Early integration is the key to success in industrial biotechnology. This is as true when a selected wild-type organism is put to work as when an organism is engineered for a purpose. The present volume Engineering and Manufacturing for Biotechnology took advantage of the 9th European Congress on Biotechnology (Brussels, Belgium, July 11-15, 1999): in the topics handled and in the expertise of the contributors, the engineering science symposia of this congress offered just what was needed to cover the important topic of integration of process engineering and biological research. The editors have solicited a number of outstanding contributions to illustrate the intimate interaction between productive