Introduction

Abstract

The 18th International Pigment Cell Conference (IPCC) was the first scientific event of the International Federation of Pigment Cell Societies (IFPCS) held in the new millennium. It was also the first time that this world meeting of scientists interested in pigment cell research was organized in the Netherlands. On behalf of the Local Organizing Committee, we wish to thank all participants for taking part in this international conference. The preparations for such meeting are always a challenge for the organizers. There are many competitive conferences held each year and therefore the organizers need to put their maximal effort into attracting as many participants as possible. There were two giant dermatologic meetings in Europe in 2002: a World Congress of Dermatology in Paris and the meeting of the European Academy of Dermatology in Prague. These events not only ‘absorbed’ several thousand clinicians and basic scientists, but also had ‘a draining effect’ on financial resources of industrial sponsors. We were very pleased that in spite of those rather inauspicious circumstances more than 300 guests from all over the world came to Egmond aan Zee to join our conference. The ‘top five’ countries as regards their representation were: The Netherlands (80), The United States of America (71), Japan (53), France (26) and United Kingdom (22). The organization of the 18th IPCC would not be possible without the continuous support provided by the Council of the IFPCS and especially by its President, Prof. Shosuke Ito. The International Program Committee and the Advisory Board assisted us in drawing up a structure of the scientific program. The program included the Presidential Address, the Seiji Memorial Lecture, five special lectures, nine invited lectures, 91 selected platform presentations and 119 poster presentations. In addition, four satellite symposia with almost 40 oral presentations were held on the last day of the meeting. The Proceedings of the 18th IPCC as published in this issue demonstrate not only some trends in pigment cell research but also make evident the enormous extent of the whole scientific area. The Proceedings contain 12 selected, peer-reviewed papers that cover many aspects of melanin metabolism, its regulation at the cellular, subcellular and molecular levels, melanin degradation, application of DNA microarray technique in pigment cell research, new regulatory features in melanocyte development, immunologic aspects of pigment cells and melanoma, various genetic and environmental risk factors for melanoma development, and the use of melanin as a means of melanoma targeting. We would like to thank all the authors and reviewers for their fruitful collaboration and we hope that you will enjoy reading these Proceedings as we did. Finally, we are indebted to Prof. Vince Hearing, the Editor-in-Chief of Pigment Cell Research for advising us in our editorial work.