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Background: The European Academy of Neurology (EAN) is a member of the European Brain Council (EBC), a coalition of neurologists, psychiatrists, neurosurgeons, neuroscientists, patient organizations and industry with an interest in the brain and its diseases. It was founded by the present author. Here, its formation, early history and the results of its advocacy are described., Method: Eyewitness report and relevant literature were considered., Results: After a long and difficult inception, the European Brain Council (EBC) brought all major players with an interest in the brain and its diseases to work closely together. Important data on the cost of brain diseases, lack of funding and fantastic research possibilities were generated and effectively used in advocacy. During the early years of the collaborative effort, the funding of brain research increased from €85 million in framework program (FP) 5 to €260 million in FP6 and to more than €2000 million in FP7., Conclusion: The EBC has been extremely successful. It is essential that advocacy in the European Union continues to be united so that those involved in brain research are able to speak with one voice to policy makers. An even bigger task, still insufficiently pursued, is for national brain councils to achieve prioritization of brain research in their national political agenda to bring about improved provision of care to those living with a brain disease., (© 2023 The Authors. European Journal of Neurology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Academy of Neurology.)

Karolinska Institutet is a medical university encompassing 21 departments distributed across three departmental or campus groups. Pharmacological research has a long and successful tradition at the institute with a multitude of seminal findings in the areas of neuronal control of vasodilatation, cardiovascular pharmacology, neuropsychopharmacology, receptor pharmacology, and pharmacogenomics that resulted in, among many other recognitions, two Nobel prizes in Physiology and Medicine, one in 1970 to Ulf von Euler for his discovery of the processes involved in storage, release, and inactivation of neurotransmitters and the other in 1982 to Sune Bergström and Bengt Samuelsson for their work on prostaglandins and the discovery of leukotrienes. Pharmacology at Karolinska Institutet has over the last decade been ranked globally among the top 10 according to the QS World University Ranking. With the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology now celebrating its 75-year anniversary, we wanted to take this as an opportunity to showcase recent research achievements and how they paved the way for current activities at the department. We emphasize examples from preclinical and clinical research where the dpartment's integrative environment and robust infrastructure have successfully facilitated the translation of findings into clinical applications and patient benefits. The close collaboration between preclinical scientists and clinical researchers across various disciplines, along with a strong network of partnerships within the department and beyond, positions us to continue leading world-class pharmacological research at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology for decades to come. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Pharmacological research at Karolinska Institutet has a long and successful history. Given the 75-year anniversary of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, this perspective provides an overview of recent departmental achievements and future trajectories. For these developments, interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaborations and a clear focus on result translation are key elements to continue its legacy of world-leading pharmacological research., (Copyright © 2024 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.)

Founded in 1947 as the Institute of Industrial Medicine, the Nelson Institute and Department of Environmental Medicine at New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine (NYUGSOM) was supported by a National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS) Center Grant for over 56 years. Nelson Institute researchers generated 75 years of impactful research in environmental and occupational health, radiation effects, toxicology, and cancer. Environmental health research is continuing at NYUGSOM in its departments of medicine and population health. The objective of this historical commentary is to highlight the major achievements of the Nelson Institute and the department in the context of its history at facilities in Sterling Forest, Tuxedo, NY and Manhattan, NY. Aspects of our discussion include leadership, physical facilities, and research in many areas, including air pollution, health effects of environmental radiation exposures, inhalation toxicology methodology, carcinogenesis by chemicals, metals, and hormones, cancer chemoprevention, human microbiome, ecotoxicology, epidemiology, biostatistics, and community health concerns. The research of the institute and department benefited from unique facilities, strong leadership focused on team-based science, and outstanding investigators, students, and staff. A major lasting contribution has been the training of hundreds of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, many of whom have been and are training the next generation of environmental and occupational health researchers at various institutions., (© 2024 The Author(s). Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The New York Academy of Sciences.)

The Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) started in August 2003 with 40 initial participants and celebrated its 20th anniversary with 1036 members, many of whom attended the annual meeting in Dublin, Ireland, on July 15 to 17, 2023. GRAPPA arose from a need experienced by psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and psoriasis (PsO) investigators to meet to address questions related to psoriatic disease (PsD). Though other groups were meeting at the time to classify and discuss PsA, GRAPPA arose from a desire to include international clinical and investigational researchers of both dermatology and rheumatology. The organization has built awareness of PsO and PsA, developed and validated research assessment tools to measure clinical status and disease outcomes, published multiple treatment recommendations, supported basic and clinical research on PsD pathophysiology, fostered interactions across research fields, and educated the future generation of PsO and PsA researchers. The group continues to focus on major priorities affecting patients with PsD and will continue evolving in the next decades., (Copyright © 2024 by The Journal of Rheumatology.)

The open letter that spurred the historic Asilomar conference turns 50.

This paper deals with the ways in which the intellectual and political history of AIDS can assist in the chronological conceptualization of a pandemic such as COVID-19 as it is unfolding. It problematizes the idea of pandemic "beginnings" and "ends" to show that such definitions are shaped by the disciplinary location and thematic foci of relevant scholars. Central to this analysis is the notion that ethical and political contexts affect research on a pandemic in different ways at national and global levels at various points in its trajectory. The article develops this argument in relation to two main themes: firstly, with reference to the history of AIDS research in South Africa; secondly, with the philosophical concept of bioagency to understand the ways in which viruses and humans co-shape the course of epidemics over time. I first make the case for the development of historically informed, long-term ethnographic studies of COVID-19. Using bioagency as a point of departure to consider viruses as social actors, the essay then critiques the notion of bioinformationalism as catalyzing the widening accessibility of biomedical research. Instead, I discuss the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries as protagonists in the operation of biocapital. I argue that the history of AIDS in South Africa can provide methodological and theoretical insights into how to interpret an unfolding epidemic, outlining an ambitious transdisciplinary research agenda for thinking about the temporality of a pandemic spanning the different, interconnected, scales of life., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Several countries and non-governmental organizations have discussed the use of animals in industry and biomedical areas. This work shows the progression of animal' rights for scientific purposes in Brazil and how Brazilian Councils have advanced to follow worldwide regulations. Since the first rules about animals' usage in Ireland in 1635, the British Cruelty to Animals Act in 1876, and the Brazilian animal protection rules in 1924 and 1934, most worldwide actions culminated in the Universal Declaration of Animal Rights (1978). In 1979, the Brazilian Law 6.638 displayed directives for didactic-scientific practice of vivisection. In 2008, the Arouca Law 11.794 filled regulatory gaps and created the National Council for the Control of Animal Experimentation (CONCEA). In 2014, the CONCEA incorporated the 3R's philosophy and recognized substitute techniques, but only in 2023 it prohibited vertebrate animals in scientific research, development and control of personal hygiene products, cosmetics and perfumes. It is clear current Brazilian and international rules are unable to cover all aspects of animal wellbeing, even for regulations of commercial issues. Certainly, innovative tools, as organ-on-chip, in vitro techniques and bioinformatical advancements will provide a crucial animal welfare and new laws will minimize animal pain and distress, including for disregarded invertebrates.

Med discusses the history and future of GLP-1 research with Professor Daniel Drucker from the Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests D.D. is supported by a Banting and Best Diabetes Centre Novo Nordisk Chair in Incretin Biology and a Sinai Health-Novo Nordisk Foundation Fund in Regulatory Peptides. D.D. has served as a consultant or speaker within the past 12 months to Altimmune, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Kallyope, Merck Research Laboratories, Novo Nordisk Inc., and Pfizer Inc. Neither D.D. nor his family members hold issued stock directly or indirectly in any of these companies. D.D. holds non-exercised options in Kallyope. GLP-2 is the subject of a patent license agreement between Takeda Inc and the University of Toronto, Toronto General Hospital (UHN) and D.D. Mount Sinai Hospital receives support for investigator-initiated research in the Drucker lab from Novo Nordisk Inc, Pfizer Inc, and Zealand Pharma Inc., (Copyright © 2024.)

