The first Taurine Symposium organized by Dr. Ryan Huxtable and the late Dr. Andre Barbeau was held in Tucson, Arizona, in 1975. Since that auspici ous event, nine international symposia on the role of taurine in biology have taken place. The locations for these meetings have been Tucson (two times), Rome, Philadelphia, Tokyo, Vancouver, Mexico City, Helsinki, and Florence. In 1977, due to the large number of scientists in Japan who were interested in the role of this unique amino acid in biological systems, we organized the Japanese Research Society on Sulfur Amino Acids with the encouragement and financial assistance of the Taisho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (Tokyo). Annual meetings have been held, and the membership has expanded from 78 to 414 in 1987; the number of presentations has increased during this time span from 29 to 74. The symposium in Tokyo in 1982, "Sulfur Amino Acids, Biochemical and Clinical Aspects" 1], was held to celebrate the 5th Annual Meeting of our Society. I would like to emphasize that in Japan we have an active Research Society especially directed to the study of sulfur amino acids. We have published our own semi-annual journal entitled Sulfur Amino Acids. Our society is an inter disciplinary research society since taurine is a highly diversified compound that interconnects physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, nutrition, and medicine. One exciting fringe benefit of taurine research and the society has been the fostering of contacts with distinguished scientists from many varied medical fields."

The Third International Symposium on Neurotransmitter Receptors was held in Hiroshima at a time when the entire field of neurotransmitter receptors in the brain is progressing at an unprecedented pace. The sym posium also marked my retirement as Professor and Chairman of the Third Department of Internal Medicine, Hiroshima University School of Medicine, and a new beginning as a Professor of the University of the Air. The symposium was remarkably successful, and there were enthusiastic responses from scientists allover the world, proving that the meeting was timely. The selected papers contained in this volume constitute a state of-the-art survey of the most advanced aspects of neurotransmitter recep tor mechanisms in the brain. lowe thanks for the great success of the symposium to Prof. Richard Olsen of UCLA, Prof. Tomio Segawa of Hiroshima University, Prof. Kinya Kuriyama of Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, and Prof. Masaya Tohyama of Osaka University. I express my sincere gratitude to many friends for making this publication possible. I especially thank Dr. Rie Miyoshi, whose devoted efforts as secretary-general were vital to the success of the symposium. Dr. Miyoshi is currently an instructor in the Department of Pharmacology at Tokyo Women's Medical College. I would also like to acknowledge the excellent secretarial work of Misses Ritsuko Sato and Yuko Wakita.

The first Taurine Symposium organized by Dr. Ryan Huxtable and the late Dr. Andre Barbeau was held in Tucson, Arizona, in 1975. Since that auspici ous event, nine international symposia on the role of taurine in biology have taken place. The locations for these meetings have been Tucson (two times), Rome, Philadelphia, Tokyo, Vancouver, Mexico City, Helsinki, and Florence. In 1977, due to the large number of scientists in Japan who were interested in the role of this unique amino acid in biological systems, we organized the Japanese Research Society on Sulfur Amino Acids with the encouragement and financial assistance of the Taisho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (Tokyo). Annual meetings have been held, and the membership has expanded from 78 to 414 in 1987; the number of presentations has increased during this time span from 29 to 74. The symposium in Tokyo in 1982, "Sulfur Amino Acids, Biochemical and Clinical Aspects" [1], was held to celebrate the 5th Annual Meeting of our Society. I would like to emphasize that in Japan we have an active Research Society especially directed to the study of sulfur amino acids. We have published our own semi-annual journal entitled Sulfur Amino Acids. Our society is an inter disciplinary research society since taurine is a highly diversified compound that interconnects physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, nutrition, and medicine. One exciting fringe benefit of taurine research and the society has been the fostering of contacts with distinguished scientists from many varied medical fields.