Overview of the 7th European symposium on calcium-binding proteins in normal and transformed cells

The strong feature of the meeting was the continuing efforts described in many papers to resolve the multiple ways in which calcium ions are released into cells via messenger signals and then interact with receptors to cause differential internal cellular activation and cell/cell communication. An easy general way to relate these studies to cell components is to start analysis from the genetic structures lying behind all cell activities and then to explore the RNA production, the proteome, the small substrates and calcium levels themselves in turn while referring to the environment of a particular cell, organ or organism. There is then of course the overall physiology. I shall summarize the papers in this order of their main interests.