Nino Salvatore's contribution to scientific collaboration between Europe and the US in endocrinology.

The Authors describe in this guest editorial the relevance that Gaetano ("Nino") Salvatore had in promoting science and international collaboration between Europe and the US. He also encouraged links between cellular and molecular biology, producing important advances in both technology and ideas. His group devised the FRT-L system of rat thyroid cells that carry out in vitro all the differentiated functions of the thyroid gland; this system is now used worldwide. The diverse approaches he encouraged were instrumental in the discovery of rearrangements in the RET proto-oncogene in papillary thyroid cancer and in elucidating the role of genes encoding transcription factors in the early development of the thyroid gland and in congenital thyroid dysfunction. Both discoveries, derived from basic research, have proved important in clinical endocrinology.