Welcome

Dear Colleague

　　 On behalf of the organizing committees, it is my great pleasure to invite you to participate in the US/Japan Neurosteroid symposium and to discuss the current topics on the “Steroid Hormone Action and Sex Differences in Brain Function”. This meeting will be held at the Nagaragawa Convention Center, Gifu, Japan between 8-11 September 2008 and be sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute for Health, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Japan/US Brain Research Cooperative Program). 　　 Since the early ‘60s there have been extensive interactions among U.S. and Japanese neuroendocrinologists studying the action of steroid hormone in the brain.　 Consequently, US/Japan Symposiums on the steroid hormone action in the brain were successfully held in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1994 and then in 2000 with great interest and excitement. However, I recently feel that cooperative interactions between US and Japanese neuroendocrinologists have declined during the past 8 years.　 It is the hopes of the organizing committee that a Symposium involving neuroscientists from the Unites States and from Japan will again increase the opportunity for cooperative research between these two countries, particularly between young scientists.　 　　 I eagerly look forward to welcoming you to Gifu in September 2008.

Nobuhiro Harada