【Greeting from the President No.5】

We are only 21 days away from the start of MBSJ2021Yokohama. For the past six months, I've been following, literally every day, the "new corona outbreaks in Japan" on Yahoo! Japan, feeling happy and sad for even the slightest ups and downs in the numbers. This "tension accompanied by cold sweat" (a.k.a. "every day is Russian roulette") will continue until the evening of December 3. I feel as if I want the meeting to be over soon so that I can be released from the tension. I also feel as if I want to see the outbreak remaining low for a few months before the meeting starts. By this, you see how complicated my mind is right now. This year is the 10th Yokohama annual meeting for MBSJ. As part of the "Yokohama Historia" project, Dr. Yuka Iwasaki, a member of the meeting committee, and I have been interviewing nine past Yokohama meeting presidents. The contents are now being compiled into a booklet, which will be distributed during the meeting this year, but I can assure you that no one among those nine professors has ever experienced such "negative tension" in preparation for the meetings. You might think “Dr. Siomi draw the short straw”. It may be true. However, even under such harsh conditions, the number of pre-registrants exceeded our expectations and reached 4,200, the number of symposia, workshop, and forum reached 27, 90, and 14, respectively, the number of general poster presentations reached 2,455, and the number of high school students' presentations reached 25. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all MBSJ members (and non-members, too) for their desire to attend, present, discuss, and meet their colleagues at MBSJ2021Yokohama. I also would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the members of the organizing committee, Dr. Kanuka, the infection safety committee, secretaries from A.E. Planning, the MBSJ secretariat, and the many companies who have kindly supported us. From now on, I will be concerned about the growth in the number of participants who register on the day, which will begin on November 17. It will inevitably depend on the status of the new corona outbreak. This means that my " every day is Russian roulette" will continue for another three weeks, but I will conserve my physical and mental strength to endure it.

It has been more than a month since the state of emergency was lifted in the Kanto area. People on the streets are still wearing masks, but if you virtually erase the masks from your mind, you would never guess that there has been a covid-19 problem, as there are so many people happily and busily going on the streets. Since November 1st, I have witnessed people with carry-on cases or wedding gift bags. I occasionally go to the morning vegetable market, where the social distance is only a few dozen centimeters. In such circumstances, the footprint stickers at the checkout counter of the grocery store lately make me wonder, "What is this for?” It will take me some time to recall the meaning of it. I wonder if this is just me, or if you experience the similar…. The Gyoko-dori Avenue near JR Tokyo Station has long since become a public venue for covid-19 vaccinations, but lately the stuff looks bored. If I make eye contact with them, they seem to be soliciting me, "Would you like a vaccination?” It seems that they have enough vaccines in stock. If the government decides to administer the third vaccination, if it is effective, why don't they start now? Our leaders, who seem not very good at anticipating the world, seem to be waiting what the other countries will do.

Speaking of not being good at anticipating the world, the world of Biology is no different. It is said for long by now that Japan should promote "diversity" rather than "conformity.” Some say that Japan's modernization of its scientific infrastructure is lagging behind and that we should do something new by lightening footwork. This October, Prof. Shukuro Manabe, a US-based Nobel laureate in physics, advised the Japanese government to support curious basic research and the importance of academic freedom. Around the same time, Japan's international research ranking has fallen to 10th place, and our position as a nation of science and technology is apparently becoming rather unstable. For Japan's science to survive and to nurture the next generation of talented scientists who will carry it forward, we need to reform our science policy and improve our research infrastructure from a new perspective. We are organizing an urgent forum, "The Challenge of Revitalizing Japan's Research Platform - What type of new science policy and research infrastructure development is needed for the next generation researchers? (Dec 1; 19:15~). We would be grateful if you could come and give us your opinions as much as you can. I am organizing "EMBO-MBSJ Joint Forum: Studying in the EU and Career Development for Young Professionals", which will be held at the same time. So, I won’t appear at the urgent forum. However, I am working on a plan to reflect the valuable comments we received at the urgent forum somewhere in writing.

See you in Yokohama soon!

Early November 2021

【Greeting from the President No.4】

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have come to its end, and only about 100 days are left till the MBSJ2021Yokohama. Currently, the delta strain of the new corona virus is raging, and the number of infected people in Japan continues to increase. In addition to major events such as the Cannes International Film Festival and the MET Gala, in France and other countries, people are now required to present a certificate of vaccination against the new coronas in order to eat at restaurants. In the current situation of widespread covid-19 a new kind of event is being sought and the MBSJ2021 Organizing Committee is now at the stage of seriously and concretely considering infection control measures during the conference. As was announced in an e-mail sent to the members of the MBSJ on August 10, we are pleased to announce that Professor Hirotaka Kanuka of The Jikei University School of Medicine joined us as an "Infection Control Advisor". Professor Kanuka has supervised infection control at various occasions, such as the Japan Record Awards at the end of last year, and we feel extremely encouraged by his experience.

