Enteric Nervous System

Near 30 years ago a number of scientists working on the Enteric Nervous System (ENS) gathered at Flinders to discuss the advances and future of their research. A photograph (see below) captured the friendly and stimulating meeting attended by most of the major players in what was to become the new discipline of 'Neurogastroenterology'.§§This year, the main Australasian Neuroscience Society (ANS) meeting was held in Adelaide, providing a perfect opportunity to recreate a similar follow-up ENS meeting. As such the ENS II 2014 meeting aimed to identify how far we have come in the field of enteric neuroscience, where is the future heading, and what technological advances have been made to address current and future unresolved questions.§§30 speakers from around the world were invited to give talks to revisit the original expectations, the advances made since and the future directions on ENS research. This included three generations of investigators from 7 different countries.§§This publication represents the majority of the proceedings of the conference on The Enteric Nervous System II 2014, a meeting held on February 1st - 2nd at the National Wine Centre of Australia, Adelaide. It was an Official satellite meeting of the 34th Annual Meeting of ANS, also held in Adelaide.§§The 20 contributions contained within this submission are from international researchers in the field of the ENS, who reviewed, the advances made since the first similar meeting in the early 1980s and summarizes the present and future perspectives of neuro-gastroenterology. Some colleagues could not attend but did send greetings and their messages are included in these proceedings (included letters from Joe Szurszewski and Michael Schemann). §§