HE MICROSCOPE OF TIME: A LESSON WE MUST KNOW!

Medical university and histology department started together in Timisoara because the first dean of the university, professor Serban Bratianu, was also the first head of the histology department. Today, after 72 years, this history repeats itself:the medical school in Timisoara is led by a histologist too! The work with students and research came together in our department, professor Bratianu having several contacts with famous scientists from outside, especially with those of french medical school. Professor Bratianu spent a lot of time in the research labs from Paris and Strasboug and was quickly adopted by french people who named him „Bratiano”. With this name he is still found in all electronic historical archives. More than 10 articles of professor Bratianu are mentioned on PubMed, unfortunately not those from period spent in Timisoara. Some ideas of professor Bratianu as immunity in cancer or viral involvement in carcinogenesis are considered nowadays as revolutionary topics in the field. Life forced professor Bratianu to move to Iassy and histology was really “governed” by women who were mainly focused on teaching except professor Maria Dragan who, somehow, revigorated research which continues today. Slowly, present histology in Timisoara turns to become more than a preclinical subject being focused on multidsciplinary approach of normal and tumor tissues from microscopic to molecular level. Angiogenesis Research Center and Lab of Molecular Pathology are two of the newest part of histology in Timisoara organized by the present head of the histology department. Also,the volunteering program VADA helps us to find as soon as possible students who teach students and who are interested to continue their future career in academic and research fields. Beyond appearances, each member of the histology department hides some funny life stories, most of them related to their way through histology or their extracurricular activities. Together with the serious part of it, histology from Timisoara will be described here as being scenic and full color histology beyond the lens of the microscope!