UCI and the University of Tsukuba held a three-day “science partnership conference” last December 9 to 11, 2015 at UCI on the theme “Exploring Complex Systems from Human Biology to Exercise Science”. A compilation of abstracts presented at the conference can be downloaded here.
Presentations in the molecular and cellular foundations of human biology were conducted on the second day. Participants from the University of Tsukuba included Ho Kiong and Mitsuru Okuwaki, both specializing in Infection Biology; as well as Tomoki Chiba (Life and Environmental Sciences), Masafumi Muratani (Genome Biology), Hiroshi Hasegawa (HBP SIGMA), and Hiroyuki Suzuki (Experimental Pathology). A discussion regarding Graduate Program Collaboration between the two partner universities was conducted afterward. In the evening, a keynote dinner, with Dr. Dan Cooper of UCI’s Institute for Clinical Translational Science as the speaker, was held at the Ayres Hotel Costa Mesa.
The third and last day of the conference focused on the fields of exercise medicine and neuroscience which was held at the Herklotz Conference Facility of UCI’s Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. Presenters from the University of Tsukuba included Takeshi Nishiyasu (Exercise and Environmental Physiology), Takashi Matsui and Hideaki Soya, both of Sport Neuroscience.
Kyeongho Byun, a Sport Neuroscience student at the University of Tsukuba, and of Neurology and Behavior at UCI, also participated. A panel discussion with all the speakers was held after the presentations. A Distinguished Session Speaker, Carl Cotman of the UC Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCIMIND), gave a talk on “Exercise builds brain health”.
