Conversations With Pavao Vuk-Pavlović

Premda zanemaren u doba jugoslavenskog komunističkog režima, od hrvatske nezavisnosti zanimanje za život i djelo filozofa Pavla Vuk-Pavlovića (1894 – 1976) ne posustaje. Pisac se prisjeća razgovora sa svojim ocem o ljudima i događajima važnima za očev život i stvaralaštvo. Međunarodnim uspjesima između dva svjetska rata i dopisnom članstvu Jugoslavenske akademije znanosti i umjetnosti u dobi od 34 godine unatoč, Vuk-Pavlovićeva karijera se na Sveučilištu u Zagrebu nije odmakla od zvanja docenta. Nezavisna Država Hrvatska ga je prisilnom mirovinom uklonila sa Sveučilišta i poništila njegovo članstvo u Akademiji. Po svršetku Drugog svjetskog rata vraćen je na Sveučilište, ali ne i u članstvo Akademije. Zbog nasilnog zahtjeva komunističkih studenata da predaje samo marksizam, Vuk-Pavlović odlazi sa Sveučilišta g. 1947. Među javno nepoznatim činjenicama iz Vuk-Pavlovićeva života, članak iznosi njegov stav o svojem židovskom nasljeđu, spor s lijevo usmjerenim piscem i intelektualcem Miroslavom Krležom, stav o Hrvatskom proljeću g. 1971. i zadnje osobno i stvaralački uspješne godine u Makedoniji. Načelo Vuk-Pavlovićeva života bio je stav da vlastitim životom mora potvrđivati vrijednost svoje filozofije.While Pavao Vuk-Pavlović (1894 – 1976) had been overlooked during the Yugoslav Communist regime, the interest in his life and philosophy has remained steadfast since Croatian independence. The author recounts dialogues with his father about people and events that significantly impacted his father’s life and creative pursuits. Despite achieving international success between the two World Wars and being elected a corresponding member of the Yugoslav Academy of Science and Arts at the age of 34, his career at the University of Zagreb stalled at the rank of assistant professor. The Axis-affiliated regime during World War II removed him from the University and revoked his Academy membership. After World War II, he returned to the University, but was not reinstated to the membership of the Academy. Forceful insistence of communist students on teaching Marxism exclusively led to Vuk-Pavlović’s resignation from the University in 1947. Among the well-known aspects of Vuk-Pavlović’s life, the text reveals the role of his Jewish heritage, conflict with the leftist writer and intellectual Miroslav Krleža, his stance towards the Croatian Spring of 1971, and his final personally and creatively successful years in Skopje, Macedonia. A guiding principle defined Vuk-Pavlović’s life: he firmly believed that living his philosophy was essential for its value

Welcome to the twelfth ISABS conference on forensic and anthropological genetics and Mayo clinic lectures in individualized medicine!

We invite you to join us at the 12th ISABS Conference on Forensic, Anthropological and Medical Genetics, Dubrovnik, Croatia, June 22 – 27, 2022. The conference is the next in the series of biennial events organized by the International Society for Applied Biological Sciences (ISABS), a society dedicated to the promotion of applied molecular biology (www.isabs.net)

Učenici se sjećaju Siniše Maričića (1926.–2017.): Uspravan do kraja

Siniša Maričić umro je 31. listopada 2017. Tim su povodom troje njegovih učenika elektronskim putem razmijenili uspomene na dr. Maričića. Te uspomene ovdje žele podijeliti s čitateljima časopisa Croatica Chemica Acta. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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

Students Remember Siniša Maričić (1926–2017): Upright to the End

Siniša Maričić, the father of Croatian biophysics, passed away on October 31, 2017. On this occasion, three of his students wish to share the memory of their teacher with the readers of the Croatica Chemica Acta. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Predicting Outcomes of Prostate Cancer Immunotherapy by Personalized Mathematical Models

Therapeutic vaccination against disseminated prostate cancer (PCa) is partially effective in some PCa patients. We hypothesized that the efficacy of treatment will be enhanced by individualized vaccination regimens tailored by simple mathematical models.We developed a general mathematical model encompassing the basic interactions of a vaccine, immune system and PCa cells, and validated it by the results of a clinical trial testing an allogeneic PCa whole-cell vaccine. For model validation in the absence of any other pertinent marker, we used the clinically measured changes in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels as a correlate of tumor burden. Up to 26 PSA levels measured per patient were divided into each patient's training set and his validation set. The training set, used for model personalization, contained the patient's initial sequence of PSA levels; the validation set contained his subsequent PSA data points. Personalized models were simulated to predict changes in tumor burden and PSA levels and predictions were compared to the validation set. The model accurately predicted PSA levels over the entire measured period in 12 of the 15 vaccination-responsive patients (the coefficient of determination between the predicted and observed PSA values was R(2) = 0.972). The model could not account for the inconsistent changes in PSA levels in 3 of the 15 responsive patients at the end of treatment. Each validated personalized model was simulated under many hypothetical immunotherapy protocols to suggest alternative vaccination regimens. Personalized regimens predicted to enhance the effects of therapy differed among the patients.Using a few initial measurements, we constructed robust patient-specific models of PCa immunotherapy, which were retrospectively validated by clinical trial results. Our results emphasize the potential value and feasibility of individualized model-suggested immunotherapy protocols

Age-dependent response of murine female bone marrow cells to hyperbaric oxygen

Consequences of age on the effects of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) on bone marrow (BM) derived stem cells and progenitors (SCPs) are largely unknown. We treated 2- and 18-month old C57BL/6 female mice by HBO. Hematopoietic stem cells and progenitors, enumerated as colony-forming units in culture, were doubled only in peripheral leukocytes and BM cells of young mice receiving HBO. In old mice colony-forming unit fibroblast numbers, a measure of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) from BM, were high but unaffected by HBO. To further explore this finding, in BM-MSCs we quantified the transcripts of adipocyte early-differentiation genes peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ, CCAAT/enhancer binding protein-β and fatty-acid binding protein 4; these transcripts were not affected by age or HBO. However, osteoblast gene transcripts runt-related transcription factor 2, osterix (OSX) and alkaline phosphatase (AP) were twofold to 20-fold more abundant in MSCs from old control mice relative to those of young control mice. HBO affected expression of osteoblast markers only in old MSCs (OSX gene expression was reduced by twofold and AP expression was increased threefold). Our data demonstrate the impact of aging on the response of BM SCPs to HBO and indicate the potentially different age-related benefit of HBO in wound healing and tissue remodeling

Towards Systems Based Immunotherapy of Cancer* * Essay published in the Festschrift for Academician Drago Ikić on the occasion of his 95th birthday

The essay, dedicated to Academician Drago Ikić–a pioneer in the development and preparation of vaccines for prevention of infectious diseases-at the occasion of his 95th birthday, discusses the relative failure of therapeutic vaccination for malignant diseases. From a personal perspective, the author recounts the historic examples of »spontaneous« tumor regressions in conjunction with acute infections; development of the first marketed purportedly antigen–specific cellular immunotherapy (for metastatic prostate cancer); the paradox of immunotherapy effect on overall survival, but not on time to disease progression; and the promise of the new complex systems–based approaches to a more rational design of cellular immunotherapy in the hope of bringing this mode of treatment into the therapeutic mainstream and standard of care