The Joint Meeting of the 9th ANRRC International Meeting and International Microbiome Workshop was held in Beijing from Sept. 20 to 22, 2017. Nearly 200 attendees from over 11 countries participated in the meeting.

The meeting covered microbiome, biodiversity, animals and plants, standardization of microbial resources, biobanking, data management and so on.

Prof. LIU Shuangjiang, director-general of Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMCAS) and president of Asian Network of Research Resource Centers (ANRRC) talked about Microbiomes in China. Dr. Yuichi Obata, director of RIKEN BioResource Center, Japan, delivered a speech of Trend of Life Science in Japan and Dr. Kyoungsook ANN from South Korea introduced the Korea National Research Resource Center.

Prof. Jeffery F. Miller, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the director of California NanoSystems Institute shared his research on exploiting evolution to control antibiotic resistance and explore microbial diversity. Prof. XU Jianguo, Member of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Dr. Wenyuan Shi from Harvard University delivered speeches on microbiome.

Starting in 2009, the ANRRC membership includes 15 countries and 106 institutions. ANRRC meeting was one of the most important meetings in microbial resources research in Asia.

Eight conferences have been held since 2009. These conferences and other ANRRC activities have effectively prompted the sharing of knowledge on research resources (microbe, plant, animal, and human materials) and methodology, as well as promoting the advancements of science and technology. 

The joint meeting this year was organized by ANRRC, IMCAS and sponsored by State Key Laboratory of Microbial Resources, IMCAS, The State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, West China Hospital of Stomatology, Sichuan University and Overseas Chinese Society for Microbiology.