The opening ceremony for the 18th Chinese Biophysics Congress is held at Bio Island in Guangzhou. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The opening ceremony for the 18th Chinese Biophysics Congress -- sponsored by the Biophysical Society of China (BSC) -- was held on Nov 17 at Bio Island in Guangzhou, capital city of South China's Guangdong province.

With its theme "frontier and human health", the four-day congress is covering 16 academic topics. It aims to create an opportunity for Chinese academic peers to exchange, learn, display and establish mutual cooperation -- and to promote in-depth research and the rapid development of the biophysical sciences in the country.

All the invited speakers in the sub-sessions are outstanding representatives of their respective fields. Among them, five academicians were invited to a forum for nanobiology and nanobiocatalysis (nanozymes).

As a special sub-session of the congress, a session on the novel coronavirus target structure and drugs research and development invited a number of leading scientists in the field of structural biology and virology, to conduct in-depth exchanges on the hot topic.

Xu Tao, president of the BSC, delivers a speech at the opening ceremony on Nov 17. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The conference will also hold a number of themed forums, involving research fund applications, journal writing and entrepreneurship development. Each forum will feature different topics -- aiming to provide direct learning and exchange opportunities for scientific and technological workers.

In addition to its regular agenda, the congress is also staging a number of online and offline science publicity activities.

These will combine science reports with live broadcasting, bringing biophysics to the public in an accessible way that is particularly attractive to younger people, while raising the profile of science with the general public.