Today’s drug research is an extremely complex process which, apart from chemistry, pharmacology, toxicology and preclinical trials, in- cludes a variety of sciences such as biotechnology, biochemistry, im- munology, physics, biology and even computer sciences. The Table of Contents of the present volume demonstrates this situation and makes it evident that the individual researcher cannot possibly hope to keep abreast of all aspects of modern drug research. In this re- spect, the series of monographs "Progress in Drug Research" pro- vides valuable help and assistance. Those who simply wish to remain informed of the latest trends and developments in drug research can use the 34 volumes so far available as a source of almost encyclo- pedic character. Researchers actively engaged in the various scientific fields forming the entity of drug research can benefit from the wealth of knowledge and experience of the respective authors, and they will be assisted in their endeavour to discover new pharmaceutical agents. Moreover, the extensive bibliographies of the individual reviews provide an invaluable overview of the literature most pertinent to today’s drug research. I should like to thank all the authors for their willingness to prepare the reviews and for sharing their insights and experience with the readers. Thanks are also due to Mrs L. Koechlin, H.-P. Thiir and A. Gomm of Birkhauser Publishers for their valuable help in the pre- paration of this volume.