MBSJ2021 will be held in a "hybrid format" for the first time in the Molecular Biology Society of Japan. According to the ongoing registration and abstract submission, the number of on-site participants is expected to be 50-60% of the usual number, or a little over 4,000 people at the Pacifico Yokohama. Since there are many respondents who are undecided, it is quite possible that the number of participants will increase further as the meeting approaches, depending on the infection situation. What should we do to hold a "safer and more secure annual meeting" while fulfilling the strong desire of participants to discuss cutting-edge science locally? The Infection Control Advisor and the Organizing Committee are currently exploring various options. We gave up on the idea of setting a goal of "zero infections" as unreasonable at this scale. On the other hand, one of our ideas is to issue a "Safety Passport" (tentative) to local participants who can present a vaccination certificate or a PCR negative certificate, and to ask them to have the passport "visible" at all times along with their name cards. Vaccination does not completely prevent infection with the new coronavirus, but it may help to avoid serious illness. In addition, for those participants who do not have these certificates, we are considering offering a coronavirus testing service at the venue during the exhibition. We will work together with all of you to realize a "safer and more secure" MBSJ annual meeting where science can be discussed live without anxiety, based on rules that will be "reasonable" and convincing to those who wish to participate in the meeting.

August 2021

【Greeting from the President No.3】

This year's cherry blossoms were a little earlier than usual (at least in Tokyo), and the flowers in full bloom soothed our weary hearts with the covid-19 issue, but it was short-lived, and as usual, the light cherry blossom-colored streets turned quickly into fresh green. At the same time, we, the meeting organizers, adopted 110 symposia and workshops, and made a three-day itinerary for the MBSJ2021Yokohama meeting. To be honest, we were concerned about whether or not we would receive applications to fill all these sessions as we had hoped, but we are relieved to say that it ended in vain. The call for the Forum submissions closed at the end of April and has been incorporated as well into the meeting schedule. The abstract submission period will start shortly on July 1. We all look forward to your active submissions.

The number of people infected with the new corona virus in Japan may not be as disastrous as in other countries. Yesterday, the number of newly infected Japanese people was 5,816, while the number in India was just over 267,000, and some say that the actual number might be several dozen times higher. The populations of the two countries are, of course, different, but the number of the infection in India is still orders of magnitude higher. But still, when we hear day and night about the number of infected people in Japan, the tight situation in the medical field, and the penetration of the mutated form of the disease, day after day, there is not a day that goes by that I don't feel anxious about whether we will be able to hold the MBSJ 2021 Yokohama safely, even though it is about six months away. I live within walking distance of the Gaien, the main stadium/arena of the Tokyo Olympics 2020, so this is just crazy and insane to me, but the sports festival seems to be going ahead.

On the other hand, the vaccination in Japan is lagging far behind the rest of the world. I received an e-mail several days ago from my old co-worker who lives in Philadelphia, saying that the supply of vaccines to the citizens is more than sufficient and that even his 12-year-old boy has received the shots. I don't know what the reason is for the huge delay in our country, but it is disheartening to think that the success of our annual meeting totally depends on the vaccination rate. It is mRNA vaccine. As a molecular biologist, I know what to give, where to give it, and how much to give, but even though I have a healthy body with normal "translation system" and "immune system," I still have to wait for the vaccination ticket from the Shinjuku ward office. How heartless it is to have to wait for the inoculation ticket with your fingers crossed. Well, the in vitro transcription reaction kit is always available in the lab freezer. I have not forgotten how to use the pipette-man. Maybe I should just stand by the bench and set up a reaction for the first time in ten years; just to be ready for vaccinating all the attendees of the MBSJ meeting (as of late-May).

May 2021

【Greeting from the President No.2】

A new year has begun as usual, although the covid-19 pandemic shows no signs of slowing down. I hope that all MBSJ members had a safe and good start to the new year.

Despite the covid-19 pandemic, the countdown is steadily underway for "MBSJ 2021 YOKOHAMA". The website of the meeting is now open (https://www2.aeplan.co.jp/mbsj2021/english/index.html), and we already started taking the proposals for symposia and workshops (acceptance of forum proposals will start in March).

The annual meetings reflect the current trends in science of each year, and they are best expressed in the symposia, workshops, and forums. The members of the organizing committee, program committee and secretariat are all looking forward to receiving your active and attractive proposals.

This year's annual meeting will be the first MBSJ meeting to be held in a hybrid format of on-site and online, which means that the proposals for symposia, workshops, and forums should be submitted with this format in mind. As there is no precedent for this format, I am sure that many members are perplexed how to organize a symposium, workshop, or a forum. Due to the timeline of preparations for the meeting, we have set the deadline for proposals to February 26 (April 30 for the forums), but we are willing to be flexible in terms of the content of the proposals depending on the future situation. Please feel free to contact the MBSJ2021 Secretariat for any questions.

As you may recall, I have made an announcement, via the proceeding for MBSJ members, #128, for the special event “Yokohama Historia”. Today I have a similar but another announcement for “Tomizawa Fund Memorial”. The Tomizawa Fund has begun in 2011 with a fairly generous private donation of Prof. Jun-ichi Tomizawa (1924-2017), who discovered the very first non-coding RNA, RNA I, that regulates DNA replication (PNAS 1981; Cell 1984). The Fund was aimed to support young investigators in life science fields, who are talented but need financial support for, for example, their start-ups. While regretted, though, the Fund was over last year. The Tomizawa Fund Memorial is to commemorate with you not only great achievements that Prof. Tomizawa made but also his sincere passion in supporting life sciences in Japan and also world-wide.

January 2021