China Post, July 25, 2007  TAIPEI, Taiwan - Internationally renowned experts in the field of liver disease research and representatives from multinational pharmaceutical companies gathered at the Grand Hyatt Taipei for the commencement of "Bio Taiwan 2007" yesterday, following the conclusion of the two-day "BioBusiness Asia 2007" summit Tuesday. The group of distinguished speakers convened on the center stage to place their hands on the liver-shaped dais, symbolizing the theme of the symposium, "Joining Hands to Fight Hepatitis B," to kick off the proceedings. Timothy Block, President of the Hepatitis B Foundation, spoke at length about some exciting developments in his research, including the detection of certain fucosylated proteins that may help in early disease identification. Yun-Fan Liaw, Senior Advisor at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital followed with a presentation on current work being done on Chronic Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Liaw was optimistic about the potential of some of the new HBV drugs being developed, such as Tenofovir. The afternoon session continued the discussion on HBV with a presentation from Chiaho Shih, a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Shih spoke on the use of engineered HBV capsid particles as a vaccine delivery vehicle.