The thirteenth international conference on endothelin (ET-13), Tokyo, 2013

The Thirteenth International Conference on Endothelin (ET-13) was held from September 8-11, 2013 in Tokyo, Japan chaired by Noriaki Emoto, Kobe Pharmaceutical University, Japan, and Takashi Miyauchi, University of Tsukuba, Japan and held on the Tokyo Campus of Tsukuba University. The International Conferences on Endothelin were launched in December of 1988 shortly after the discovery of endothelin and organized by Sir John Vane, laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1982, as the Conference Chair at The William Harvey Research Institute, London. Since then, the conference has been held every two years alternating between North America, Europe and Asia. In 2013, the conference was again held in Asia and also marked the 25th anniversary of the discovery of endothelin at University of Tsukuba. The 25th anniversary of the discovery of endothelin was celebrated by almost 300 attendees from 25 different countries, the largest number of delegates in the recent history of the conference. Conference delegates who traveled to Japan were from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korean Republic, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and from Vietnam. In this article we summarize the conference highlights, its speakers, and some of the festivities related to the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the discovery of endothelin.