The malariology centenary

The year 1898 was one of the most significant years in the history of malariology. One hundred years later scientists gathered at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome, to commemorate the Malariology Centenary. This paper provides a short overview of some of the key developments and discoveries in malaria research which took place at the end of the 19th century. The major contributions of Alphonse Laveran, Patrick Manson, Ronald Ross, Battista Grassi and a number of scientists of the Italian School of Malariology to the understanding of the transmission of malaria by Anopheles mosquitoes are described. This paper also highlights the importance of an historical perspective in furthering our understanding of the 'Malaria Challenge after One Hundred Years of Malariology'.     

Chlamydia trachomatis: milestones in clinical and microbiological diagnostics in the last hundred years: a review

Chlamydia trachomatis an obligate intracellular, Gram-negative bacterium is the causative agent of several acute or chronic, local and systemic human diseases such as trachoma, oculogenital and neonatal infections. It was discovered in 1907 by Halberstaedter and von Prowazek who observed it in conjunctival scrapings from an experimentally infected orangutan. In the last hundred years the detection and study of the intracellular pathogens, including chlamydiae, passed through an enormous evolution. This memorial review is dedicated to these important research and diagnostic discoveries and to the scientists who significantly contributed to this evolution starting from the application of simple light microscopy through the cell culture technique, antibiotic susceptibility, antigen and antibody detection, serotyping, to the real-time nucleic acid amplification and restriction fragment lengths polymorphism analysis. Although the majority of these old and new excellent diagnostic methods have been introduced into the rutine practice, the trachoma has remained one of the leading causes of blindness, and oculogenital chlamydial infections still are the most frequent sexually transmitted bacterial diseases, furthermore lymphogranuloma venereum is a disease emerging in the developed countries at the beginning of the 21 st century.     

Aspirin--the first hundred years

'Take two aspirin and call me in the morning', may be an old cliché deriding the medical profession, but the story of the first 100 years of aspirin suggests that this drug may be of benefit for a far greater range of ailments than those who synthesised it 100 years ago could have imagined.     

A hundred years of gemellology

Over the past hundred years, since Sir Francis Galton first pointed out its scientific value, the study of twins has considerably widened its scope and significance. Gemellology has come to represent an important branch of human genetics and to be applied to the most diverse fields of biomedical and behavioral research, besides obviously contributing to the study of the specific biological, medical, and psychological aspects of the twin condition. More recently, then, it has in turn originated a new branch of modern genetic research, chronogenetics. Finally, sponsored and coordinated by the Mendel Institute in Rome, an International Society for Twins Studies has developed.     

The morphology of the cerebellum the last 25 years.

Advances in our knowledge of the subdivision and the development of the cerebellum during the last 25 years are reviewed. It is concluded that the longitudinal subdivision of the cerebellum has become firmly established in studies of the morphogenesis, the connections and the chemoarchitecture of the cerebellum. A complicated relationship exists between the transverse, lobular subdivision of the cerebellum and the distribution of different mossy fiber systems.