Postgenomic histochemistry

In my editorial covering the year 2001, I drew attention to «the torrency of information pouring out of the multiorganizational genome sequence projects into the field of active biological research». On that occasion I also expressed the opinion that this enormous quantity of data coming from genomics and proteomics had to be elaborated by resorting even to new models of cell activity, as for instance, models based on the role of transcripts. The data from this postgenomic biology have to be compared, however, with the qualitative and quantitative data emerging today from the histochemical literature obtained from a variety of models and from the complexity of integrated morphological, submorphological, enzymo- or immunohistochemical in situ biological approaches which are the mainstays of the important refluorishing of the new histochemistry that our Journal has always supported. The objectives of this science are the molecular foundations of the function of the cell organelles, the coordinations among the different organelle activities in a cell, the rhythm of life of different cell populations and their correlation with different tissutal and extratissutal specialisations in humans, mammals, vertebrates, invertebrates and plants and finally bacteria and viruses during development under normal and pathological conditions (see Manfredi Romanini, 2002).