The 145th Annual Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan (Fukuoka)

Organizer: Tomoaki Koga (IMEG, Kumamoto Univ.), Takashi Minami (Div. Mol.Vasc.Biol, IRDA, Kumamoto Univ.), Ito Akihiro (Tokyo Univ. Pharm. Life Sci., Sch. of Life Sci.), Suzuki Takayoshi (SANKEN, Osaka Univ.)

Despite completing the Human Genome Project over 20 years ago and decoding genetic information, many uncertainties remain regarding the "utilization of genetic information," i.e. "Epigenomic information," and its connection to health and disease. Meanwhile, drugs targeting the epigenome, such as azacitidine and vorinostat, have already been launched and are widely recognized for their utility. Epigenetics, as such, is a highly socially relevant research field, but it cannot be said that it has been sufficiently discussed within the area of pharmaceutical sciences. Therefore, this symposium aims to define drug discovery research based on epigenomic information as "Pharmaco-'Epi'-genomics" and proposes it as a research area that includes fundamental epigenetic mechanisms, disease mechanisms, drug development, and the epigenomic characteristics of patients. For this symposium, we have invited Dr. Baek, a global leader in epigenetics research, and assembled speakers from multiple sections to create a joint symposium across different disciplines. Using the epigenome as a common language, we hope to foster seamless and passionate discussions that transcend boundaries, ranging from basic biopharmaceutical sciences to pharmacology and chemical biology. We aspire to ignite a new wave of epigenome-driven drug discovery through this interdisciplinary collaboration.