Eighth ISABS Conference on Forensic, Anthropologic and Medical Genetics and Mayo Clinic Lectures on Translational Medicine, Split, Croatia, June 24-28, 2013

This issue of the Croatian Medical Journal is the ninth special issue over the past sixteen years containing articles prepared for the biennial conferences of the International Society for Applied Biological Sciences (Zagreb). Sustaining the conferences in the face of adverse economic situation in Croatia is an accomplishment that invites citing statistics: the number of speakers, topics, attendees, and their home countries, and so on. We have certainly been guilty of this in the past, but now it may be more appropriate to “see the back” and assess what ISABS, through the past conferences and other activities has accomplished for the advancement of applied genetics and experimental medicine in Croatia and beyond