Born in 1940 in Rasht, Iran, Dr. Farrokh Modabber earned his B.A. in Bacteriology and Ph.D. in Microbiology from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He joined the Harvard Medical School as a fellow before transitioning to a faculty role at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and played a pivotal role in advancing Cellular Immunology. In the early 1970s, he returned to Iran as an Associate Professor at Pahlavi University in Shiraz. Subsequently, he rejoined HSPH before embarking on a tenure at Tehran University. As the head of the Pathobiology Department at Tehran University School of Public Health, he initiated the Tehran/Harvard joint M.Sc. program in Immunology, which played a crucial role in shaping the careers of numerous Iranian immunologists over the following decades. Dr. Modabber went on to hold esteemed positions such as Director General of the Pasteur Institute of Iran, visiting immunology lecturer at various universities, Coordinator of Research Capability Strengthening of WHO's Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), Director of the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), and Senior Advisor of Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), to name a few. This article highlights Dr. Modabber's impactful career, focusing on his efforts to combat global leishmaniasis., (© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.)

Cancer research is linked to modern life-sciences, encompassing achievements in virology, yeast-biology, molecular-biology, genetics, systems-biology, bioinformatics, and so on. With these fascinating developments, it's easy to overlook that the fundamental theories and treatment strategies were established in the early 20th century and have remained valid ever since. Therefore, tribute must be paid to the founders of the field. The main hypotheses on carcinogenesis, the genetic model and the metabolic model, and the concept of cancer-treatment with cytotoxic, targeted or metabolic drugs were proposed more than 100 years ago by great minds such as T. Boveri, O. Warburg, and P. Ehrlich. Hence nothing about these cancer concepts is really new. Through development of powerful new technologies, we have been able to decipher the mechanisms of malignant transformation, thus significantly advancing the field. Our own studies have been focused on the cross-talk between cell-growth-signaling and lipid-metabolism in ovarian cancer to find crossover-points for co-targeting in order to achieve synergistic treatment effects. Notably, a side-effect of the application of current methods of molecular-cell-biology is a deeper knowledge of the laws of normal cell-biology and cell-life. Thus we anticipate the field will advance rapidly in the near future., Competing Interests: The author declares that he has no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.

The city and casino of Wiesbaden, capital of the German state Hessen, have endowed the Carol Nachman Prize to promote research work in the field of rheumatology since 1972. The prize, endowed with 37,500 €, is the second highest medical award in Germany and serves to promote clinical, therapeutic, and experimental research work in the field of rheumatology. In June 2022, the 50-year anniversary was celebrated. In the symposium preceding the award ceremony, an overview was given on the significance of spondyloarthritis for the work of the awardees in the past 30 years. This overview has now been put together to inform the interested community of the work performed, including the opinion of the awardees regarding what they consider to be their most important contribution., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

In celebration of the National Institute on Aging's (NIA) 50th anniversary, this paper highlights the significant advances in cognitive aging research and the promotion of cognitive health among older adults. Since its inception in 1974, the NIA has played a pivotal role in understanding cognitive aging, including cognitive epidemiology, interventions, and methods, for measuring cognitive change. Key milestones include the shift toward understanding cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease and Alzheimer's disease-related dementias (AD/ADRD), the development of large-scale longitudinal studies, and the incorporation of AD/ADRD-related biomarkers in cognitive aging cohorts. Additionally, NIA has championed diversifying the scientific workforce through initiatives, such as the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research and the Butler-Williams Scholars Program. The next 50 years will continue to emphasize the importance of inclusion, innovation, and impactful research to enhance the cognitive health and well-being of older adults., (Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America 2024.)

The European Society for Muscle Research (ESMR) started in 1971 as "European Muscle Club" in a joint initiative of Marcus Schaub, Eduard Jenny and Rudolf Billeter (Zurich), Caspar Rüegg (Heidelberg), Jean Légér (Montpellier), Bernard Swynghedauw (Paris), George Maréchal (Brussels), Gabriel Hamoir (Liège), and Endre Biró (Budapest). Since 1972, local organizers took care of muscle conferences held yearly in different European countries and in Israel in 1987. One of the goals was to establish contacts and collaborations between scientists on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Starting as an informal club, enthusiastically guided by Marcus Schaub as secretary (1971-1995) and later by Ger Stienen (1996-2005), Anders Arner (2006-2017) and Wolfgang Linke (2018-), the ESMR meetings steered international collaborations. The meetings witnessed the remarkable advancement of the insight in skeletal, smooth and cardiac muscle structure and function. In the five decades, the thin and thick filament structure has been resolved to the atomic level, the mechanism of acto-myosin energy transduction and force generation as well as its regulation have been elucidated. The molecular basis of striated and smooth muscle diversity has been found in the existence of multiple protein isoforms. The transcriptional, translational and post-translational regulations which give rise to adaptive responses of muscle tissue have been revealed. Many new players entered the field, such as titin, the ryanodine receptor and several signalling factors. Substantial progress has also been made in the identification of the pathogenesis of many hereditary muscle diseases such as Duchenne MuscularDystrophy and Hypertrophic Cardiac Myopathies., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

