Editorial: The Origin of The Special Issue

Anthony R. Means, Editor-in-Chief

The calendar year 1997 marks two events that are of considerable importance to the emergence of the Endocrine Society as the champion of the use of molecular approaches to elucidate mechanisms fundamental to the study of endocrinology. In chronological order these events are: 1) the first 60 yr in the life of a remarkable endocrinologist, Bert W. O’Malley, M.D.; and 2) the tenth anniversary of the appearance of this journal, Molecular Endocrinology. As these two events are intimately intertwined, it was decided by The Endocrine Society to highlight them by the publication of this Special Issue of the journal. The goal of this editorial is to explain why the events are so closely related.

Bert began his illustrious career as a molecular endocrinologist in the Endocrinology Branch of the National Cancer Institute. At the time Bert joined the group as a Clinical Associate in 1965, the Branch Chief was the late Mortimer Lipsett. The Branch also contained such eminent endocrinologists as the late Griff T. Ross, William D. Odell, Stanley Korenman, Charles Strott, C. Wayne Bardin, and Peter O. Kohler. It was soon to gain the services of the late William L. McGuire and, in 1968, I too arrived to spend some time in the Branch. Bert developed a keen interest in understanding how estrogen and progesterone controlled the female reproductive system. At a time when little information was known, particularly relative to progesterone, he wanted to elucidate the molecular details of how these sex steroids worked. He and his colleagues, Stan Korenman, Pete Kohler, and Bill McGuire, began to exploit the chicken oviduct as a model in which to study the cellular and molecular consequences of estrogen and progesterone action. The early observations were informative, and the approaches used were extremely innovative. This statement is aptly demonstrated by the emergence of the chick oviduct as the preferred model system in which to study the actions of the female sex steroids, and by the fact that this system sparked the interest of several prominent scientists who had previously established reputations as molecular biologists, but who had never undertaken work on hormone action. These individuals were to make important advances in the understanding of the molecular actions of the sex steroids, although none of them ever identified himself as an endocrinologist.

Bert has always considered himself to be an endocrinologist, and very early in his career embraced The Endocrine Society as his primary societal home. While still at the National Institutes of Health, he began to discuss how important it was for endocrinologists to adopt and appreciate the value of molecular biological technology. Always interested in pursuing change, Bert decided to move from the NIH to Vanderbilt in 1969. The mission was to establish a "Reproductive Biology Center" that would initially be housed within space provided by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology but whose faculty would comprise individuals who had primary appointments in a variety of medical center departments. Bert, who has always been persuasive, convinced Charlie Strott, David Toft, Tom Spelsberg, Frank Chytil, and myself to join this enterprise, which was dedicated to understanding the molecular mechanism of action of hormones that impacted reproductive processes. The group also included three then-current members of the Obstetrics-Gynecology Department, Marie-Claire Orgebin-Crist, the late Pierre Soupart, and Stanley R. Glasser. Two of the first postdoctoral fellows to join Bert at Vanderbilt were Bill Schrader and Jeff Rosen. Bert urged us all to join The Endocrine Society and convinced us that it was important to introduce the concept of "Hormone Action" into the publications and annual meeting programs of the Society.

In the summer of 1969, the first Gordon Research Conference on Hormone Action was held. The program was assembled by James Florini and was a resounding success. This was a meeting attended by several of us in the Vanderbilt group, and Bert was a plenary speaker. When the call for abstracts for presentation at the 1970 Endocrine Society meeting to be held in St. Louis was made, Bert, possibly due to the success of the Gordon Conference, suggested that several of us should submit abstracts and that we should list Hormone Action as the topic for a platform session. Five of us did as asked and the result was the first ever Hormone Action session at an Endocrine Society annual meeting. The session schedule is reprinted below and, as will be seen, five of the eight presentations were from members of the Vanderbilt group (Bert, Bill Schrader, Stan Glasser, Frank Chytil, and myself).

Although the idea of devoting sessions at the annual meeting to hormone action in general and molecular hormone action specifically was slow to be embraced by the membership, all meetings held subsequent to 1970 have included such sessions. It is remarkable how many papers on molecular endocrinology are now presented at the annual meeting. Just to cite one example, of all the abstracts presented for poster presentation at the 1997 meeting, almost 30% dealt with transcriptional control, and the majority of those had something to do with a member of the steroid hormone superfamily of transcriptional regulators. Thus, the area of molecular endocrinology now occupies a significant proportion of the presentations at the annual meeting and of the papers published in the Society’s journals.

Endocrinology had long been the most highly cited endocrine-related journal in the world when Bert led the effort to introduce the Society to molecular endocrinology. It was a favored journal in which to publish all science dealing with endocrinology. However, it was not read by the molecular biologists and, consequently, our society members who worked in molecular areas tended to publish in other journals. This development annoyed Bert because he felt that the Society publications should reflect the interests of all its members. As early as 1973, the year we made the move from Vanderbilt to Baylor College of Medicine, Bert began to discuss the merits of launching a new journal sponsored by The Endocrine Society — one that dealt exclusively with molecular mechanistic approaches to the study of hormone action. The opportunity to act on his convictions arose in 1984 when Bert was elected President of The Endocrine Society. I served on the Council and watched with admiration as Bert began to stump for a new journal during his year as President-elect. It became clear that during his year as President (1985), Bert was going to make establishing a new journal one of his primary goals.

