Preface

An Advanced FEBS Course “Mitochondria in the Cell Life and Death” has taken place in Moscow on 2–7 September, 2001. Lecturers from 10 countries presented 19 reports to the 64 participants from 11 countries. In addition to the official participants, many students, postgraduates, and researchers of Moscow State University (MSU) attended the meeting and actively participated in discussions. This was facilitated by the fact that the Course was held in the University campus, namely in the new Laboratory Building B, the construction of which was completed quite recently. Here a novel MSU School of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics is located. The following topics were discussed: mechanisms of energy conservation and dissipation, mitochondria and apoptosis, and mitochondria and diseases. Below the readers can find selected minireviews devoted to regulatory and pathological aspects of these topics.