The 2010 annual summer meeting of the National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules (NLB) was held from July 5th to 6th, 2010, at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The meeting, presided over by Professor Tao Xu, Director of both IBP and the NLB, was attended by about 100 researchers, graduate students, and administrative staff from the Institute.

The NLB will take part in the evaluation of all the State Key Laboratories in the Life Sciences field in 2011. The agenda of this year’s annual meeting was to discuss strategies for progress in each research area, and to summarise academic achievements in preparation for next year’s evaluation.

Professor Fuyu Yang, the Honorary Director of the NLB and a member of CAS, gave a speech on the history of NLB. He recalled that the experience of establishing NLB had called for clear direction, a good research team, open minds, and strict rules and regulations. Professor Zhizhen Wang and Professor Dongcai Liang also gave speeches and included a lot of helpful advice for the laboratory. Professor Tao Xu, the Director of the NLB and Professor Ruiming Xu, the Vice Director, gave speeches on strategies for developing NLB in the future.

The academic reports were divided into four sections, according to research direction: Protein Synthesis and Regulation, Membrane Biology and Membrane Proteins, Structural Biology, and Protein and Peptide Drugs.The presentations given aroused a lot of interest among the audience and led to lively discussion.

On the second day, a symposium was held, focusing on important scientific problems in the four research areas and on institutional reform.

The annual summer meeting not only served as an opportunity to prepare for the evaluation of the laboratory next year, but was also an excellent platform for sharing new developments and ideas and promoting interdisciplinary exchange and cooperation. All the members of the laboratory are working hard and are expecting even greater achievements in the next five years.

Professor Tao Xu	Professor Fuyu Yang
Professor Dongcai Liang	Professor Zhizhen Wang
Professor Ruiming Xu	symposium
Professor Dacheng Wang	Professor Wenrui Chang