More than 100 pharmacists, scholars and medical researchers discussed aging, obesity and cancer at the International Conference on Nutrition and Physical Activity in Pattaya.
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome opened the Aug. 14-17 conference at the Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort, the first of NAPA’s annual meetings to be held outside South Korea. The conference, the group’s fourth, was hosted by the Pharmacology Faculty of Chulalongkorn University and Thai Environmental Mutagen Society (TEMS).
(L to R) Malyn Chulasiri, PhD, President, Thai Environmental Mutagen Society; Yong Sang Song, MD, PhD, Director, Cancer Research Institute, Seoul National University; Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome; and Pintip Pongpech, PhD, Dean, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chulalongkorn University, take part in opening day exercises under instruction from Seoul National University students (not shown).
Focused on “bio-modulation of health-beauty with nutrition and exercise,” the conference looked at the advances in technology related to aging, obesity and cancer with research going as deep as cellular levels and genetics leading to new sciences and technologies.
Topics included pharmacogenomics, molecular genetics, bioinformatics, metabologenomics, and stem-cell technology. Meetings focused on the need for “translational research” which does not divide the boundaries between basic and innovative research, allowing researchers in all related sciences to share information for quick implementation in clinics.
Another innovation discussed was “personalized medicine,” in which individuals are checked for defective genes, which are the cause of various diseases, and searching for the medicine that will rectify the defective gene.
In all, the conference presented over 40 academic papers on aging, obesity and cancer from authorities such as Sang-Woo Choi from Tufts University in the United States; Jiankang Liu from Xi’an Jiaotong University in China; and Michael Fenech of CSIRO Food and Nutritional Sciences in Australia.
Itthiphol hailed the meeting as proof of Pattaya’s increasing popularity in the “meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions” sector.
