress in microscopic technology, it became evident that in a single organelle, different zones play different roles. Further, the integration of discrete responses in these zones regulates most organelle functions. These functional zones have been termed the organelle zones. In this symposium, researchers working on understanding life phenomena and diseases, and developing methods for the manipulation of cellular responses, will discuss their recent findings on organelle zones. These researchers will also discuss the future development of organelle researches and the possibility of drug development by targeting the molecules associated with organelle zones.