Over 600 scientists, experts, health care professionals and postgraduate students attended the annual conferences on pharmacogenomics, personalised medicine and drug safety held in Changsha, Hunan on 25-27 October 2013.  The annual conferences were jointly organised by Division of Medicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chinese Pharmacological Society and Organising Committee of China (Changsha) Science and Technology Achievements Transformation Fair, undertaken by the Central South University and co-organised by Centre for Food and Drug Safety, Faculty of Medicine, the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  The main theme of the 2013 conferences was "Challenge of Personalized Medicine".  Prof. Hong-Hao Zhou chaired the Organising Committee.  Prof. Thomas Y.K. Chan (Department of Medicine and Therapeutics) and Prof. Vivian W.Y. Lee (School of Pharmacy) were invited speakers.