PrefaceThe Seventh International Symposium on Coeliac Disease was held in Tampere Hall, Tampere, Finland, from 5 to 7 September, 1996. It was attended by 396 participants from 33 different countries.The meeting was organized by the Coeliac Disease Study Group, which is composed of scientists from the Institute of Medical Technology and from the Medical School, University of Tampere, and from Tampere University Hospital, with the collaboration of colleagues from the Finnish Red Cross Tissue Typing Laboratory and from the Medical School, University of Helsinki. The spirit of the very first coeliac symposium, held in London in 1969 (1), was "to bring together scientists dealing with coeliac disease both in childhood and adult life". This is still an important goal, although it is now widely accepted that the disease may occur at any stage of life. Thus today the most important linkage is to integrate the scientific efforts of basic biomedical scientists and clinical investigators to solve the fundamental problems underlying the pathogenesis of coeliac disease. The multidisciplinary approach is also the strength of the organizing study group, which includes basic scientists and both medical and paediatric gastroenterologists, dermatologists and dentists. The London symposium was organized under the chairmanship of Professor C.C. Booth. A book of proceedings was already published (1) from the first meeting, as from all succeeding meetings. The second meeting was held in Leeuwenhorst Congress Centre, Noordwijkerhout (Leiden) in 1975 (2), the third in Galway, Ireland in 1977 (3), the fourth, specializing in the genetics of coeliac disease, in Liverpool, U.K. in 1979 (4), the fifth in 1988 (5) in London, dedicated to the famous lecture and paper of Samuel Gee published in 1888, and the sixth in Dublin, Ireland in 1992, specializing in gastrointestinal immunology (6). Thus the symposium in Tampere in 1996 was the seventh in the series. Over 30 years’ interest in coeliac disease research, together with new clinical and basic research findings, prompted us to organize this symposium, four years after the previous meeting. Distinguished speakers dealt with aspects of coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis such as changing features, diagnostic criteria, screening, associated disorders, malignancies and latency, as well as the epidemiology, immunopathogenesis and genetic basis of the disorders. Other topics were cereal chemistry, gluten and gliadin. Immunological aspects as well as mucosal cell biology were discussed. At the Tampere meeting participants met all major research groups working within the field of gluten-induced diseases. We came away with the conviction that the personal inter-researcher contacts were fruitful. The organizers thank the participants for bringing their latest research results. Altogether we received 181 free paper abstracts, which are published elsewhere (7). The invited speakers have all written on coeliac disease and related topics in 38 chapters of the present Proceedings. The first symposium in London (1) was organized with the support of the then newly established British Coeliac Society. Likewise this seventh meeting was supported by the patients´ organization, the Finnish Coeliac Society, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in conjunction with the scientific symposium. The present publication was made possible by the support of the Research Council for Health of the Academy of Finland, Nutricia, Svenska Nestlé, Mead Johnson Nutritionals and Pharmacia & Upjohn Diagnostics. Markku Mäki |