This article analyzes the history of immunization against tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) and specifically the processes that led to the creation and application of TBE vaccines in the Soviet Union and Austria. Rather than presenting the development of TBE vaccines from the perspective of national scientific schools, the article investigates their history as a transnational project, focusing on the connections among the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Austria, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It argues that biomedical research on TBE was profoundly intertwined with political and military agendas and depended on civil international cooperation as well as Soviet, American, and British military concerns, infrastructures and funding. The article consists of four parts that discuss (1) the identification of the TBE virus and the creation of the first TBE vaccine in the Soviet Union in the 1930s; (2) the internationalization of TBE research and vaccine development in the 1940s-1960s; (3) the history of TBE research and virology in Austria in the 1930s-1960s and the role of the US military funding; and (4) the cooperation of Austrian virologist Christian Kunz with the Microbiological Research Establishment Porton Down in the UK leading to the development of the Austrian/British vaccine against TBE in the 1970s., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press.)

Having dealt with Martini's understanding of causality and his procedural elements of evidence in the third part, the concluding article once again takes a historical perspective. It (1) traces the positionings and contexts of Martini's methodology in a sort of historical longitudinal section and (2) discusses the reasons for the rather reluctant response to his research programme in German and international medicine. We then focus (3) on Martini's understanding and concept of clinical research, the specific challenges he faced in post-war German medicine - and what remains of it today. Finally, we summarise the key findings of our article series and reflect on Martini's work in terms of its special nature and significance for clinical medicine in the 20 th century., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier GmbH.)

Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: none declared.

Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: Przemyslaw Mitkowski: speaker fees, advisory board fees: Abbott, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Biotronik, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Boston Scientific, Bristol Myers Squibb, Medtronic, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi Servier; Research Contracts: Abbott, Biomed Orchestra, Biotronik, Medtronic; Adam Witkowski: speakers fee: Novartis, advisory fees: Novartis; Piotr Szymański: speakers fees from Novartis and Samsung; Robert Gil: speakers fee: Novartis, Amgen, Pfizer, Sandoz, advisory board fee: Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Medtronic.

Introduction: Reviewing and updating research priorities is essential to assess progress and to ensure optimal allocation of financial and human resources in research. In 2001, WHO held a research priority setting workshop for herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) research in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study aimed to describe progress between 2000 and 2020 in three of the five key research priority areas outlined in the workshop: HSV-2/HIV interactions, HSV-2 control measures and HSV-2 mathematical modelling. The remaining priorities are addressed in a companion paper., Method: A systematic literature search of MEDLINE, CINAHL, Global Health and Cochrane databases was carried out. Relevant primary research studies based in LMICs, written in English and published on 2000-2020 were included. Papers were screened by two independent reviewers, and suitable variables were selected for manual extraction from study texts. Data were organised into an Excel spreadsheet and analysed using IBM SPSS., Results: In total, 3214 discrete papers were identified, of which 180 were eligible for inclusion (HSV-2/HIV interactions, 98; control measures, 58; mathematical modelling, 24). Most studies were conducted in East Africa. The majority of the 2001 WHO HSV-2 research priorities were addressed at least in part. Overall, despite several studies describing a strong relationship between HSV-2 and the acquisition and transmission of HIV, HSV-2 control repeatedly demonstrated little effect on HIV shedding or transmission. Further, although mathematical modelling predicted that vaccines could significantly impact HSV-2 indicators, HSV-2 vaccine studies were few. Studies of antiviral resistance were also few., Conclusion: Since 2000, LMIC HSV-2 research addressing its control, HIV interactions and mathematical modelling has largely addressed the priorities set in the 2001 WHO HSV-2 workshop. However, key knowledge gaps remain in vaccine research, antiviral cost-effectiveness, antiviral resistance and specific geographical areas., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)

