Posted by Edwin Lim (ISTRY Secretary)
The International Society for Tryptophan Research (ISTRY) was created in 1971 to facilitate the exchange of experiences and the collaborations among the scientists interested in the metabolism of tryptophan. Since then, international meetings have been organized every 3 years with great success alternating between 3 primary regions: USA, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
As defined in the constitution, the purpose of ISTRY is to advance knowledge on the biochemistry, nutrition, pathology, physiology, food science, regulation of tryptophan metabolism, and chemistry of tryptophan, and to bring together those scholars interested in these objectives through a common society.
Triennial meetings have been held since then in Europe, Japan, and the US and for the first time in Australia in 2012. Due to the exploding interest in studying tryptophan metabolism in human diseases, to meet the demand of keeping up to date with the field, it was decided in 2018 (15th Proceedings) that the ISTRY Meetings thereafter will take place every other year (biennial).
One reason for the success of ISTRY Meetings is the diversity of topics and disciplines represented, ranging from tryptophan metabolism to neurochemistry of serotonin and kynurenine, aspects of tryptophan in pathology, toxicology, psychiatry, teratology, immunobiology, nutritional aspects of tryptophan, pigments, analytical chemistry, methodology, and enzymology.
“I am persuaded that the ISTRY meetings will be increasingly useful for the advantage of our knowledge in tryptophan research and will promote better understanding among scientists from many countries.” – Prof Emeritus Graziella Allegri, University of Padova, Italy & Honoary Member of ISTRY