The 15th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research was held on October 19-24, 1997, at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina. In this meeting Bryan Williams and Robert Silverman review the scientific highlights of the proceedings. Interferon regulatory factors (IRFs) were among the major topics discussed at this meeting. Fortunately, the scientific program of the meeting, organized by Tom Cesario (U.C., Irvine), was sufficiently interesting to hold cytokine biologists in darkened halls away from the splendid marina and sunny San Diego skies.