More than 300 participants from all over the world are gathering on the campus of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) to attend "The 6th Asian Biological Inorganic Chemistry Conference (AsBIC-VI)" organized by its Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology from 5 to 8 November.

The Conference was officially opened yesterday (5 November) at PolyU's teaching and research hotel Hotel ICON. Professor Alex Wai, PolyU Vice President (Research and Development) and Professor Wong Wing-tak, Head of the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, extended a warm welcome to all participants during the opening ceremony.

Biological inorganic chemistry has become an inter-disciplinary area covering chemistry, environmental science, biology and medicine. The AsBIC provides a valuable platform for scientists and international scholars to report on their latest research findings and exchange scientific opinions on the progress of the area.

The Conference has also brought together some 140 authors in poster presentations on various areas of biological inorganic chemistry, including (i) metal homeostasis; (ii) metal-nucleic acid and metal-gene regulation; (iii) metallomics and metalloproteomics; (iv) metallodrug; (v) (metallo) molecular imaging; (vi) protein engineering and biomimetics.

Distinguished speakers have been invited to share their ideas and experience on the development of biological inorganic chemistry. Among them include Professor Teizo Kitagawa, recipient of AsBIC outstanding achievement award, whose excellent research in hemoprotein has inspired researchers of related field and contributed to further development.

The Conference is supported by K.C. Wong Education Foundation and Croucher Foundation. For more details, please visit the Conference's official website at URL: http://www.polyu.edu.hk/abct/asbic6