Document Z8kYOKEZdM4r3E679G6Q7avdd

Welcoming Remarks 2004 SHS Annual Meeting - Asilomar good to see the now familiar faces of Professor Fu, Dr. Liang, Dr. Wong, Dr. Schnatter, Tom Armstrong and Dr. Irons. All of you, along with your many colleagues both here and in Shanghai are doing the "hard part" of this work and we truly appreciate your making the trip here to California once again. In addition, I would like to extend a special welcome to the members of the Scientific Review Panel and the Ethics Review Panel who have joined us this year. With such an august group assembled we are looking forward, once again, to two days of well-informed and well-rounded discussions. I know that I speak for others as well when I tell you how much I learned from each of you and from all of our panelists last year and I am eager to add to that knowledge base over the next two days. We have made a great deal of progress over the past twelve months and I believe it is part of our "mission" here at Asilomar to take the time to step back and celebrate our successes. 2 SH ELL-MCCLU RG-059626