Whereas medical practice stems from Hippocrates, cardiovascular science originates with Aristotle. The Hippocratic philosophy was championed by Galen (129-216 CE), whose advocacy of a tripartite soul found favor in the early Christian Church. In contrast, Aristotle's works were banned as heresy by ecclesiastical authority, only to survive and prosper in the Islamic Golden Age (775-1258 CE). Galen theorized that the circulation consisted of separate venous and arterial systems. Blood was produced in the liver and traveled centrifugally through veins. When arriving in the right ventricle, venous blood passed through tiny pores in the ventricular septum into the left ventricle, where it became aerated by air passing from the lungs through the pulmonary veins to the left side of the heart. Following arrival at distal sites, arterial blood disappeared, being consumed by the tissues, requiring that the liver needed to continually synthesize new blood. The heart was viewed as a sucking organ, and the peripheral pulse was deemed to result from changes in arterial tone, rather than cardiac systole. Galen's framework remained undisputed and dominated medical thought for 1,300 years, but the reintroduction of Aristotelian principles from the Islamic world into Europe (through the efforts of the Toledo School of Translators) were nurtured by the academic freedom and iconoclastic environment uniquely cultivated at the University of Padua, made possible by Venetian rebellion against papal authority. At Padua, the work of Andreas Vesalius, Realdo Colombo, Hieronymus Fabricius ab Acquapendente, and William Harvey (1543-1628) methodically destroyed Galen's model, leading to the modern concept of a closed-ended circulation. Yet, due to political forces, Harvey was ridiculed, as was James Lind, who performed the first prospective controlled trial, involving citrus fruits for scurvy (1747); it took nearly 50 years for his work to be accepted. Even the work of William Withering (1785), the father of cardiovascular pharmacology, was tarnished by professional jealously and the marketing campaign of a pharmaceutical company. Today's cardiovascular investigators should understand that major advances are routinely derided by the medical establishment for political or personal reasons; and it may take decades or centuries for important work to be accepted., Competing Interests: Funding Support and Author Disclosures Dr Packer has received personal fees for consulting from 89bio, Abbvie, Actavis, Altimmune, Alnylam, Amarin, Amgen, Armgo, Ardelyx, AstraZeneca, Attralus, Biopeutics, Boehringer Ingelheim, Caladrius, Casana, CSL Behring, Cytokinetics, Imara, Lilly, Medtronic, Moderna, Novartis, Pharmacocosmos, Reata, Regeneron, Relypsa, and Salamandra., (Copyright © 2024 The Author. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Around half of the population of Suriname, who are mainly of African and South Asian descent, migrated to the Netherlands at the end of the previous century, where they face higher perinatal and maternal mortality and up to 5 years lower life expectancy than European-Dutch. Analyses by ancestry are needed to address these inequalities, but the law prohibits registration by ancestry. Therefore, a list of Surinamese surnames was compiled and validated to identify the largest groups, African-Surinamese or South Asian-Surinamese ancestry in health research. A complete database of Surinamese surnames was provided by the National Population Registry of Suriname. Surname recognition by researchers of Surinamese ancestry was used. Disagreement was resolved using historical registers and through discussion. The list was further validated against contemporary lists of Surinamese surnames with self-defined ancestry, obtained during population and clinical studies in Suriname and the Netherlands. All 71,529 Surinamese surnames were encoded, as African-Surinamese (34%), South Asian-Surinamese (18%), Brazilian or other Iberian (17%), Indonesian-Surinamese (13%), Chinese-Surinamese (5%), First Nation (2%), and other (10%). Compared to self-defined ancestry, South Asian-Surinamese surname coding had 100% sensitivity, 99.8% specificity, and 99.9% accuracy. For African-Surinamese, who may have Dutch surnames, these values depended on geocoding. With a known Surinamese origin, sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were, respectively, 97.3%, 100%, and 98.6%, but without this information, there was interference of African-Surinamese with European-Dutch surnames in the Dutch validation sample. In conclusion, the Surinamese Surname List has a high accuracy in identifying persons of Surinamese ancestry. This quick, inexpensive, and nonintrusive method, which is unaffected by response bias, might be a valuable tool in public health research to help address the profound health disparities by ancestry.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of Professor Walter Wahli's discovery of the PPARs (Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors) family of nuclear hormone receptors. To mark the occasion, the editors of the scientific periodical Biomolecules decided to publish a special issue in his honor. This paper summarizes what is known about PPARs and shows how trends have changed and how research on PPARs has evolved. The article also highlights the importance of PPARs and what role they play in various diseases and ailments. The paper is in a mixed form; essentially it is a review article, but it has been enriched with the results of our experiments. The selection of works was subjective, as there are more than 200,000 publications in the PubMed database alone. First, all papers done on an animal model were discarded at the outset. What remained was still far too large to describe directly. Therefore, only papers that were outstanding, groundbreaking, or simply interesting were described and briefly commented on.

