The VIIth International Conference on Aspartic Proteinases was held in Banff, Alberta, Canada, from October 22 to 27, 1996. The venue was the Banff Centre in the Canadian Rockies, a setting well known worldwide for the scenic beauty and mountain grandeur. It was perhaps presumptuous of the organizers to call this the seventh Aspartic Proteinase Conference but it was felt that the meeting in 1982, organized by Tom Blundell and John Kay, was of an international stature and covered topics sufficiently broad to constitute a conference. Thus, there is a discontinuity in that the Gifu Conference organized by Prof. Kenji Takahashi was the fifth International Conference on Aspartic Proteinases. Officially, there has not been a sixth Conference and if there is confusion, it is the result of my desire to recognize the importance of the London meeting. Banffhosted 106 scientists from 14 different countries. There were 26 invited speak­ ers among the 44 oral presentations of the 7 main sessions. In addition, there were 53 con­ tributed poster presentations that spanned the whole range of interest in aspartic proteinases.