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The International Cell Research Organisation (ICRO)
July 1978 Vol. 6 No. 3
BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION
.57 Illll
Ill
SYMPOSIUM OF ASIAN AND OCEANIAN BIOCHEMISTS (F.A.O.B.) IN SINGAPORE, APRIL 1978 I
P. N. CAMPBELL I
Although F.A.O.B. was set up in 1972 with the objective of helping the development of biochemistry in the area bounded by Pakistan, Australia, Japan and Thailand, it was not very active in its early years, The First Congress of F.A.O.B. was organised by the Japanese Biochemical Society in Nagoya in October 1977 and this set F.A.O.B. off on what we all hope will be a more active era. The proceedings of that meeting will be published shortly. Since COSTED was planning a meeting in Singapore on "Bioscience Education for developing countries", I thought it might be a good idea if F.A.O.B. cooperated with COSTED to hold a Symposium. Accordingly, the Council of F.A.O.B. at their meeting in Nagoya accepted the idea and decided to hold a Symposium under the general title of "Practical Applications of Biochemistry to the Economies of Developing Countries". The meeting was organised by the Department of Biochemistry of the University of Singapore under the Chairmanship of Professor Wong Hee Aik. Dr. William P. Das of the Department, acted as the very efficient local Secretary. IUB provided funds from both the Committee on Education and the Committee on Symposia, COSTED paid the expenses of several biochemists who attended the COSTED meeting and stayed on for the F.A.O.B. Symposium and there were many generous donations from Singapore. The meeting was attended by about 50 participants from 14 countries. Professor Kazutomo Imahori, the President of F.A.O.B. was present throughout the meeting. The major objective of the meeting was to enable the biochemists from the various countries to get to know one another personally and to discuss their common problems with the hope that progress can be made through cooperation. Certainly, the first of these objectives were met largely because of the excellent local arrangements. Singapore proved to be an excellent meeting place for people from countries that are in very different stages of economic development. The problem will be to maintain the momentum and satisfy the enthusiasm that was generated by the meeting. The proceedings will be published so that a detailed account would be out of place but readers may like to have a summary. On the morning of Thursday, 20th April, F.A.O.B. had a joint Ill
I
meeting with COSTED on Education which I had the honour to chair. Each speaker was asked to consider three matters, (a) National needs for biochemists; (b) Career situations and opportunities for biochemists and (c) Relevant curricula to meet national needs. The following spoke about their countries, T. Murachi (Iapan); Tsong-Teh Kuo (Taiwan); P. Plengvithaya (Thailand); A. G. C. Renwiek (New Zealand); T. Ramasarma (India). I am glad that these reviews will be published for they contained some very interesting information which will be invaluable not only for members of F.A.O.B. but for visitors from outside the region. A lively discussion ensued not only after each paper but also at the end so that the 4 h were well spent. There is no doubt that these roundtable discussions are popular but I often question their long-term value. I suspect that their major role is to indicate to those who are working in relative isolation that we all have common problems wherever we teach and that there are many different solutions. I am still keen however that the Committee on Education should consider the problems of particular countries in depth as we did in Pakistan (see Biochemical Education, 6 1978, 26) and in this respect, the discussion enabled me at least to get an impression of the status of biochemistry in the countries of S.E. Asia and also to recruit some volunteers for our subsequent activities. F.A.O.B. then spent two days considering first "Biochemistry Contributions to Man", (a) Nutritional Aspects and (b) Health Aspects and second "Biochemical Contributions to the utilization of natural resources", (a) National Products and Agriculture and (b) Industrial Development. After plenary lectures on these subjects the participants broke up into groups under a Chairman who reported back to the general meeting for discussion. This arrangement worked well and enabled everyone to participate. The meeting ended with a meeting of the Council of F.A.O.B. If anyone would like to receive the proceedings of the meeting and would like to know more about the biochemists of the countries in the F.A.O.B. region, I am sure that Dr William P. Das, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, College Road, Singapore 3, would be glad to help.
