The 6th triennial meeting of the International Study Group for Tryp- tophan Research (ISTRY) was held May 9-12, 1989 in Baltimore, Maryland (USA). From the wide variety of topics and disciplines represented, as documented in this volume, it is clear that tryptophan research and ISTRY are alive and well. ISTRY traces its or1g1ns to at a tryptophan symposium organized in 1971 by H. Schievelbein at Hohenried near Munich (Germany). Up to that time there had been occasional international tryptophan conferences at irregular inter- vals. A number of participants at the Hohenried meeting felt that an...