Linda-Gail Bekker is a professor, chief executive officer of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, and director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her research interests include HIV treatment and prevention and tuberculosis, and she is active in developing community projects to promote education and research. We talked to Linda-Gail about her career, the importance of mentorship, and how rewarding it is to collaborate, mentor, and uplift other scientists., (© 2024 Van Emmenis.)

Background: Centenarians are considered the most successful human biological aging model. However, the characteristics and patterns of research among centenarians have not been described or analyzed. Thus, this study aimed to disclose the historical landscape of global research on centenarians., Methods: This bibliometric study investigated historical evidence on centenarian research published in the Scopus database. The bibliometrix package in R was used to perform visual and quantitative analyses of research metrics, trends, and patterns., Results: Of the 2,061 documents included between 1887 and 2023, 84.2% (n=1,736) were published as articles with primary data. We identified international collaboration and annual growth rates of 21.4% and 3.15%, respectively. The United States published the highest number of papers on centenarians (n=786), whereas the publications from Italy had the highest impact (h-index of 90). Based on the frequency of keywords, mortality, genetics, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and immunosenescence are a few of the most studied topics among centenarians, with emerging research related to mitochondrial DNA and comparison of results between nonagenarians and centenarians. Italy, the United States, and China lead the global research collaboration network, collaborating most frequently with Japan and European countries., Conclusion: Global research on centenarians has grown over the last 20 years, primarily led by Italy, the United States, and China. Latin American and African countries have conducted little or no research on centenarians. The most widely studied topics include mortality, cognition, immunosenescence, and genetics.

The concept of the Land of Not-Unhappiness refers to the potential achievement of eliminating the pathologies of the aging process. To inform of how close we are to settling in the land, we summarize and review the achievements of research on anti-aging interventions over the last hundred years with a specific focus on strategies that slow down metabolism, compensate for aging-related losses, and target a broad range of age-related diseases. We critically evaluate the existing interventions labeled as "anti-aging," such as calorie restriction, exercise, stem cell administration, and senolytics, to provide a down-to-earth evaluation of their current applicability in counteracting aging. Throughout the text, we have maintained a light tone to make it accessible to non-experts in biogerontology, and provide a broad overview for those considering conducting studies, research, or seeking to understand the scientific basis of anti-aging medicine., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Life manifests as growth, movement or heat production that occurs thanks to the energy accepted from the outside environment. The basis of energy transduction attracted the Czech researchers since the beginning of the 20th century. It further accelerated after World War II, when the new Institute of Physiology was established in 1954. When it was found that energy is stored in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that can be used by numerous reactions as energy source and is produced in the process called oxidative phosphorylation localized in mitochondria, the investigation focused on this cellular organelle. Although the Czech scientists had to overcome various obstacles including Communist party leadership, driven by curiosity, boldness, and enthusiasm, they characterized broad spectrum of mitochondrial properties in different tissues in (patho)physiological conditions in collaboration with many world-known laboratories. The current review summarizes the contribution of the Czech scientists to the bioenergetic and mitochondrial research in the global context. Keywords: Mitochondria, Bioenergetics, Chemiosmotic coupling.

In July 1992, my 24 years of studying abroad in the US as a researcher at Harvard Medical School started. During this period, I met many outstanding scholars who conducted some of the world's leading research projects. In particular, the opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Jack A. Elias, Professor and Dean Emeritus of the Faculty of Medicine at Brown University, on a project focusing on a molecule called Chitinase 3-like 1 was very helpful to my career, and eventually led to my current position as Professor in charge of international medical exchange at Kurume University School of Medicine. By strengthening the foundation of our exchange programs and actively promoting international joint research projects, I would like to raise the global name recognition of Kurume University.

