Chemokines in infection and inflammatory disease--the Royal Society of Medicine.
This well-organized meeting covered many clinical and academic areas related to chemokines and their receptors. Speakers from both sides of the Atlantic attended, including distinguished scientists and clinicians from both academic and pharmaceutical institutions. Although the meeting did not reveal sensational research data, it provided a forum in which attendees could express their views, using their research results as confirmation. Currently, the pathogenic and therapeutic roles of chemokines, and in particular their receptors, are clearer, although they are still not fully understood in HIV/AIDS and inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma. Progress will only be made with further research in order to reveal the importance and therapeutic value of these molecules. In this sense, the meeting provided good food for thought, with suggestions of possible targets and the discussion of various applications of research findings.
Zheng
R
R
Department of Immunology, St Bartholomew's Hospital, 38 Little Britain, London, EC1A 7BE, UK. r.q.zheng@mds.qmw.ac.uk