Mast cells in health and disease: from basic science to clinical application 4-5 July 2008, Stuttgart, Germany.

In July 2008, the fifth and last meeting of the Mast Cells and Chronic Inflammatory Diseases (MCCID) network was hosted by Axel Lorentz and Stephan Bischoff at the University of Hohenheim, in the Aula of the Chateau Hohenheim, Stuttgart. The MCCID initiative is a Marie Curie early stage research training (EST)-sponsored multi-partner project that fosters collaboration between fundamental research, clinics and industry. At the same time, this meeting was the founding meeting of the new European Mast Cell Research Network (EMCRN) initiated by SC Bischoff, U Blank, F Levi-Schaffer, M Mauer and G Nielsson (steering committee), in co-operation with P Valent from the European Competence Network on Mastocytosis (ECNM). A mixture of scientists from pharma, biotech and academic institutions attended the meeting, presenting recent data from the field with a special focus on novel therapeutic strategies and possible interactions between industry and research. The aim of this report is to briefly describe some of the most intriguing of these new findings and to discuss how they can be relevant for making use of mast cells as therapeutic targets.