Heat shock proteins (HSPs) play a number of critical and emerging roles in the biology of the cell including the mediation of protein folding, cell regulation as well as possessing important overall physiological functions in the immune and inflammatory responses and the cellular stress response. The overall goal of the proposal is to organize a meeting that will bring together scientists on the cutting edge of research in HSPs. To date most heat shock meetings have focused on one aspect of heat shock response, molecular chaperone function. Our goal is to present a broad based program. We will have sessions on the role of heat shock proteins in hyperthermia/radiation therapy, inflammation and immunity, cancer and immunotherapy, autoimmunity and infectious diseases, vascular and cardiovascular disease, gene regulation and expression. This meeting should stimulate cross-pollination and multi-disciplinary collaborations and help to broaden scientists perspective of ones own work. The meeting is entitled the 'International Symposium on Heat Shock Proteins in Biology and Medicine' and will be held 6-8 November 2000 at the Marine Biology Laboratory at Woods Hole, MA.