Illllllll Illllllll
HlINlll
Ill
THE INTERNATIONAL CELL ) RESEARCH ORGANISATION (ICRO
!
The recent receipt of a booklet describing the activities of ICRO reminds one that it plays an important role in training biochemists in the latest advances in Cell Biology. ICRO was set up in 1962 in order to assist UNESCO in the implementation of its cell biology programme. The major impetus behind this programme is to assist in the development of a strong scientific infra-structure in developing counties. ICRO fulfills the role of a clearing house and does this by building networks of selected scientists in both the developed and developing countries. There are at present 400 ICRO members from 41 countries. The organization is controlled by a Council and Executive Committee. The IUB representative on the Council is Professor C. de Duve. Further information may be obtained from ICRO, UNESCOHouse, 7 Place de Fontency, 75700 Paris, France. ICRO has many working panels e.g. control processes and molecular biology, organized metabolism etc. The main activity of ICRO is the short-term training course, There have so far been 98
such courses with 1100 participants. A typical course might have 5-10 instructors and 20-30 students. The students may come world-wide or may come from a region, not more than 20% from the host country. The course provides for 2 - 3 weeks of intensive work (6 days a week). Usually 60% of the work is laboratory investigation, the rest lectures, demonstrations and evaluation of data. Suggestions for new courses are welcome. The main criteria are that (1) Your research institution and the younger scientists around would benefit (2) You have a definite idea of subject which is both scientifically opportune and interesting for the scientific community of your country (3) You have local laboratory facilities and housing (4) Your institution and national authorities would welcome the course and contribute financially (5) You are prepared to devote time and effort to the organisation over a period of about 2 years. If you are happy about thest criteria then you should either find a sponsor in the form of a leading cell biologist or you should write to Paris to ask to be put in contact with the convenor of the appropriate panel. Apart from Courses ICRO also have a programme of Fellowships for Cooperative Research. These are to enable a young research fellow to work in a laboratory in a foreign country. The contribution towards such a fellowship range between US $500 and US $1S00. There are no forms or deadline so you apply by letter to Paris.
BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION
.57 Illll
Ill
SYMPOSIUM OF ASIAN AND OCEANIAN BIOCHEMISTS (F.A.O.B.) IN SINGAPORE, APRIL 1978 I
P. N. CAMPBELL I
Although F.A.O.B. was set up in 1972 with the objective of helping the development of biochemistry in the area bounded by Pakistan, Australia, Japan and Thailand, it was not very active in its early years, The First Congress of F.A.O.B. was organised by the Japanese Biochemical Society in Nagoya in October 1977 and this set F.A.O.B. off on what we all hope will be a more active era. The proceedings of that meeting will be published shortly. Since COSTED was planning a meeting in Singapore on "Bioscience Education for developing countries", I thought it might be a good idea if F.A.O.B. cooperated with COSTED to hold a Symposium. Accordingly, the Council of F.A.O.B. at their meeting in Nagoya accepted the idea and decided to hold a Symposium under the general title of "Practical Applications of Biochemistry to the Economies of Developing Countries". The meeting was organised by the Department of Biochemistry of the University of Singapore under the Chairmanship of Professor Wong Hee Aik. Dr. William P. Das of the Department, acted as the very efficient local Secretary. IUB provided funds from both the Committee on Education and the Committee on Symposia, COSTED paid the expenses of several biochemists who attended the COSTED meeting and stayed on for the F.A.O.B. Symposium and there were many generous donations from Singapore. The meeting was attended by about 50 participants from 14 countries. Professor Kazutomo Imahori, the President of F.A.O.B. was present throughout the meeting. The major objective of the meeting was to enable the biochemists from the various countries to get to know one another personally and to discuss their common problems with the hope that progress can be made through cooperation. Certainly, the first of these objectives were met largely because of the excellent local arrangements. Singapore proved to be an excellent meeting place for people from countries that are in very different stages of economic development. The problem will be to maintain the momentum and satisfy the enthusiasm that was generated by the meeting. The proceedings will be published so that a detailed account would be out of place but readers may like to have a summary. On the morning of Thursday, 20th April, F.A.O.B. had a joint Ill
