these proceedings of the 1st international peptide symposium, held in kyoto, japan, in december 1997, represent a high point of international cooperation in the field of peptide science. recently, science and technology in this area have advanced considerably, allowing traditional peptide chemists to expand into areas of peptide science encompassing physics, biology and medicine. furthermore, improvements in procedures for chemical and bio-syntheses, purification, analysis and related areas, have removed barriers with respect to the size of molecules. these proceedings include plenary lectures and oral and poster presentations collected from a wide diversity of topics providing a truly comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the field of peptide science. this publication contains essential reference information for researchers active in peptide science.