Jerusalem of cytokines

The Second Joint Meeting of the International Cytokine Society and the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research was held on October 25-30, 1998 in Jerusalem, Israel. The nature of this Joint Meeting dictated that it was intensive and covered topics that included receptor- ligand interactions, signal transduction, transcriptional regulation, antiviral action and apoptotic pathways induced by cytokines such as interferons, interleukines and chemokines. Their roles in infectious diseases and cancers were considered. This overview is by no mean comprehensive and covers only part of the many topics and subjects that were presented in the many plenary talks, symposia and poster sessions. The meeting was held in an excellent scientific atmosphere, that was probably affected by the 'divine presence' in Jerusalem, and special thanks for the excellent organization are owed to Drs. Kaempfer, Revel, Wallach and Witz.