THE Stuttgart 2005 Meeting was a combined meeting with the participation of the European Tissue Repair Society (ETRS), the German Society for Wound Healing (DGfW) and the European Wound Management Association (EWMA). Overall this meeting was a success, with more than 2,400 delegates and numerous industrial companies taking an active interest.

This combined meeting has widely promoted knowledge and interchange between scientists, health care professionals, industry and individuals that have an interest in tissue repair in all organs ranging from basic science to clinical aspects of healing. In this respect the ETRS has an interdisciplinary character and has become an important agent in promoting the exchange of scientific and clinically relevant information.

The scientific programme of the ETRS at the Stuttgart 2005 meeting covered topics arranged around the subject from bench to bedside including an update on growth factors, proteases and anti-proteases, tissue engineering, fibrotic tissue response, adhesion molecules, chemokines and pro-inflammatory cytokines shaping wound healing as well as a session on stem cells and precursor cells in tissue repair and aging. The quality of some abstracts was so high that we decided to offer the Young Investigator Award to six young investigators, two of them from Japan. You will find the names and the most interesting subjects of their research in more detail in this issue.

Arranged under the auspices of Professor Becker there were also enough opportunities for social and personal exchange. We owe thanks for Professor Becker’s contribution to the society, as he will now leave the Board. I would like to acknowledge that the success of this meeting was due to the combined efforts of my fellow board members.

Our past president, Professor Luc Téot, organized the successful world meeting in Paris 2004, where the ETRS played, among many other societies, an important part. He succeeded during his year in office in bringing together those who are interested in various kinds of wound healing all over the world. Professor Luc Téot, my fellow Board members, and all who actively worked for the ETRS, certainly including their founders, have admirably organized many ventures which we now profit from. Taking over now from Luc Téot, I am very willing to serve this society.

Future efforts will concentrate on furthering the interactions between ETRS members. In this context the election of new board members will take place in the near future. Professor Mark Ferguson will send out research profiles of candidates who have been suggested for the board. It is also planned to further strengthen ties between the ETRS and the Wound Healing Society (WHS) and I am very pleased that Professor Jeffrey Davidson is currently the President of the WHS.

In addition, we are working on expanding our society in that we could attract more young investigators as we feel that they bring in new ideas and crossfertilization from different fields of research. Here we plan to expand our input in young investigator travel support in order to enable young investigators to join high profile meetings on tissue repair including those of the ETRS, WHS, Gordon Conferences and Focus meetings. In addition, we would like to promote a young investigator exchange programme, where young investigators could apply for financial support to visit laboratories and clinics to learn new techniques to promote their research. The curricula and time frames for these initiatives will be published in the next ETRS Bulletin.

It is a pleasure to announce that our next annual meeting, which will be held from 13 to 16 September in Pisa, will be planned and organized by Professor Marco Romanelli and his team. I do know, however, that the European Tissue Repair Society does depend very much on the dedication and motivation of my fellow board members as well as that of all ETRS members and the ETRS office with Dr George Cherry in Oxford.

I trust in your cooperation and support.

With my best regards

Karin Scharffetter-Kochanek
President