When I was ?rst approached by Dr. Hengli Tang about writing the foreword to this book, the second edition of Hepatitis C Virus, I was a little puzzled: Book forewords are penned by persons far more famous than I am. Surely there were better people to write this, with a handful of the true visionaries in the ?eld immediately coming to my mind. However, after some thought and self-re?ection, I realized that I might just be the right person for the job. I remember the publication of the ?rst edition of Hepatitis C Virus in 1998, the year I began reading about hepatitis C virus with great interest. I purchased a copy of the ?rst edition from my meager graduate student stipend and read it from cover to cover, along with a variety of hepatitis C publications, to try to get a feel if this hepatitis C virus ?eld was something I might want to work on in the future. At the time, the ?rst edition was among the most comprehensive collection of hepatitis C protocols and methods available in one volume. I was amazed at the progress that had been made in hepatitis C research, and even more amazed as I learned more about the experimental challenges facing the ?eld at that time.
