The amount of information on the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease is growing rapidly. This is reflected by a continuous increase in the number of papers presented at international GI meetings. To make things more difficult for practicing physicians, there is also a large number of new clinical trials being published which require periodical critical reviews and recommendations. Faced with these issues, the scientific commitee of the Falk Symposium No. 140 decided to take a different approach and to apply a novel format that is reflected in the title of the Symposium: Translation from basic research to clinical practice.

This book contains the proceedings of that Symposium, held in Dubrovnik, Croatia, on May 7-8, 2004. The sections are designed so that they start with the information from basic sciences on different aspects of these complex diseases and further lead to their clinical implications. Special attention is paid to the mechanisms of actions of established drugs. The last two sections are clinically oriented and focus on the most difficult aspects of both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. This format provides state-of-the-art chapters by leading experts in the field and at the same time up-to-date information on the clinical application of the new knowledge.