I
meeting with COSTED on Education which I had the honour to chair. Each speaker was asked to consider three matters, (a) National needs for biochemists; (b) Career situations and opportunities for biochemists and (c) Relevant curricula to meet national needs. The following spoke about their countries, T. Murachi (Iapan); Tsong-Teh Kuo (Taiwan); P. Plengvithaya (Thailand); A. G. C. Renwiek (New Zealand); T. Ramasarma (India). I am glad that these reviews will be published for they contained some very interesting information which will be invaluable not only for members of F.A.O.B. but for visitors from outside the region. A lively discussion ensued not only after each paper but also at the end so that the 4 h were well spent. There is no doubt that these roundtable discussions are popular but I often question their long-term value. I suspect that their major role is to indicate to those who are working in relative isolation that we all have common problems wherever we teach and that there are many different solutions. I am still keen however that the Committee on Education should consider the problems of particular countries in depth as we did in Pakistan (see Biochemical Education, 6 1978, 26) and in this respect, the discussion enabled me at least to get an impression of the status of biochemistry in the countries of S.E. Asia and also to recruit some volunteers for our subsequent activities. F.A.O.B. then spent two days considering first "Biochemistry Contributions to Man", (a) Nutritional Aspects and (b) Health Aspects and second "Biochemical Contributions to the utilization of natural resources", (a) National Products and Agriculture and (b) Industrial Development. After plenary lectures on these subjects the participants broke up into groups under a Chairman who reported back to the general meeting for discussion. This arrangement worked well and enabled everyone to participate. The meeting ended with a meeting of the Council of F.A.O.B. If anyone would like to receive the proceedings of the meeting and would like to know more about the biochemists of the countries in the F.A.O.B. region, I am sure that Dr William P. Das, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, College Road, Singapore 3, would be glad to help.
Illllllll Illllllll
HlINlll
Ill
THE INTERNATIONAL CELL ) RESEARCH ORGANISATION (ICRO
!
The recent receipt of a booklet describing the activities of ICRO reminds one that it plays an important role in training biochemists in the latest advances in Cell Biology. ICRO was set up in 1962 in order to assist UNESCO in the implementation of its cell biology programme. The major impetus behind this programme is to assist in the development of a strong scientific infra-structure in developing counties. ICRO fulfills the role of a clearing house and does this by building networks of selected scientists in both the developed and developing countries. There are at present 400 ICRO members from 41 countries. The organization is controlled by a Council and Executive Committee. The IUB representative on the Council is Professor C. de Duve. Further information may be obtained from ICRO, UNESCOHouse, 7 Place de Fontency, 75700 Paris, France. ICRO has many working panels e.g. control processes and molecular biology, organized metabolism etc. The main activity of ICRO is the short-term training course, There have so far been 98
such courses with 1100 participants. A typical course might have 5-10 instructors and 20-30 students. The students may come world-wide or may come from a region, not more than 20% from the host country. The course provides for 2 - 3 weeks of intensive work (6 days a week). Usually 60% of the work is laboratory investigation, the rest lectures, demonstrations and evaluation of data. Suggestions for new courses are welcome. The main criteria are that (1) Your research institution and the younger scientists around would benefit (2) You have a definite idea of subject which is both scientifically opportune and interesting for the scientific community of your country (3) You have local laboratory facilities and housing (4) Your institution and national authorities would welcome the course and contribute financially (5) You are prepared to devote time and effort to the organisation over a period of about 2 years. If you are happy about thest criteria then you should either find a sponsor in the form of a leading cell biologist or you should write to Paris to ask to be put in contact with the convenor of the appropriate panel. Apart from Courses ICRO also have a programme of Fellowships for Cooperative Research. These are to enable a young research fellow to work in a laboratory in a foreign country. The contribution towards such a fellowship range between US $500 and US $1S00. There are no forms or deadline so you apply by letter to Paris.