Invited by associate professor Frank Bosmans from Johns Hopkins University, I attended the XII Congress of the Pan-American Section of the International Society on Toxinology held in Miami beach during September 18-23, 2016. The topic of this international conference includes Venom and Toxin Pharmacology; Emerging Concepts and Technologies; Venomics and Toxinomics; Toxins and Pain; Structural and Biophysical Studies of Toxins; Natural Toxins and Drug Discovery; Clinical Aspects of Envenomation; Marine Toxins and Diversity in the Toxin Realm. Prof. Bruce Bean from Haward University was invited as keynote speaker and gave a lecture on Natural toxins as tools in neurophysiology. Social program includes oral reports and poster sessions. Over fifty reports were presented by scientists from Brazil, Australia, USA, Spain and so on.
During the confence, special attention was given to the reports involving inflammation and pain induced by snake venom, scorpion venom and cone snail venom. Research on jellyfish venom was not deep as these above mentioned venom. The conference offers a opportunity for extensive communications with other experts working in the same field, which will facilitate the advancement of jellyfish research. Dr. Rongfengli showed a poster about "The sting and toxins of jellyfish Cyanea nozakii" and answered the questions raised by other attendees during happy poster hours. And Ph.D student Yang Yue from Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences also presented a poster on "Enzymatic properties of nematocysts venom from two Scyphozoans Nemopilema nomurai and Cyanea nozakii".