Patient advocacy organizations partner genetic research, and forge the agenda

Abstract

At its early stages, just about half a century ago, connective tissue research was considered dull and unimaginative. This perception was based on the view that extracellular matrix components, such as collagen, serve primarily in a structural role and are metabolically inert. Over the past few decades, this view has radically changed with advances in connective tissue research. This is well attested to by several recent conferences and symposia, as exemplified by the first Symposium of the International Society for Matrix Biology, held in June 2000, at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Through these conferences, connective tissue research has emerged as a vibrant and dynamic field that benefits from cross-fertilization of ideas and technologies within molecular, cellular and structural biology and expands to molecular genetics and clinical medicine. There is no doubt that connective tissue research has finally come of age.