July 27-30th 2004

Following the three Pan-Pacific conferences on Sialobiology in Melbourne (1996), Taipei (1998) and the Gold Coast (2002), we cordially invite you to participate in the 4th International Conference on Sialobiology, to be held in St Andrews, Scotland. This has been timed to follow the 22nd International Carbohydrate Symposium(22-27th July 2004 in Glasgow). We have assembled an excellent list of international speakers covering the breadth of biology and chemistry involving sialic acids, from microbial pathogenesis to mammalian biology.

St Andrews is an ancient city and was the ecclesiastical centre of Scotland for many centuries ever since a Greek monk landed on the coast with some bones of St Andrew and established a shrine. The city is more famous today as The Home of Golf and home to Scotland's oldest University, founded in 1411. The town has a permanent population of 14,000 inflated by 6,000 students during term time. We hope that you will join us in the Ancient city of St Andrews for a most memorable and pleasant stay. Its coastal location gives a dry, sunny, breezy climate, perfectly suited to walking, golfing, and attending conferences!

Accommodation for delegates has been arranged in New Hall, a modern and comfortable hall of residence with en suite facilities, within easy walking distance of the lecture theatre and town.

The cost of the conference is 350GBP, 250GBP for students and 300GBP for accompanying persons. The cost includes registration, abstract book, 3 nights accommodation, all meals, a welcoming drinks evening, the conference dinner with a Ceilidh, an organ recital, transport from Glasgow (if applicable) and transport to/from Edinburgh airport or Leuchars railway station. Trips will be arranged for accompanying persons as part of the cost. The conference runs from dinner on Tuesday 27th July to lunch on Friday 30th July. Extra accommodation can be arranged for those wishing to stay on.

To register, please fill in this registration form. Payment must be made by 1st June 2004. The University has Sterling, US dollar and Euro accounts. Cheques should be made payable to "The University of St Andrews". Credit card payments can be made by clicking here.

The programme will consist of a number of invited speakers, and shorter talks chosen from submitted poster abstracts. Abstracts will be required by 1st June 2004. Abstracts should occupy no more than one page, and be formatted as shown in this example (title, authors, affiliation, abstract of 300 words maximum and up to 3 references. 12-point except affiliation and references which should be in 10-point) Please e-mail abstracts as Word files to mew@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Confirmed speakers:

Daan van Aalten (Dundee)
Andy Bennett (Vancouver)
Nicolai Bovin (Moscow)
Fidelma Boyd (Cork)
Sandra D’Azzo (Memphis)
Jacquelyn Gervay-Hague (UC Davis)
Yasuo Inoue (Tokyo)
Mark von Itzstein (Gold Coast)
Ken Kitajima (Nagoya)
Jamey Marth (UCSD)
Mikhail Matrosovich (Marburg)
Ofer Mandelboim (Israel)
Derek Hood (Oxford)
Anja K. Munster-Kuhnel (Hannover)
Jim Paulson (Scripps)
Roland Schauer (Kiel)
John Skehel (London)
Allen Portner (Memphis)
Yasuo Suzuki (Shizuoka)
Ajit Varki (UCSD)
Eric Vimr (Illinois)
Mary Vinson (GSK)
Rob Webster (Memphis)
Ian Wilson (Scripps)
Hugh Willison (Glasgow)

We look forward to welcoming you to Scotland in 2004.

Garry Taylor & Paul Crocker

International organising committee: Carolyn Bertozzi, USA. Nicolai Bovin, Russia. Rita Gerardy-Schahn, Germany. Yasuo Inoue, Japan.Yu-Teh Li, USA. Roland Schauer, Germany.Yasuo Suzuki, Japan. Mark von Itzstein, Australia.

Local organisers: Paul Crocker, Dundee. Garry Taylor, St Andrews.

Updated: 28-05-2004