Better prepared than synthesized: Adolf Butenandt, Schering Ag and the transformation of sex steroids into drugs (1930-1946)

Sorting sex, controlling sex: Masui Kiyoshi's chicken research and experimental system, 1915-1950

Masui Kiyoshi (1887-1981), a prominent Japanese geneticist, is best known for inventing the sex-sorting method of chicks and his contributions to experimental genetics in Japan. Masui drew inspiration from Goldschmidt's sex determination theory and used chickens, transplantation techniques, and his own "chick sexing" methods in his scientific work. This paper examines the intersection of genetics and industrial breeding by tracing the evolution of Masui's experimental systems. During the early 20th century, poultry farming emerged as a significant industry in Japan, resulting in the development of standardized organisms and techniques for chicken farming. Masui, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University, collaborated with the Imperial Zootechnical Experimental Station to use these organisms as models for sex determination theory while exploring their further industrial possibilities. First, the paper show how Masui viewed chickens as epistemological objects and transformed his anatomical discoveries into standardized industrial practices. Next, it describes how Masui's collaboration with German geneticist Richard Goldschmidt led to new academic questions about sex determination mechanisms and how he integrated his knowledge of chicken physiology into his research on "experimental gynandromorphs" to elaborate the theories. Lastly, the paper discusses the biotechnological ideals that Masui aimed to achieve and how they were co-constructed with his mass-production method of intersex chickens from the early 1930s. The trajectory of Masui's experimental systems highlights the dynamic relationship between agroindustry and genetics in the early twentieth century and demonstrates the 'biology of history' in which the biological processes of organisms intertwine with their epistemological history.

In the Circulation Sphere of the Biomolecular Age: Economics and Gender Matter

This contribution draws attention to the circulation of materialities and persons as a central feature in the constitution of experimental cultures. The protein and ribosome research at the Max Planck Society (MPG)-with a main focus on the research conducted by Brigitte Wittmann-Liebold at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics-serves as an example to highlight some of the central conditions that determined the material circulation in molecular biology: the very organizational framework of gender and economics. In doing so, this contribution argues for a historical narrative that stresses the conditions facilitating the circulation of technologies, materials, and personnel. Histories of this kind contribute to an integrated view of the scientific, technological, social, political, economic, and cultural specificities of experimental cultures.

Schistosomiasis mansoni: A new therapeutic target for ubiquinol, a natural inhibitor of neutral magnesium-dependent sphingomyelinase in murine model

Constituting the host-parasite interface and playing a censorious role in host immune response modulation and parasite survival, tegument represents a crucial target for many antischistosomal drugs. Sphingomyelin forms a stable outer leaflet of tegumental membrane-lipid bilayer. Neutral magnesium‏-dependent sphingomyelinase (Mg²⁺-nSMase) is a key enzyme in sphingomyelin breakdown was identified in schistosomes. We investigated the in vivo efficacy of ubiquinol, a natural inhibitor of Mg²⁺-nSMase, in free and niosomes-encapsulated forms, through five-day and 15-day regimens on the early and late Schistosoma mansoni parasitic stages, respectively, compared to PZQ. Oral administration of 300 mg/kg/day ubiquinol-encapsulated niosomes (U-N) showed significant deterioration of the parasitic growth and development in the term of reduction of lung schistosomula burden (39.12%), adult worm burden (50.81%), hepatic and intestinal tissue-egg counts (80.89% and 75.54%, respectively). PZQ and free ubiquinol regimens reported reductions in lung schistosomula counts (45.36% and 22.90%, respectively) and total worm burdens of 86.28% and 24.58%, respectively. U-N therapy revealed worms de-pairing and remarkable diminution in female worms' perimeters and fecundity. Scanning electron microscope revealed disruption of tegumental ridges with excessive longitudinal corrugation. Transmission electron microscope showed testicular and ovarian parenchymal degeneration, signs of immaturity and cell apoptosis. Indirect immunofluorescence assay approved parasite's tegumental changes. Remarkable reduction of granulomas size with amelioration of hepatic pathology and fibrosis were assumed to be attributed to the anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties of ubiquinol. These findings with the drug safety profile suggest that U-N could be a promising candidate for a new antischistosomal drug development.

Policing the social body: Medicine and the administration of legal gender recognition in France and Italy, an historical perspective

This paper explores the role of medicine in the regulation of legal gender recognition for trans and gender diverse people in France and Italy. I focus on the processes that led the two countries to establish for the first time a procedure for legal gender change in the 1980s/1990s. Despite the differences, both in France and in Italy medical knowledge and technologies were embedded in the procedures for legal gender change and health professionals took a role as gatekeepers to gender recognition. The medicalization of legal gender recognition, I argue, was part of the deploying of a bio-political apparatus that aimed at regulating and controlling "gender transitions" through regulation and normalization rather then through repression.

A Tale of Two Hormones

The development of the steroid hormones currently used in contraception and menopausal hormone replacement provides an interesting story in terms of brilliant research, international rivalry, major advances and sheer serendipity. This paper provides a historical perspective on the use of oestrogens and progestogens in clinical practice from the 1920s until the present day.