12th international TNF conference: the good, the bad and the scientists.

Members of the TNF superfamily control numerous aspects of immune defense as well as various processes of homeostasis and embryonic development. Recent advances in our knowledge of both the beneficial and the deleterious activities of these cytokines were thoroughly discussed at this conference. Participants presented new information about signaling mechanisms that these cytokines activate, with special attention to cell-death regulation, ubiquitination of signaling-proteins as a means of regulating their function, and complex systems of gene and signaling regulation. Sessions were devoted specifically to aberrations in functions of the TNF-family that contribute to the pathology of infectious, autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases and to cancer, and to the application of our knowledge to therapy.