Although it may seem hard to believe now, in 1985 there was more than a little reluctance among the leadership of the Society to embrace Bert’s idea. Both the Chair of the Finance Committee and the Chair of the Publications Committee predicted that to launch a new journal would bring financial ruin to the Society and lead to the destruction of Endocrinology, respectively. A number of members of the Council were not convinced that such a venture was in the best interest of the Society. Therefore, Bert initiated a campaign to convince the doubters of the merits of a new journal. One of the tools used effectively was a poll of those Society members who were molecular endocrinologists but did not publish many of their papers in Endocrinology. These 250 members were unanimously enthusiastic about the possibility of beginning a new journal, and several volunteered to serve on the Editorial Board should the decision be a positive one. Bert used his considerable persuasive powers to soothe the naysayers and, in the end, won the day. In fact, by the time a Council vote was taken, virtually every member of the committee, plus the two Chairs mentioned above, were convinced that beginning the new journal was the right thing to do.

The rest, as they say, is history. The first issue of Molecular Endocrinology appeared in January, 1987, under the able leadership of the first Editor-in-Chief, Brad Thompson. He did a remarkable job in assembling a top-flight Editorial Board and encouraged its members to support the fledgling journal with their papers as well as their editorial skills. Brad had the good fortune and foresight to hire Pam Diamond as the Managing Editor of the new journal. It is an understatement to say that Pam had a major positive influence on the formative years of Molecular Endocrinology. She served as a mother to the Editors and a savvy spokesperson for the journal. Few potential authors or reviewers could turn down a request from Pam. Her enthusiasm and passion for the journal were infectious. By the time one was ending a phone conversation with Pam, one was frequently thanking her for the opportunity to do the task that she had called to ask one to do! With this kind of leadership, it is no surprise that Molecular Endocrinology continued to increase in quality and reputation during the 6 yr that it was edited in Galveston.

Molecular Endocrinology is now the most highly cited endocrine-related journal that publishes primary data papers and one of the most highly cited among all peer-reviewed journals that publish basic biomedical science. The latest ISI Citation Index shows an impact factor of 7.3. To put this number into perspective, it compares favorably with that of the two journals with which we compete most fiercely for papers. The Journal of Biological Chemistry also has an impact factor of 7.3 and Molecular and Cellular Biology has an impact factor of 10.5. Both of these journals have been around for much longer than has Molecular Endocrinology. Not bad in 10 yr and I can imagine that the impact and prestige of our journal will only get better as more of you send your top papers to be considered for publication.

As I mentioned at the outset, this Special Issue is special for two reasons. First, it is intended to highlight the 10th anniversary of the journal. Second, it is to honor, on the occasion of Bert O’Malley’s 60th birthday, the vision which led to the creation of Molecular Endocrinology. This issue is in addition to, rather than instead of, the regular June publication. We have chosen to publish as an extra issue because all the articles are solicited peer-reviewed papers from scientists who were either trained by or worked closely with Bert over the past 28 yr. It begins with a contribution from Bert, which is followed by a paper from Bert O’Malley Jr., who is now a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The third paper is from one of Bert’s first fellows at the NIH, Michael G. (Goeff) Rosenfeld, one of Bert’s "scientific sons." The fourth paper is by Chris Glass, who trained with Goeff, and so can be considered as one of Bert’s "scientific grandsons"! I think that all would agree that this is a truly remarkable scientific lineage. Kate Horwitz is next. Although not trained by Bert, Kate has collaborated with him and was trained by one of Bert’s closest personal friends and colleagues, the late Bill McGuire. Since Bill was a Clinical Associate in the same Section of Molecular Biology of the Endocrine Branch of which Bert was the Head, I guess this makes Kate qualify as a "scientific granddaughter"! The next three papers come from independent scientists who were (or are) faculty members in the Department of Cell Biology at Baylor College of Medicine and worked closely with Bert for a number of years each. The papers are from the laboratories of Mariel Birnbaumer, Ming Tsai, and myself. Former graduate student contributions are represented by papers from P. Michael Conn and Donald McDonnell. The remainder of the contributions come from former postdoctoral fellows who trained with Bert between 1970 and 1991. All of the former students and postdoctoral fellows have become leaders in their scientific fields. Remarkably, several former trainees no longer work on steroid hormone action. Therefore, this issue contains papers on a wide variety of subjects that are relevant to our new and broadened definition of molecular endocrinology.

From a personal perspective, I am honored to have had the opportunity to participate in the birth and editorial activities of Molecular Endocrinology. Over the years I have served in an editorial capacity for a number of journals in a number of disciplines. I can honestly state that the authors, reviewers, editors, and office personnel with whom I have worked for Molecular Endocrinology are without peer. We should all be proud of this journal and thankful to Bert for the vision and efforts that led to its existence. The number of subscribers continues to grow each year, and I am certain that John Nilson will introduce new innovations that will continue to increase the visibility of Molecular Endocrinology during his term as Editor-in-Chief. I hope that you enjoy reading this issue as much as I have enjoyed soliciting and editing the articles.


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