Chairman's Welcome

Dear friends and colleagues,

It is our pleasure to invite you to join us at the 13^th International Symposium on VIP, PACAP and Related Peptides, in Hong Kong SAR, China. The symposium will be held between Sunday 3^rd December 2017 and 6^th December 2017 at The University of Hong Kong. It will be followed by a satellite symposium on 7^th December 2017 at The University of Macao. It is also situated in a scenic spot in mid-level on the western side of Hong Kong Island, within walking distance from the iconic Victoria Peak.

This symposium intends to provide an interactive forum for presentation and discussion of a diversity of topics concerning VIP, PACAP, secretin, glucagon, GLP-1 and related peptides. This year, the focus of the meeting is to provide recent updates and discuss the future of this family of bioactive peptides in novel translational and therapeutic implications. In line with this, we will also provide the platform for announcing and collecting application of the 2-year grant to a young investigator for translational research on PACAP by the Akira Arimura Foundation.

Like previous meetings, we will have an excellent scientific program comprising of 3 Plenary Lectures, 7 Symposia with 28 State-of-the-Art Lectures, to encourage the participation of young investigators and scientists, we will provide 15 travel awards selected from submitted abstracts, and 5 presentation and poster awards. The selected abstracts will give Oral Communications in Young Investigator Symposia. .

Not only do we hope that we will have an exciting meeting; we would like you to be infused in the Hong Kong culture. The social events, which are included in the registration fee of all participants and accompanying guests, will comprise of a welcome reception night on Monday Dec 4^th, a visit to Lamma Island plus dinner that explicit the requirement for freshness of the produce in local culinary culture on Wednesday Dec 5^th. The Congress dinner is planned on the 6^th, serving traditional Chinese banquet dinner and performance of Chinese opera. A satellite symposium has also been organized after the main meeting on Friday Dec 7^th. Delegates will take a ferry to Macau, where a half-day symposium will be held and followed by dinner and optional tour of the Macau City Centre the day after.

We look forward to welcoming you in Hong Kong in December 2017.

Sincerely,

Billy

Billy KC Chow, Ph.D,

Chair of the Organizing Committee

The 13^th International Symposium on VIP, PACAP and Related Peptides