You are invited to be part of a forum to bring respiratory biological research together, to discuss and build. Ours is a growing and vital discipline. The future of Respiratory Biology lies in developing an integrative approach and fostering an environment where researchers can talk, listen and develop integrative projects on all aspects of respiration. Rather than focussing on specific organizational level, we aim to stimulate new research initiatives with a broad interdisciplinary approach.

A reaffirmation of the goals of "Respiratory Biology" as a clear and distinct discipline will bring our research aims together, and will allow not only the traditional horizontal networking but also vertical networking, breaking artificial barriers between genetics, cell biology, zoology, botany, medicine and many others. A glance at the proposed list of topics will convince you that this meeting is like no other that you have attended. Juxtaposed in the same session are talks on intermittant breathing in insects and vertebrates or strategies for dealing with hypoxia in organisms from different kingdoms. Gas transport in plants is compared with that in animals.

The mainstay of the ICRB is a series of symposia: those emphasizing integrative, multidisciplinary approaches will be granted preference. In addition, posters and open sessions with short Powerpoint™ presentations will take place. Posters will remain in place throughout the entire meeting. When the symposium topics and speakers have been selected, registered participants will be asked which they would prefer to attend in order to minimize overlap of interests in parallel sessions.

This conference is intended to provide the launching pad for future meetings and to ensure that Respiratory Biology remains at the forefront of worldwide research. The conference will be held from the 13th to the 16th of August 2006 in Bonn/Bad Honnef a spectacular region along the Rhine Valley. We have ensured you will have plenty of opportunity to visit the local area and perhaps sample some of the world renown Rhine Valley Riesling.

So join with us and make the ICRB the first in a long series to come !