chronic inflammatory bowel diseases represent an important medical problem, since they have a devastating impact on the quality of life and require longstanding medical care. many medical disciplines are involved in tackling the immensely complex studies on pathogenesis, clinical expression and treatment possibilities. this book, the proceedings of the falk symposium 105 on `innovative concepts in inflammatory bowel diseases, held in rostock, germany, on april 30 - may 2, 1998, brought together experts from different fields of science to allow a unified view on clinical and basic research. the main themes of the meeting were genetics, animal models, immunology, epithelial cells, endotoxin, diagnostic procedures, malignancy, medical therapies, and surgery. in each section of the book experts present state-of-the-art reviews with the very latest developments in the respective research areas followed by chapters on different aspects of inflammatory bowel diseases. they provide suggestions concerning future research and clinical management of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases.