Kinins IV | Kinins 4

Scientists from 25 countries came together at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on October 21-25, 1984, for the 4th International Kinin Congress in the beautiful city of Savannah, Georgia. Many of the delegates enjoyed southern hospitality for the first time. The friendly city with its streets lined with the Live Oak Tree (symbol of the Congress), the balmy weather, and the excellent facilities of the hotel set the stage for scientific events and exchange that proved so successful. The organization of the meeting was the result of many hours, days and weeks of effort by many, including from Augusta Drs. James H. Sutherland, John Catravas, William Davis, Jr., and Hiroshi Okamoto; and from Charleston, SC, Julie Chao, Ronald Mayfield and Donald Miller. Special thanks go to Ms. Cher Cornett of the Department of Medical Illustration at the Medical College of Georgia for her talent in the design of the logo, as well as the graphics of the program and abstracts. We are indeed indebted to Dr. Paul Brucker, Director of the Division of Health Communications at the Medical College of Georgia, for his considerable aid in spending time with us to arrange the programming format and continuity. Ms. Sandra Usry provided very excellent and devoted secretarial help for several years while the Congress was in the making. Thanks also to the secretarial staff of the Department of Pharmacology at MCG, including Rosiland Simmons and Jennie Doby for their expert assistance during the meeting. We also wish to thank the many sponsors (NIH, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer AG and Bayer AG/Miles, KabiVitrum AB, American Heart Association, Medical College of Georgia Research Institute, Rich's Travel, Bayer Yakhuin, Ltd., Bristol-Myers Co., Drug Science Foundation of S.C., Sanwa Kagaku Ltd., Upjohn Co., Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim, Ltd., Burroughs Wellcome Co., Ciba Geigy PharmaƠceutical, E.R. Squibb & Sons, Inc., Fujimoto Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Am. Cyanamid Co., G.D. Searle, E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co.). During the early planning of the Congress, we learned of the death of one of the world's great pharmacologists and discoverer of bradykinin, Professor Mauricio Rocha e Silva of Brazil. Professor Rocha e Silva not only coined the name for bradykinin but was a staunch advocate in his own special way for research all over the world to elucidate the importance of kinins and kallikreins in health and in disease. It is more than fitting that the 4th International Congress of Kinins was dedicated to his memory and efforts. We were most fortunate that his collaborator in the discovery of bradykinin and a great scientist in his own right, Dr. Wilson Beraldo of Belo Horizonte, attended the Congress. All of us were moved by his sincere tribute, as well as the tribute of Dr. Mauricio Rocha e Silva, Jr., to Professor Rocha e Silva's contribu-tions to science and society. Since the close of the Congress we learned of the deaths of three pioneers in kinin research, Dr. John Pisano (suddenly) of the NIH, Dr. Ulla Hamburg of Finland and Dr. Marion Webster, formerly of the NIH. Each of these have left lasting impressions on us because of their pioneering contributions, their strength of purpose in kinin research and their love of aiding others in our discipline. We will miss them. We are privileged that these volumes contain the last scientific communications of Drs. Pisano and Hamburg."Kinin '84 Savannah" had a number of "firsts". It was the first Kinin Congress to encompass four full days. It was the first Congress to institute "Frontier Lecturers" which provided us with information about areas of research which may be vital to our growth but with which we may not be familiar at this time. We are all indebted to the superb lecturers which included Dr. Hans Fritz (FRG), Dr. Robert Colman (USA), Dr. S. Nakanishi (Japan), Dr. John Shine (Australia), Dr. Allen Cuthbert (England) and Dr. T. Hokfelt (Sweden). This was the first Congress to utilize the concept of formal "Poster Discussions" so that all investigators had a chance to comment on their efforts in addition to the 200 posters on display. We are indebted to the discussion leaders who made the 14 sessions so meaningful. It was the first of the Kinin Congresses to have "competing" oral sessions and we wish to thank the Chairman and Co-chairman of these sessions, as well as the delegates themselves, for the excellence of the 80 oral presentations. This was the first international meeting at which the T-kinin - T-kininogen sysem was introduced, as well as several components of the kallikrein-kinin system in brain including kinins and kininases. The long sought-after antagonist to bradykinin as well as the isolation and characterization of the genes expressing kininogen synthesis was described. It was the first of our meetings to pay tribute to our pioneers in kinin research and we again salute the recipients, Drs. Melville Schachter (Canada), Ervin Erdos (USA), Wilson Beraldo (Brazil), Hector Croxatto (Chile), Tomoji SuzukiƠ(Japan), and Gert Haberland (FRG). It was the first meeting at which six young investigators from five countries were nominated as KabiVitrum Scholars and given special travel awards.