The Society originated from the International Symposium of Prion Disease for Food and Drug Safety held in Sendai in 2004 by Prof. Tetsuyuki Kitamoto of Tohoku Univ. and the Prion Symposium, which since then has been held annually in Japan. At the Prion Symposium, Japanese researchers of prions and prion diseases have assembled to study and exchange information in the symposium style. In 2010, Prof. Motohiro Horiuchi of Hokkaido Univ. held the Asia-Oceania Symposium on Prion Disease in Sapporo with a wider range of participants from Asia and Oceania. In 2011, Prof. Hidehiro Mizusawa of Tokyo Medical and Dental Univ. held a symposium in Karuizawa under the new name of gAsian Pacific Prion Symposium (abbreviated as APPS),h at which he proposed the policy of the symposium to be an academic meeting of an organization comprising researchers and other concerned persons. Then, the gAsian Pacific Society of Prion Research (APSPR)h was established with the unanimous approval of the APPS participants.
The first president of the APSPR was Director Shirou Mohri of the Prion
Disease Research Center, NIAH, NAFRO, who organized the basic structure
of the Society. APPS2012 was held in Yokohama as the first academic meeting
by Director Shirou Mohri, and APPS2013 in Sasebo by Prof. Susumu Shirabe
of Nagasaki Univ.. Prof. Suehiro Sakaguchi of Tokushima Univ. was appointed
as the president of APSPR in 2013, and APPS2014 was held in Jeju Island
by Prof. Yong-Sun Kim of Hallym Univ., Korea, and APPS2015 was held in
Kanazawa by Prof. Masahito Yamada of Kanazawa Univ.. Prof. Katsumi Doh-ura
of Tohoku Univ. was appointed as the president of APSPR in 2015. APPS2016
was held in Tokyo by Prof. Kazuo Kuwata of Gifu Univ. as a joint symposium
with Prion2016 (chairman:President Hidehiro Mizusawa of National Center
Hospital, NCNP), where the Tokyo Declaration was adopted to promote further international academic collaboration. APPS
2017 was held in Melbourne by Prof. Steven John Collins of the Univ. of
Melbourne, Australia. Prof. Motohiro Horiuchi of Hokkaido Univ. was appointed
as the president of APSPR in 2017,and APPS2018 was held in Tokyo by Dr.Naomi
Hachiya of Tokyo Industrial of Technology Research Institute and APPS2018
was held in Wako, Saitam by Dr.Motomasa Tanaka of RIKEN Brain Science Institute.
In 2019 Prof. Noriyuki Nishida of Nagasaki University has been appointed
as the president of APSPR. We postponed the APPS planed in China because
of COVID-19. In 2022, Prof. Horiuchi had organized APPS-on web, and in
2023, we were able to have a meeting at shonan iPark, Kanagawa, with a
hybrid style (face-to-face for Japanese participants and web for others),
it was kindly organized by Dr. Naomi Hachiya and Dr. Motomasa Tanaka again.
From next year, Prof. Atarashi become new president of the APSPR.