Greetings from the Chairman

                                                                                                  September 24, 2023

Dear Colleagues,

Triglyceride/neutral lipid or fat is a common word. When hearing this term, people imagine “Eating too much”, “obesity”, or “life style disease. Therefore, TG is sometimes regarded as a bad lipid. However, TG is actually a major energy sources for human body. During the last couple of decades, the existence of rare diseases in which TG accumulates in heart, skeletal muscle, and other organs, all of these are not caused by “bad life style.” Because plasma TG levels or body mass index is not relevant for the diagnosis of such rare diseases, affected patients are suffering from various burdens: i.e., isolation, under-recognition, ignorance, misdiagnosis, and lost opportunities for proper management.

Here, I would like to inform you that we will have the International Symposium on Triglyceride/Neutral Lipid and Rare Diseases on October 21-22, 2023, in Kyoto, Japan. The theme of this symposium is “Understanding molecular/biological diversity and eliminating isolation”. We will learn and discuss about the diversity of TG molecule, particularly its biological and functional diversities. Understanding of the diversities of TG diseases and their pathophysiology is one of the major purposes of this symposium. We will also have two sessions with patient public involvement to eliminating isolation for patients with the TG diseases: in the one, patients distributing globally will be connected via Internet; in the other patients get together in persons.

It is fortune that invited speakers and participant with travel grants are coming from UK, USA, Netherland, Australia, Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia. Even the disease itself is diverse, but our goal/mind is the same. In order to overcome each rare disease, I would like to emphasize that global communication and cooperation is required to empower ourselves. Heated discussion is the engine to go forward.

For people under 41-year-old, the participation fee is free-of-charge. For people with 41-year or older, 5,000 yen is required for registration for the entire program.

Kyoto is one of the major and cultural capitals in Japan. We look forward to seeing you there in person or virtual soon. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Ken-ichi Hirano, MD, PhD
President, the International Symposium on Triglyceride/Neutral Lipid and Rare Diseases –Understanding molecular/biological diversity and eliminating isolation-