The future of pancreatology: how to go where we have never been before

The current article is part of a series of manuscripts, which together serve as a never-perfect yet candid attempt to honor the remarkable scientific stature of Professor Hans Gunther Beger. The challenge posed to the author has been to meditate on the future of pancreatology. In the following paragraphs, to the exclusion of no other, we provide an approach to future discoveries in our field. This approach combines the large scope of the new biology (eg, genomics) with the analytical power of conventional, hypothesis-driven, molecular cell biology of individual laboratories to build comprehensive functional models of normal and diseased pancreatic cell populations. In addition, the potential challenges that both the size of our field and current research funding offer to scientists focused on the pancreas are discussed. It is the author's hope that the readers will not only meditate on the reflections offered here but, when in agreement with the positions stated, will help to implement a road map that can make our scientific field better. Never forget--the lives of our patients depend on what we do.