Dear Colleagues,

Due to the importance of the hair follicle as a model system for various fields of basic research, hair biology has, in the course of the past decades, continuously attracted more scientists. Our goal is to bring scientists and clinicians together and to organize an informal and interactive meeting with an interesting and varied program.

Prior to this meeting there will be a satellite meeting devoted to androgens and their effects on hair growth and hair loss. The main meeting will feature plenary sessions focusing on hair follicle development, genetic defects involving hair, hair follicle immunology and alopecia areata. Furthermore, sufficient time will be allotted for interesting clinical cases, new research methods and results from different fields of trichobiology. The active participation of distinguished investigators, who will give key lectures, makes us confident that this meeting will be a top level scientific event.

In addition to the lectures, we are happy to announce that we can offer special courses entitled “Meet the expert at the microscope”. These courses will be guided by experienced investigators and will be a unique opportunity for those scientists interested in the morphology of hair follicle development, hair cycle, hair defects in mutant mice, and histopathology of hair diseases.

For clinicians or scientists interested in the more practical aspects of hair growth, we will organize “Lunch sessions”. These interactive sessions will cover important clinical aspects of hair diseases and will be guided by experts in their field. We extend a warm welcome to all young and senior clinicians, basic scientists and all other professionals interested in hair research. We feel privileged to act as organizers of this meeting and cordially invite you to share with us a weekend of scientific communication in our beautiful medieval city of Marburg, Germany, on September 15-17, 2000.

Rudolf Happle, MD
Chairman