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A “churrascaria” of Brazilian science and biomedicine: The Anatomical Record offers a sampling from the hearty table of South America's giant in a Special Issue

2021; Wiley; Volume: 304; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/ar.24635

1932-8494

Jeffrey T. Laitman, Kurt H. Albertine,

Dermatoglyphics and Human Traits

One day, the hated shroud of the Covid-19 pandemic that still afflicts us all will be lifted. The sweet noise of children clamoring en route to their classrooms will again be heard, fans will cheer once more at Yankee stadium as the great team destroys its inferior rivals, Utah's incomparable parks will be populated by hearty climbers slipping and sliding up and down the Wasatch, and we will all enjoy once again the warmth and mask-less smiles of our loved ones. When the new "liberty bell" rings, and the virus recedes, we will also be able to travel freely, to resume what to so many of us is a major part of the human story: exploring our world. And when that glorious time again appears, we have a suggestion of where to visit, if you have not been: the incomparable land known as Brazil. For those that do not know the other giant of the Americas, Brazil is a land unlike any other. A word that comes to mind in describing it is "massive." From the seemingly never-ending Amazonian rain forest (inhabited by many species not yet identified, as well as those nasty fish that will eat you if you fall in the water!) to cities that range from those unmatched in natural beauty (life is not complete if you have not danced along the beaches in Rio de Janeiro) to those so great in population that many skyscrapers have helicopter pads at their tops so residents can move about (São Paulo, or "Sampa" to those of us that know and love her, is a city of near 13 million, over 4.5 million greater than New York!). And the food! Think grapes the size of your fist, chocolate that would make a Belgian or Swiss chocolatier envious, or never-ending dessert pizzas (most with incomparable chocolate, of course). Oh, and the piece de resistance are the unrivaled dens of cholesterol denigration known as Churrascarias in which a seemingly never-ending parade of churrascos (mixed grills) are offered (J.L.'s favorite was grilled capybara, the world's largest rodent!). While the beauty of the land and the abundance of the table is special, so too are Brazil's main resource, its people, and through them, its richness in science and biomedicine. Brazilians have, however, had a disadvantage in their reportage and advancement of their science to much of the non-Brazilian, especially anglophone, world. This has to do with the fact that Brazilians speak and write Portuguese, and as beautiful and melodic as that language is, it is alien to most who do not converse or communicate in it regularly. While being one of the Romance languages, Portuguese, is considerably different from the other sister tongues, so much so that while root similarities can allow some familiarities, inter-language communication is often difficult. Such differences reflect the extraordinary history of languages morphing and changing on the Iberian Peninsula subsequent to the region being the large Roman province of Hispania. Invasions of the region by groups ranging from the Visigoths in the early 5th century, the North African Moors and the Umayyad conquest in the early 8th century creating the Al-Andalus, to the eventual Christian reconquest and control of the peninsula by 1492, all brought change and richness to regional languages. Eventually, the distinctiveness of Portuguese and Castilian-dominated Spanish emerged. In the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, the "New World" as well was divided into Spanish and Portuguese dominated cohorts and the region of the brazilwood trees, or pau-brasil, came to be, forever to speak Portuguese. This very Special Issue of The Anatomical Record, "Building Bridges: Anatomical Sciences and Medical Education in Brazil," is Guest Edited by Daniella Curcio of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York (Curcio, 2021, this issue). The issue is at once both an homage to much of the fine science emanating from Brazil and an opportunity for non-Portuguese-speaking members of our scientific and biomedical community to become more familiar with the depth of Brazilian exploration. Many of the manuscripts in the issue emanate from a Symposium in December of 2019 entitled "Building Bridges Back-to-Back," organized by Drs. Curcio and Jeffrey Laitman and held at Mount Sinai. The Symposium was supported in part by The Anatomical Record and the Center for Anatomy and Functional Morphology of The Icahn School of Medicine. To this initial collection were added a number of manuscripts by Brazilian scientists already submitted to The Anatomical Record that covered other exciting topics in comparative and evolutionary anatomy in order to show more fully the robustness of current Brazilian science. As is our custom, we will say a few (embarrassing!) words about our Guest Editor. Dani—we know her too well to use academic formalities—is a classic "Brazilian" force of nature: creative (take a look at this issue's cover!), energetic, always thinking "out-of-the-box," and overflowing with thoughtfulness and kindness, all blended with a laser-sharp focus on her science. She also is extraordinary in the number of people she seems to know and how they love working with her. A small vignette. A few years back while J.L. and Dani were in São Paulo as part of the "Building Bridges" Initiative (see Curcio & Laitman, 2021, this issue), they went to famed Rua Oscar Freire (Oscar Freire Street; named after Oscar Freire de Caravalho, a physician who helped develop the city's first morgue) in the beautiful Jardins District in São Paulo (this street has been named as the 8th most luxurious shopping street in the world!). They went to buy a special gift for J.L.'s new granddaughter at the quintessential Brazilian jeweler, H. Stern. Upon entry, they were met by an elegant associate, then seated, and served the usual powerful Brazilian coffee, cakes, and, of course, chocolates. Soon Dani and the associate started talking. They became animated. More animated. Soon, looking at each other's iPhones. Then much hugging occurred. (J.L. was busy with the cakes and chocolates). Eventually, Dani turned to J.L. and excitedly said, "We're cousins! We haven't seen each other for years!" They went back to talking while J.L. went back to the chocolates. (J.L. did purchase an exquisite gift—and received a remarkably good price!—for his new granddaughter). As J.L. would learn, this was not a unique encounter while accompanying Dani around Brazil; she seems to know almost everyone! Dani's familiarity with Brazilians and Brazilian scientists (she received her Bachelor's degree and certificate in Speech and Language Pathology at University of São Paulo School of Medicine; Specialization in Voice Science at the famous Center for Voice Studies under Mara Behlau; MSc and PhD at the Federal University of São Paulo-Paulista School of Medicine under Ricardo Smith; and was a faculty member at the Santa Casa School of Medicine in the Department of Morphology Chaired by Mirna Barros) has served her well in recruiting her colleagues to bring their efforts and work to our journal. Indeed, this Special Issue is replete not only with some excellent science but with extraordinary scientists, including the recent Minister of Health of Brazil, three members of the Brazilian National Academy of Medicine (Academia Nacional de Medicina), and two past Presidents of the Brazilian Society of Anatomy (Sociedade Brasileira de Anatomia, BSA), among other fine senior and junior scientists from throughout Brazil. As we say in J.L.'s hometown of Brooklyn and K.A.'s Jersey birthplace, "them's not chopped liver!" While this Special Issue highlights some of the extraordinary insights from current Brazilian science and biomedicine, The Anatomical Record has long been a welcoming home for reportage from South America's giant. While there have been many that have published with us, we will mention but a few to give a little taste of those that have graced our pages. The first report from Brazil appearing in The Anatomical Record was in 1917 (just 11 years after the journal started in 1906) by J. Moreira Da Rocha on "Staining of adult cartilage by Lundwall's methods." What is significant about this is that Moreira Da Rocha was in the laboratory of arguably the most well-known of Brazilian anatomists, Professor Alfonso Bovero, and was essentially reviewing his mentor's prior work. Bovero was the founding Chair of Anatomy and Histology at the University of São Paulo Medical School, one of the premier medical universities in Brazil (the beautiful campus of the original hospital and school is a must see for any biomedical scientist visiting Brazil). Bovero's influence in Brazil, and upon Brazilian science, was enormous and it is likely that he was seeking to spread its recognition by having his laboratory's work published in the relatively new "American" journal rather than in a European anatomical journal as had traditionally been the site for publications. Respect for Bovero and his influence is still ubiquitous in Brazil today, and he is remembered by awards and venues named in his honor (indeed, the Brazilian Society of Anatomy's "Alfonso Bovero" Award to recognize outstanding contributions to medical education was awarded to J.L. in 2010; told you Brazilians are nice!). Few manuscripts from Brazil found their way to The Anatomical Record in the decades that followed, but the 1960's saw some well-known scientists find our pages. Noteworthy among these was another star in the Brazilian firmament, Professor Libertato J.A. DiDio. DiDio published two papers in The Anatomical Record in the early 1960s, one assessing variation of the morphology of the gastric veins in cadavers (DiDio, 1961) and a second, a study of the choledochoduodenal junction in the horse in collaboration with the great American anatomist Edwin Allen Boyden (Didio & Boyden, 1961). DiDio, as with Bovero, was both a towering figure in the world of Brazilian biomedicine and an internationally respected scholar. Indeed, he was a frequent attendee at the annual meeting of the American Association of Anatomists where many of us had the pleasure of interacting with, and learning from, him. DiDio was a native Paulistano who distinguished himself academically from grade school