This Symposium took place, both in-person and in virtual mode, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, at the Academy of Sciences of the Bologna Institute, University of Bologna, Italy. After peer review, the manuscripts stemming from the Symposium constitute volume 83 of Advances in Biological Regulation (formerly Advances in Enzyme Regulation). The appreciative reception of this series reflected the need for such a source of information, inspiration, and laboratory and teaching companion.
Volume 83 concentrates on subjects which have reached the stage of productive summarization and critical evaluation in the light of extensive new results. This book also lives up to its goal of advancing a few steps ahead of the general front of biological regulation in mammalian systems, with a particular emphasis on cellular signalling and on molecular basis of diseases.
It has been our editorial policy to impose as few restrictions as possible emphasizing, however, the objectives of excellence of contribution, perfection in presentation, and penetration and scope of interpretation. This principle gives a wide range of freedom to the participants to express their scientific views and concepts. Thus, the responsibility for detail, accuracy of reporting, preciseness of references, allocations of priority, expressions of judgement and evaluation lies with the individual authors.
The Editor-in-Chief, who enjoyed the advice of leaders in the field, has been organizing the symposia and selecting new topics and speakers on the basis of the immediate and long-range significance of the scientific contributions. It is hoped that the comments and suggestions of investigators and teachers in this field will continue to come to the Editor-in-Chief and contribute to shaping the course of forthcoming conferences.