title: Looking to the future of epididymal research: why this, why now?
abstract: Epididymal biology is an area of science at risk. Never a large field to  begin with (the number of papers produced by laboratories studying the  epididymis is roughly only 20% of the number produced by laboratories studying  the testis), it tends to shrink even further in times of funding crisis. This  matters because the numbers of laboratories, investigators, and trainees in  any area of science affects the number of new people coming into the field,  the new ideas that new people can bring, and the number of interested  scientists on important grant review panels. How can epididymal biologists  face the current challenges? First, great ideas are the key. They prompt  compelling hypotheses that can be challenged with interesting experiments.  Second, it must be recognized that the past is past. The fact that studies on  sperm maturation, epididymal histology, or tubule physiology are significant  parts of the past does not mean that they are no longer interesting, but it  does mean that truly original questions in those areas will likely be  difficult to find. In the real world of competitive science, national granting  agencies require applications that clearly answer the questions, why is this  of interest and why is it important now? Productive areas of future research  may include lumicrine regulation of the epithelium, immunobiology of the  epididymis, and cell-cell communication between epididymal epithelial cells  and cells in the peritubular/interstitial space.
authors: Department of Urology, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA 22908-0422, USA. ttt@virginia.edu
authors: Terry T
authors: TT
authors: Turner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000191:economics*; D004822:Epididymis / Q000502:physiology*; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D051381:Rats; D013079:Sperm Maturation / Q000502:physiology