It must have been some feeling of frustration invoked by the genus loci of big conferences which brought Don Dougall, Mike Fowler, and me over a cup of coffee to think of organizing a small meeting on cell culture metabol ism. The basic aim was to bring people working on "primary metabolism" and those who work on "secondary metabolism" to interact with each other, hopefully to induce some new approaches to utilize the cell culture technique more efficiently in basic research and in its practical application. The out come of this was the small symposium at SchloE Rauischholzhausen near GieEen...