Cytokine and interferon research in Israel.

From its inception, the field of interferons and cytokines has occupied an important position in Israeli biological science. With the Second Joint Meeting of the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research and the International Cytokine Society taking place in Jerusalem in 1998, it is timely to review here current Israeli research on the biology, gene regulation, receptors, signal transduction, mode of action and clinical aspects of interferons and cytokines.