The Fundación Juan March is one of the most active and important cultural institutions in Spain. Since 1955, it has promoted excellence in music and art, specializing in the support of young Spanish artists and musicians. In 1986, the Fundación's mission was extended to the promotion of biological sciences with the organization of the Instituto Juan March de Estudios e Investigaciones. Since its inception, the Institute has hosted a remarkable series of lectures and meetings, each held in the elegant Madrid headquarters of the Fundación.
The most recent Juan March workshop, which was organized by Francisco Sánchez-Madrid and Rick Horwitz and held from June 3–5, 2002, focused on a problem of central importance in cell biology: the mechanisms and functions of cell polarity. Until fairly recently, the study of cell polarity comprised a fairly restricted range of problems, mostly involving the analysis of membrane and...
