With some pride, the EJHG and the Publisher present to you the first issue again of the 10th volume of the European Journal of Human Genetics. Started in 1993, mainly thanks to the energetic persistence of the first Editor-in-Chief, Professor Giovanni Romeo, also well-known for his initiative of the European School of Medical Genetics (popularly the ‘Sestri-Levante Course’). Basically the aim of the Journal has remained the same over time, with the understanding that the field has enormously shifted in insights into the links between molecular and clinical aspects.

In the past decade, a strong emphasis has emerged also on public aspects of our specialty, which finds itself increasingly in the center of revolutionary changes in health care. Diagnostics is gradually crossing over into improved prognosis, thanks to the advancing insights between primary disease causes and interacting genes in the same pathways–or at crossroads.

For genetic disorders, therapy still remains largely a hope on the horizon, but with the onslaught of high-throughput pharmacogenomics we may at least expect that the next few years will see the arrival of more targeted and balanced use of existing medications, as well as better decision support for difficult therapeutic choices to be made, notably in the cancer field.

In the Journal, we will keep targeting for the same mix of molecular and clinical matters arising, although the editor admits that the choice is sometimes determined by the material submitted. And it almost seems as if the increasing practical abilities are keeping our clinicians from the street to such an extent, that they don't find the time anymore to write up their findings. Come on! Your colleagues are waiting for you.

A novelty in this issue is the long-announced start with a new series of mini reviews, Practical Genetics, in which we hope to cover, in a few pages only, the clinical and molecular status of a specific genetic disorder or closely related class of disorders. We hope that reading the first examples will stimulate experts to have a go at their own topic of interest.

Wishing you an excellent 2002 professionally and personally.