The reasons why an immune system should attack itself are far from clear. The input of the biotechnogical revolution has enabled us to readdress many of the fundamental questions raised by clinical and serological associations with autoimmune disease. The ability to dissect the immune response to those infectious agents that are associated with autoimmune features, in addition to the ability to clone and sequence immune response genes, has given us a much better understanding of the complexity of "autoimmunity". This volume, a collection of papers from the BIOTECH '93 symposium with the same title, is a clear and informative summary of its theme.
