The Genesis of American Investigative Dermatology from its Roots in Europe

QUIVI SI VIVE E GODE DEL TESORO CHE S’ACQUISTÒ PIANGENDO NELLO ESSILIO…Dantè Alighieri (1265–1321)Commedia, Par. XXIII: 133 (There they live and enjoy the treasure, in exile won in tears,…)During a century of development of investigative dermatology (1880s–1980s), the center of gravity in the field has moved west, from Europe to North America.The foundation of the American Dermatological Association, the discipline’s oldest national society, has foreshadowed this development. The foundation of the Society for Investigative Dermatology (and also of the American Academy of Dermatology), have marked the height of this shift.The foundation of the European Society for Dermatological Research and its participation in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, as a junior partner, concludes this process, and at the same time, illustrates the change that has taken place.The following article attempts to outline some of the pathways along which this shift has occurred, as seen from a central European perspective. J Invest Dermatol 92:14S–21S, 198