Transitions in development - an interview with Sonia Sen.

Sonia Sen is Group Leader at the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society in Bangalore, India. Her group is interested in understanding neurodevelopment and behaviour in Drosophila and Anopheles. We spoke to Sonia over a video call to talk about her research career, her transition to becoming a group leader, and the work that the Indian Society of Developmental Biologists is doing.

The people behind the papers - Paul Huber and Carole LaBonne.

The bromodomain and extra-terminal (BET) family of proteins reads epigenetic histone acetylation marks on the genome and regulates the transcriptional machinery. In their study, Carole LaBonne and colleagues reveal the role of BET protein activity in the maintenance of pluripotency and establishment of the neural crest in Xenopus laevis. To know more about their work, we spoke to the first author Paul Huber and the corresponding author Carole LaBonne, Developmental and Stem Cell Biologist at Northwestern University.

History of biological, mechanistic, and clinical understanding of concussion.

The history behind the biological, mechanistic, and clinical insights into concussion provides awareness of the current understanding and future areas for study. Although the initial description of concussion appeared in the 10th century, the potential long-term structural consequences were first defined by Harrison Martland, M.D., who performed a postmortem study of former boxers in 1928. He found evidence of perivascular microhemorrhage that he believed eventually evolved into a "replacement gliosis" underlying a clinical syndrome that he named "punch drunk," which was characterized by acute confusion with chronic cognitive and physical symptoms developing in those with prolonged exposure. Further research into the potential long-term consequences of repetitive concussions, particularly in athletics and the military, led to an understanding of chronic traumatic encephalopathy. To ameliorate possible long-term risks, research has been focused on preventative and therapeutic measures for concussion. In this review article, the authors present the history of concussion and the long-term sequelae of repeated head injury. Specifically, they consider how the understanding of concussion has evolved from antiquity into the modern era, and how this change in understanding of head injury has led to an appreciation of the fact that its long-term implications sometimes manifest as the clinical and histopathological entity of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

The history and potential future of monoclonal antibody therapeutics development and manufacturing in four eras.

Therapeutic monoclonal antibody (mAb) development and the processes for manufacturing drug substance have evolved since the first approval of the mAb in 1986. As the past is often the prologue to the future, the history of these technologies has been classified here into three eras, leading to speculation about what the next era may hold with regard to development and manufacturing strategies, as well as the potential impacts to patients. The substantial increase in production culture titers and bioreactor production volumes and the availability of large-scale contract manufacturing facilities could translate into improved global access for these therapies and an expansion of indications for therapeutic antibodies.

Freud in Bulgaria: Psychoanalysis, Literature, Translation: An Experience with the Singular.

This contribution considers a monthly seminar, Literature and Psychoanalysis, that has been taking place at Sofia University (Sofia, Bulgaria) since 2017. Three of the seminar's founders reflect on the transferences between literature and psychoanalysis, and on the ways in which literature and psychoanalysis can meaningfully converse. The exchange also touches on the fate of Freud's textual legacy in communist and post-communist Bulgaria.

Transacting in Objectification: Racism, Psychoanalysis, and the Temptations of Empiricism.

This article examines five contributions published in the early volumes (1913-1917) of The Psychoanalytic Review, written by John E. Lind and Arrah B. Evarts. It reflects on how they address the topic of race and its relation to psychoanalytic theory, highlighting the ways of purported neutrality of empirical research and how it serves a fantasy through which racism is enacted and sustained.

Wondering and Wandering: In Defense of Free Association and the Fundamental Rule.

"Free association" and the "fundamental rule" are bedrock for psychoanalytic therapy and apply to what both patient and analyst should experience in the process. The article traces Sigmund Freud's revolutionary recognition of the importance of free association that began with his tribute to the works of Ludwig Börne and Friedrich Schiller. The author invokes other proposals akin to free association made by artists and scientists, including John Keats, Charles Dickens, Robert Frost, Thomas S. Kuhn, Arthur Koestler, and Albert Einstein. While emphasizing the importance and the liberatory potential of free association as it relates to effective treatment and discovery, the author contends that there is a "moral press" for both the patient and the analyst to permit free associative thoughts, particularly to question assumptions about how things are supposed to be.

Samuel Kenneth Henry McClean.

An excellent veterinary surgeon and a great colleague; his sharply observed humour and deep empathy were much appreciated by staff and pet owners. He enjoyed playing music and singing, and was a serious runner.

Liora Waldman.

A practising veterinary dermatologist, she shared her knowledge and expertise widely.

A REVIEW TO HONOR THE HISTORICAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF PAULINE GROSS, ALDRED WARTHIN, AND HENRY LYNCH IN THE DESCRIPTION AND RECOGNITION OF INHERITANCE IN COLORECTAL CANCER.

The present manuscript aimed to review the historical development and most important contributions regarding Lynch Syndrome since its first description, more than a century ago. In 1895, a reputed pathologist from Michigan University, Dr. Aldred Scott Warthin, got intrigued by the family history of a local seamstress called Pauline Gross. According to her prevision, she would present an early death due to cancer, which actually happened (from the uterus). Historically, her family was designated "Family G", comprising a group recognized as the longest and most detailed cancer genealogy that has ever been studied. Warthin concluded that its members had genetic susceptibility for cancer, and they are, nowadays, considered the first reported Lynch Syndrome family. At that time, however, the medical cancer community was far less receptive to the association between heredity and cancer, despite the description of other families with similar heredograms. Unfortunately, this historical fact remained somewhat dormant until another investigator inaugurated a new era in the understanding of family cancer clusters. After reports and studies from this family and many others, the condition initially called Cancer Family Syndrome was changed to the eponym Lynch Syndrome. This was a recognition of the extensive and dedicated work developed by Dr. Henry Lynch in describing various characteristics of the disease, and his efforts to establish the correct recommendations for its diagnosis and treatment. Although the future announces there is still far to go for a complete understanding of Lynch Syndrome, the remarkable contributions of Pauline's intuition, Warthin's perseverance, and Lynch's work consistency must never be forgotten by those who already have or will still benefit from this knowledge.

Fabricating the Black Psyche: Saint Elizabeths Hospital and The Psychoanalytic Review.

Between 1913 and 1917, The Psychoanalytic Review published several studies that argued for a distinct Black psyche. They were edited by the journal's co-founder, William Alanson White, and conducted by the staff at Saint Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, DC, where White served as superintendent. This article provides a brief historical context for better understanding of why and how The Review paid attention to the comparative study of race.

Campbell's 1953 Book on "Manic-Depressive Disease": A Counter-Factual History of the DSM Symptomatic "A Criteria" for Major Depression.

ABSTRACT: The DSM-III symptomatic criteria for major depression (MD) were derived from those proposed by Feighner and colleagues in 1972, which closely resembled those published by Cassidy in 1957. I here present a counter-factual history in which Feighner carefully read a key reference in Cassidy, a large 1953 follow-up study by Campbell of depressed patients with detailed tables of depressive signs and symptoms. In this alternative timeline, the Feighner criteria for MD were modified by Campbell's results, which then changed DSM-III and subsequent MD criteria sets. The historical pathway to the current DSM MD criteria was contingent on a range of historical events and could easily have been different. This story is not meant to criticize DSM MD criteria that perform well. Rather, it suggests that these criteria represent a useful but fallible set of symptoms/signs that index but do not constitute MD and therefore are not to be reified.

Andrea L. Graham.

Interview with Andrea Graham, who studies the ecological and evolutionary causes of immunological heterogeneity in mammals at Princeton University.