[The future of the Japan Endocrine Society].

Abstract

The Japan Endocrine Society as it ought to be is discussed. 1. Paradigms of endocrine research. The recent rapid progress of molecular biology brought about breakthroughs in endocrine research. The cloning of hormone cDNA, as well as their receptors, enables us to study the mechanisms of intracellular signal transduction in detail. Genomic DNA might be considered the basic structure of a signal transduction system (endocrine system). In other words, endocrine research at present is performed by a paradigm that reduces components of a system in its minimum elements-genomic DNAs. It might, however, be naive of endocrinologists to believe that they can completely understand the endocrine phenomena merely by analyzing the minimum elements of the system (DNA). It might be necessary to reconstruct the systems from minimum elements to the system of the whole body. 2. What the Japan Endocrine Society should be. The Japan Endocrine Society should be reorganized in order to meet with the rapid progress of science. The board of regents of the Japan Endocrine Society appointed a committee in 1993 to discuss the society as it ought to be. The board of regents has decided as follows. 1) The autumn meeting of the society will be abolished in 1998. 2) In place of the autumn meeting, meetings of related societies (such as the thyroid branch of the society and the neuroendocrine branch of the society) will be held in the autumn.