New Trends in Ganglioside Research [antikvár]

PREFACE Ganglioside researchers have met periodically in recent years to review their newest findings and assess progress toward the common goal of understánding the properties and functions of these enigmatic membrane substances. The most recent of these gatherings took place on June 9-12, 1987, in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, organized as a satellite to the eleventh meeting of the International Society for Neurochemistry. This volume contains the proceedings of that satellite meeting. More than 100 participants from approximately 18 different countries attended. Formai lectures were delivered by 50 speakers and additional informál contributions were made by several invited discussants. The thirty posters on display throughout the meeting were of generál interest. Hotel Melia, the meeting site, had excellent facilities and conveniences for participants and accompanying persons. All of the sessions were well attended despite the lure of swimming, boating, snorkeling, and other outdoor activities at this idyllic coastal setting. The many lively discussions, both formai and informál, reflected the exciting progress in this rapidly evolving field. This volume is organized along the lines of the meeting itself. Plenary lectures were delivered by two distinguished elder statesmen of the ganglioside field: Professor Ranwel Caputto, Universidad Nációnál de Cordoba, and Professor Paul Mandel, Centre de Neurochimie de Strasbourg. Each two-hour session opened with an overview lecture by a speaker who presented a state-of-the-art summary of cumulative progress in a subdiscipline of ganglioside research. The first chapter of each section is this presentation. Three to five lectures were then delivered, followed by a roundtable discussion that allowed speakers and other participants to debate controversial issues and develop specific aspects in detail. We were all indebted to Drs. Charles Sweeley, Chris Grant, Nicole Baumann, Herbert Wiegandt, Shimon Gatt, Henry Dreyfus, Wilfried Seifert, Donald Stein and Róbert McCluer for skilfully chairing the sessions and guiding the roundtable discussions. The final session of the meeting featured three summation lectures which integrated previously published work along with the newly presented material in the major research areas. This difficult, stimulating, and at times provocative task was carried out successfully by Drs. Silvio Varon, Guido Tettamanti and Edward Hogan, all of whom have contributed their summation material to the book.