Book excerpt: This volume contains papers presented at the Ninth International Conference on Second Messengers and Phosphoproteins. Written by leading scientists - including two Nobel Laureates - the papers highlight contemporary advances in the rapidly evolving field of signal transduction. The findings presented are of vital significance to researchers in virtually all biomedical fields, including pharmacology, molecular biology, cell biology, biochemistry, the neurosciences, and physiology. The contributors offer new insights into fundamental cell signalling mechanisms and explore the role of these mechanisms in physiological and pathophysiological responses in a variety of systems. Coverage includes many topics that are currently under intensive study, such as growth factors and special signalling systems; protein phosphatases and metabolic pathways; calcium and ion channels; cyclic GMP and cyclic AMP; and receptors and G proteins.