Vasant Ramji Khanolkar was the first Indian pathologist and a pioneering researcher who was at the forefront of the diverse fields of cancer research, blood group genetics, epidemiology and leprosy research, etc. in the mid-twentieth century. All his cutting-edge research took place after he joined Tata Memorial Hospital, Bombay (now Mumbai), as Director of Laboratories. There is little evidence of his research in the first 17 years of his career in India, at J.J. Hospital and K.E.M. Hospital, Bombay. We tried to address this gap by attempting to obtain information on Khanolkar's papers from PubMed, prior to his having joined Tata Memorial Hospital. We evaluated the abstracts of the presentations that he made at the meetings of the Teaching Pathologists Association, Bombay. Finally, we extracted from the autopsy registers at the two hospitals, any useful information about the autopsies that he had performed. Khanolkar performed preliminary laboratory research in anaemia as well as some experimental pathology in his stint at K.E.M. Hospital. Further, surprisingly, histology was not performed on most autopsies at J.J. Hospital for the period that he was Professor, but was done at K.E.M. Hospital. Why Khanolkar was a late bloomer and did not perform much research or publish in the first two institutions that he was Professor at, remains a mystery.

Philanthropic foundations played a crucial role in rationalizating and organizing American society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The promotion of science was applied to medical reform, leading to the advent of genuine medical research within the framework of brand-new university hospital faculties. With the two world wars, the state became heavily involved in the field of healthcare. After 1945, it became the main source of funding for biomedical research. Philanthropy did not disappear from the institutional landscape; it continued to work in tandem with public authorities. Its role in medical research is now minor in terms of funding volume, but a strategic one in the development of projects aimed at advancing basic science and knowledge of various diseases., (© 2024 médecine/sciences – Inserm.)

Torben Fog was committed to multiple sclerosis (MS) research for more than four decades, starting before the defence of his thesis in 1948 and lasting until his death in 1987. His research was multi-facetted, making him one of the great pioneers in the study of essential parts of the pathology, immunology and treatment of MS. He has contributed with meticulous studies of the MS plaques, documenting the perivenous distribution of plaques in the spinal cord. He constructed a scoring system for the disability in MS and used a computer programme to calculate a total neurological deficit. Together with his co-workers, Fog in 1972 was the first to report the association between MS and the human leukocyte antigen system. Fog can be considered as the father of immunomodulatory therapy in MS, treating MS patients with the first transfer factor, and as early as 1980, he was the first to treat MS with intramuscular natural interferon., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: P. S. Sørensen has received personal compensation for consultations, serving on scientific advisory boards, steering committees, independent data-monitoring committees or have received honoraria as speaker from Merck, Novartis and TEVA. S. Bramow has received personal compensations from Biogen Denmark, Merck Denmark and Novartis Denmark for educational activities and received congress travel support from Novartis Denmark. M. Magyari has served in the scientific advisory board for Sanofi, Novartis and Merck and has received honoraria for lecturing from Biogen, Merck, Novartis, Roche, Genzyme and Bristol Myers Squibb. L. Werdelin has nothing to declare. N. Koch-Henriksen has nothing to declare. P. Vermersch has received honoraria and congress travel support from Biogen, Sanofi Genzyme, Novartis, Teva, Merck, Roche, Imcyse, AB Science, Janssen and BMS-Celgene and research supports from Novartis, Sanofi Genzyme and Merck. F. Sellebjerg has served on scientific advisory boards, served as a consultant, received support for congress participation or received speaker honoraria from Alexion, Biogen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Lundbeck, Merck, Novartis, Roche and Sanofi Genzyme. His laboratory has received research support from Biogen, Merck, Novartis, Roche and Sanofi Genzyme.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was founded in 1974 to support and conduct research on aging and the health and well-being of older adults. Fifty years ago, the concept of studying aging generated much skepticism. Early NIA-funded research findings helped establish the great value of aging research and provided the foundation for significant science advances that have improved our understanding of the aging process, diseases and conditions associated with aging, and the effects of health inequities, as well as the need to promote healthy aging lifestyles. Today, we celebrate the many important contributions to aging research made possible by NIA, as well as opportunities to continue to make meaningful progress. NIA emphasizes that the broad aging research community must continue to increase and expand our collective efforts to recruit and train a diverse next generation of aging researchers., (Published 2024. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The American Geriatrics Society.)