This volume comprises the edited proceedings of the International Taurine Sympo sium held in Osaka, Japan, in June 1995, as a Satellite Symposium of the 15th Biennial of the International Society for Neurochemistry. This Taurine Symposium was the Meeting latest in a series held since 1975 at approximately two-year intervals by an informal group of international researchers. It attracted contributions from 20 countries, ranging from Armenia via Finland and Spain to the United States. Some 121 participants attended. The Symposium was organized and chaired by Junichi Azuma, University of Osaka. Other members of the Organizing Committee in Japan consisted of Kinya Kuriyama and Masao Nakagawa, both from the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, and Akemichi Baba, from Osaka University. The Committee had to contend with the disaster of the Kobe earthquake, which struck on January 21. The epicenter was only around 25 miles from the meeting site, and the quake demolished the home of one Committee member. Despite this unnaturally natural handicap, the participants experienced a superbly organized meeting, one which more than maintained the high social and scientific standards established for this series. In his Welcome Message, Dr. Azuma listed a threefold objective for the Symposium: To provide a forum for the interdisciplinary exchange of information on taurine; to give an opportunity for renewing old friendships and making new friends; and to promote coopera tion among participants from around the world.
