What We Have Learned from Highly Immunized Patients

I would like to begin by thanking Walter Brendel for initiating the Kitzbuhel-Axams meetings. This talk is dedicated in his honour and in appreciation of what he has done. He has been in many ways a leader; he professionalised experimental surgery with the “big bang” machine as one of the many highlights, introduced us to xenotransplantation, but above all initiated these wonderful round table meetings on immunology. The recipe was as simple as it was brilliant: take some beautiful snow-covered mountains, mix them together, invite a lot of friends and ask them to talk about science. Most of these people have been involved in transplantation, but not all of them. We have heard talks about skin grafts in monkeys, about liver transplantation in pigs, and many, many other topics.