4^th International Conference on the
Scientific and Clinical Applications of Magnetic Carriers
May 9-11, 2002 in Tallahassee, Florida, U.S.A.

The site of our fourth meeting offered an unique opportunity to visit the National Laboratory of High Magnetic Fields, the home of the record-breaking magnets, and to enjoy the beautiful surroundings of an ultimate vacation land, Florida. As in our previous meetings, the program offered a mix of presentations on the synthesis, characterization and applications of magnetic microcarriers. Also, selected topics highlighted by invited speakers included research opportunities in the area of the high magnetic fields; current and emerging therapies using cell separations; targeted gene therapy; the unique properties of ferrofluids; and hyperthermia in cancer therapy. The program was enhanced by a series of lectures on the physics of nano- and micro-particles. These lectures were particularly well received considering the inter-disciplinary character of the conference, with the participation of material scientists, biologists, chemists, chemical engineers, physicists and biophysicists, engineers and medical professionals. Given the continued and growing interest in the magnetic carriers "biennale", the biennial meetings focused on the unique properties and applications of the nano- and micro-scale magnetic particles, we eagerly await the next meeting on May 20-22 in 2004.

Urs Häfeli The Cleveland Clinic Foundation Radiation Oncology Dept. Cleveland, OH, U.S.A.

Maciej Zborowski The Cleveland Clinic Foundation Biomedical Engineering Dept. Cleveland, OH, U.S.A.

Wolfgang Schütt Institute for Applied Biosciences Rostock, Germany

For more information about magnetic microspheres, please visit http://www.magneticmicrosphere.com/ Extended Abstracts 3D-Array of magnetic Ni-Al2O3 microspheres of 47 µm diameter (Weijia Wen et al, J Mater Res 14, 1186, 1999).