Joint 3rd AOHUPO and 4th Structural Biology and Functional Genomics Conference,
4 -7 December 2006, National University Hall.

The Joint 3rd AOHUPO and 4th Structural Biology and Functional Genomics Conference was held from 4 th to 7 th December 2006 at the University cultural Centre of the National university of Singapore. The 4-day conference registered more than 900 participants and was a roaring success.

Officially opened by Guest of Honour, NUS President Prof. Shi Choon Fong, the conference saw talks by international speakers from USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, China, India, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand, including Prof. Lee Hartwell 2001 Nobel Laureate for Physiology or Medicine. Local speakers hailed from the National University of Singapore and research institutes in Singapore.

Scientific sessions on Structural Biology were on :

Protein design and engineering
Protein folding
Protein-protein interaction
Structure-function relationships
Structural genomics
Functional genomics
Cryo-electron microscopy
Structural biology I
Structural biology II

Scientific sessions on Proteomics were on :
Proteomics technologies
Bioinformatics
Cancer biomarkers
Clinical proteomics
Systems biology 1
Systems biology II
Plant proteomics
Liver proteomics

In conjunction with the conference, the Singapore Society for Mass Spectrometry (SSMS) presented a special Pre-Conference Workshop on 'Selected Topics in Experimental Proteomics' which was widely attended. Following the AOHUPO conference, the Second AOHUPO Membrane Proteomics Workshop on 'Membrane Proteins and Membrane Proteomics' was also held.

There were many 'first's in this conference ranging from a full scale exhibition by the sponsors/vendors to a band playing at the welcome reception. Support from commercial sponsors had been very encouraging, with strong financial support as well as in-kind support ranging from free gifts at the conference, lunchtime talks to entertainment and hospitality.