This publication was initiated on the occasion of the NATO-Advanced Study Institute (ASI) meeting “Stem Cells and their potential for clinical application” which took place from August 23 – 25, 2006 in Kyiv and from August 26 – 31, 2006 in Simeiz, Ukraine. The meeting was devoted to “hot topics” in Stem cell research such as Regulation of Haematopoietic and Non-haematopoietic Stem Cells, Clinical Application of Stem Cells, Preclinical Models and Gene Therapy. The editors are pleased that the original idea of a book could eventually be realised. This was made possible because of the willingness of many meeting participants to saddle themselves with the additional work of compiling their data and thoughts in form of an article for this edition. We are thus foremost grateful to all contributors for their valuable input. In accordance with the conference’s main topics, the book is divided into five chapters - “Haematopoietic stem cells and haematopoiesis”, “Biology of n- haematopoietic stem cells”, “Stem cells and malignancy”, “Cell processing; expansion and genetic modification” and “Clinical haematopoietic stem cell transplantation”.
