In this Issue: Inflammation

We live in a microbial world and are often confronted with infection and injury. Inflammation, the response that is unleashed to ward off these insults, has long been familiar to us. Indeed, the words that we still use to describe inflammation -redness and swelling with heat and pain -were coined in the first century A.D. by the Roman physician Cornelius Celsus: rubor et tumor cum calore et dolore. The word inflammation itself comes from the Latin inflammare: to set on fire. Research has taken us a long way from this first description of the overt symptoms of inflammation 2000 years ago to our current understanding of the molecular and cellular pathways that mediate the inflammatory process, regulate it, and lead to its resolution. We now know that inflammation can come in many forms and modalities depending on the context in which it is triggered, the trigger itself, and the tissues involved. Furthermore, we appreciate the contribution of inflammation to cancer and to chronic afflictions like neurodegenerative diseases and diabetes. In this year's Special Review Issue, we bring together Review articles and Essays that survey our current knowledge of inflammation and provide perspectives on the key questions and challenges ahead. We would like to thank the distinguished experts who contributed their time and effort as authors and reviewers to make this issue timely, comprehensive,and thought provoking. We hope that this collection of articles will be informative and inspiring, as we now harness the tools of modern biology in the continued effort to understand :"the old flame".