[en] The fourth workshop on heavy charged particles in biology and medicine is held after a long break of 4 years. For the biological response of cells or subcellar objects, the experiment is still the only source of safe information. A large and still growing community performs these experiments as it is demonstrated by the numerous presentations of this workshop. This research has been extended to a more molecular level like DNA as well as to completly different systems like the cellular membran. There again, new and surprising results have been found. Finally, the problems of radiobiological research has stimulated atomic physicists to reconsider and to measure the emission of electrons in heavy ion-atom collisions. These experiments indicate that the conventional understanding of track formation has to be revised too. (orig./VHE)