ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The 8 th AEARU Joint Workshop on Life Sciences was held at Tsukuba International Congress Center , Tsukuba , Japan , 4-6 November, 2006. There were 152 participants from 7 universities: Pohang University of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea , National Tsing Hua University , Taiwan , Republic of China, and The University of Tokyo, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Kyoto University , Tohoku University and University of Tsukuba , Japan . The meeting was organized as a workshop with time allocated for the presentation and discussion of 10 invited talks and 28 submitted posters.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to those who made the AEARU Joint Workshop a success: the invited speakers for the quality of their presentations at the workshop, those who presented excellent posters and those who contributed to lively discussions. We are also grateful to colleagues in Tsukuba who provided generous support and advice towards organizing the workshop.