In continuation of the Covance Primate Symposium Series, the 18th Covance Primate Symposium took place in Münster on 5th & 6th of October 2010. Altogether, 143 participants - the largest attendance so far - representing 16 countries and 57 organisations, gathered for this symposium. The 2010 Primate Symposium focussed on "Future Trends in Primate Toxicology and Biotechnology". The broad participation and the lively discussions during the symposium underlined the timeliness and importance of this theme. Expert speakers covered four major topics, i.e. Proteomics & Genomics, Developmental & Reproductive Toxicology (DART), Safety Pharmacology, and Immunotoxicology as a hot topic. The advent of sequencing the genomes of various primate species has enabled an in-depth look into the origin of various laboratory nonhuman primates and offers avenues for selecting animals based upon their genetic profile. For the field of nonhuman primate DART, biopharmaceutical development and related guideline updates have changed the field significantly with primate DART studies, juvenile toxicity evaluations and the use of sexually mature monkeys becoming more frequent and sophisticated. Safety pharmacology evaluation is undergoing major changes with refined experimental designs including remote cardiovascular functions recording and activity monitoring. Clearly, cardiovascular safety is a major concern for the development of new medical drugs and guidelines are being adapted accordingly. The hot topic session focussed around immunotoxicology with contemporary regulatory views on preclinical and clinical development of monoclonal antibodies, guidelines updates and reviews on the immune system and development of selected drugs.ContributorsB Anand, J Beyer, J Bowes, G Bode, C Bowman, F Brennan, U Certa, MC Domaingue, M Ebeling, J Ewart, S Eppler, PG Germann, M Haddrick, TG Hammond, S Irfan, P Jarvis, J Körner, P Lainee, K McKeever, T Mitchard, N Pentsuk, T Plant, CE Pollard, A Rasmussen, WS Redfern, C Roos, E Sasaki, S Schlatt, J Sims, T Singer, B Spruijt, G Steiner, J Stewart, I Tomioka, A Vaidyanathan, JP Valentin, JW van der Laan, E Vogelwedde, L Walter, GF Weinbauer, T Weiser, P Wong, D Zinner