onwards, culminating with his graduating with the highest honors from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo. His career took him around the globe, working in labs and training from Italy to the halls of Harvard Medical School. He became the Founding Chair of the Department of Topographical Anatomy, Faculty of Medical Sciences in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, and later migrated to the United States where he was the founding Chair of Anatomy at the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo. DiDio's co-author in the 1962 paper, E.A. Boyden, was equally as revered as was DiDio and deserves special note. Boyden was a dominant figure in early to mid-century anatomy, being known for his excellent and comprehensive studies on the gallbladder and its ductal systems and on the lungs, particularly its bronchopulmonary segmentations. Boyden also had deep ties to The Anatomical Record, being its "Managing Editor" (the then equivalent of "Editor-in-Chief") from 1928–1948, President of the AAA in 1956–1957, and the first recipient of the AAA's prestigious Henry Gray Award in 1970. He was extraordinary, and died while working in his lab at the age of 90! (see Ladman & Everett, 1976, for detail of his legacy). Quite an honor to have two of the 20th century anatomical titans publish together in our journal! With apologies to those not mentioned, a few others of particular note will be highlighted. Jumping ahead from the 20th century to our own, we note the work of Valeria Paula Sassoli Fazan of the University of São Paulo, Ribeiro Preto, a city some 200 miles outside the city of São Paulo. Fazan is a noted experimental neurobiologist who is well-known to many in our anatomy family as she regularly brings an energetic gaggle of her students and colleagues to the AAA annual meetings. Publications by Fazan in our journal have included her work in assessment of renal innervation in mice (Fazan, Ma, Chapleau, & Barreira, 2002) and studies of the phrenic nerve in rats (Fazan, Rodrigues Filho, Jordao, & Moore, 2010). Fazan is also the first Brazilian to serve as an Associate Editor of The Anatomical Record, serving with us in that role in 2016 and 2017. She also hosted an Anatomical Record sponsored visit by Drs. Curcio and Laitman to her city and university as part of the "Building Bridges" Initiative in 2015 (see Curcio & Laitman, 2021, this volume). Last, but far from least, we acknowledge the work of Maria Julia Marques from the Department of Structural and Functional Biology at the University of Campinas, commonly called Unicamp, in the State of São Paulo. Marques is a "frequent flyer" in The Anatomical Record, regularly publishing her most well-respected experimental studies in muscle and neuro-biology, particularly as it relates to neuromuscular junctions in diseased animals, including having a contribution in this Special Issue (Maciel Junior, de Carvalho, Saenz Suarez, Neto, & Marques, 2021, this issue). Studies by Marques and her team include studies on: receptors and nerve terminal distribution at neuromuscular junction of diabetic mice (Marques & Neto, 2002); calcitonin gene-related peptides at the neuromuscular junction of MDX Mice (Marques, Guimaraes, & Neto, 2004); acetylcholine receptor organization at dystrophic neuromuscular junction of MDX mice (Marques, Taniguti, Minatel, & Neto, 2007); dystrophic extraocular neuromuscular junctions (Marques, Pertille, Carvalho, & Neto, 2007); and on fiber type composition in sternomastoid and diaphragm muscles of dystrophin-deficient mice (Marques, Minatel, Guido, Campos, & Neto, 2010); among others. We have greatly appreciated her laboratory's frequent publications. We are drafting this editorial on February 12, and cannot help but notice that it is the shared birthday of two of history's greatest souls: Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, both born on the date in 1809. Different in so many ways—Lincoln, born in a humble log cabin whose realm was guiding a war-torn nation; and Darwin, raised in great comfort whose theater was looking for the hidden truths of nature—both shared and transmitted very similar global messages through the span of time. The lasting message from both was that be it in healing a divided nation or understanding the communality of living forms, what is needed is the sacredness of openness and communication to reach our goals. Lincoln and Darwin were bridge-builders, uniting people through ideas, be they of social imperatives or of science. That is the shared message we should always try and hear. This Special Issue honoring Brazilian science, its scientists, and biomedical educators, follows the same clarion call to always build and maintain bridges among both ideas of social justice and of science. We are proud that The Anatomical Record can serve as the home for this most valued collection of science and educational insights from our brethren from Brazil. Hopefully, this will further strengthen the collaborations so needed in our troubled world. May our bridges of communication always remain open and strong! Tres amigos at the American Association for Anatomy Meeting in Orlando, 2019. Guest Editor Daniella Curcio (center) with Kurt Albertine to her left and Jeff Laitman to her right.