Chapter One
Chair's introduction
Santa Jeremy Ono
University College London, 11-43 Bath Street, London EC1V 9EL, UK
I would like to welcome all of you to this Novartis Foundation Symposium on Mast
cells: development, activation and roles in allergic/autoimmune disease. We are fortunate
to have assembled a tremendous group of investigators in the field and I am
sure that this will result in an intense scientific meeting focusing on the latest basic
(primarily molecular) research studies on the mast cell and basophil, and their relation
to allergic and autoimmune diseases. The overall goal of this symposium is to
advance our knowledge of the roles of these two granulocytes in varied disease settings
such as those occurring in allergic inflammation and autoimmune disease.
With its focus on molecular aspects of mast cells and basophils, the meeting is
part of a distinguished history of Novartis Foundation symposia in the area of
hypersensitivity and autoimmunity. We all recall the first superb symposium chaired
by Henry Metzger from the National Institutes of Health and the more recent one
on anaphylaxis chaired by Steve Galli from Stanford. Importantly, this meeting will
be quite distinct from the latter: while there is some overlap (since IgE signa ... read full excerpt from Mast Cells and Basophils: Development, Activation and Roles in Allergic/Autoimmune Disease, No. 271 ebook
