7th international workshop on the CCN family of genes: Nice to be in nice.

In this Editorial, I would like to provide our readers with a brief mid-year update about our activities and efforts to bring together researchers working on intercellular signaling proteins at international meetings. The roots emerged about 20 years ago in the discovery of three genes originally designated cyr61, ctgf, and nov. The proteins encoded by these genes were first proposed to constitute a family of proteins (CCN) which now comprises 6 members (CCN1, CCN2, CCN3, CCN4-6) including the wisp proteins. These proteins were recognized to share a striking structural organization and a high degree of identity although they exhibited quite distinct biological properties. After historical considerations regarding the reasons for using the CCN acronym, and how the ICCNS publishing landscape that drove the ICCNS from Cell Communication and Signaling to the Journal of Cell Communication and Signaling, this short update will focus on the 7th edition of the International Workshop on the CCN family of genes to be held in Nice, Oct 16-19, 2013.