Breathing rarified air: The Anatomical Record celebrates Kurt Albertine with a Special Issue exploring new findings on respiratory biology

Abstract

Animals, invertebrates, and vertebrates, are extraordinary creatures. So many components of their bodies have to work together to allow even basic functions to occur. Muscles have to move; cartilage, bone, and ligaments support; blood nourish; lymph clean; nerves communicate; and a host of histological tissue types provide substrate for it all. While the different parts of this intrinsic anatomical team must work together, there is one core system that must be present to keep the others working: the respiratory system. Indeed, aerobic respiration is the fundamental energy mechanism for higher life forms. Unless you are some fungi, most bacteria, tardigrades, Mediterranean Loricifera, an oddball African nematode, or some other anaerobic tidbit, oxygen is the holy grail. And respiration, through breathing or some other exchange modality, is the gold standard. Respiration is king.

One of the knights supporting this respiratory monarch is a focus of this Special Issue: Professor Kurt Albertine of the University of Utah School of Medicine. Kurt—our familiarity, as you will see, is too strong for formalities—is also the former Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of our journal. He has been, and always will be, a mentor, guide, stimulator, thought-provoker, and role model for us younger (ok, even a few older) folks. To say that we at The Anatomical Record adore him would be an understatement!

Kurt has had an illustrious career as a respiratory biologist, anatomical educator, mentor, and scholar (sort of, at least, as the former Editor of a great journal, i.e., ours.). First, as a bench scientist based since the Late Cretaceous (ok, since 1993) in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine, Kurt and his minions (who he affectionately calls “his labbies” due to their caring of the research lambs used in his laboratory) have done insightful science exploring the basic biology of the developing mammalian lung sensu lato. In particular, his laboratory's investigations have focused upon acute and chronic pulmonary disease, with emphasis on neonatal lung disease. His work has targeted identification of molecular mechanisms that disrupt lung development in preterm neonates who require prolonged mechanical ventilation. Using the lung as focus, his lab has also explored how neonatal disturbance and disease affect molecular changes in other organs such as the brain, liver, and intestines. Recent work has even explored the bold hypothesis that preterm birth and prolonged mechanical ventilation can change epigenetic determinations of the regulation of gene expression. In essence, his studies take one back to the elements of the respiratory system as the driver of much of a mammal's core anatomy and physiology. Kurt's loving exploration of these underlying features in preterm lambs has been instrumental in helping the field of medicine to understand the etiology of postnatal lung disease and potential treatment in humans (see, e.g., Albertine, 2015; Albertine et al., 2023, 2024). He has done both good and great work.

In recognition of Kurt's day job—his prodigious scientific work—The Anatomical Record has organized this month's Special Issue, “Breathing at the interface of anatomy and physiology,” a fascinating journey providing insights onto current studies on many aspects of respiratory and pulmonary-related biology. The Special Issue is Guest Edited by Lisa Joss-Moore of the University of Utah School of Medicine and Katherine Yutzey of The Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children's Medical Center and the College of Medicine at The University of Cincinnati (see Joss-Moore & Yutzey, 2025, this issue). The two Guest Editors are two top tier, primo researchers in their own rights. Lisa, like Kurt, is in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Utah. Her laboratory's research explores how perinatal insults affect essential fatty acid driven molecular mechanisms predisposing individuals to lung disease. Like Kurt, her laboratory utilizes, and explores, multimodal approaches including molecular, morphometric, physiologic, and genomic approaches to explore the questions she addresses. Perhaps, most notably, the poor thing has an office next door to Kurt and must endure him (a chatty soul!) and his inevitable practical jokes (more on that latter). Nevertheless, Lisa proudly claims Kurt as a beloved friend and mentor who took her under his (loquacious) wing when she came to the “U” in 2007. Indeed, Kurt has become a fixture in her family's world—they refer to him as “Mooseman—our Utah grandpa” (the “moose” appears to be Kurt's “spirit animal”; see cover for this Special Issue, and below).

Katherine is a scientist-scholar of immense international renown. Unlike Kurt and Lisa she is not a developmental lung or respiratory biologist, but rather explores that other pretty important piece of hardware in the thorax, the heart. Specifically, her laboratory examines and manipulates molecular regulatory mechanisms in heart development and disease. Her research has had major implications for understanding the underlying molecular and cellular mechanisms of valve development, muscle cell maturation, and fibroblast lineages in normal and diseased hearts. Like Kurt and Lisa, Katherine's continuing brilliance has shed much light on the miracles of prenatal development and the enormity of influences on later health and disease. In addition to her science, we at The Anatomical Record know Katherine well as she is, and has been, one of our most productive Associate Editors. In truth, she can be a bit intimidating. Her warm, kind, gentle, and welcoming personality—she is always fun to be with (and likes a good beer as we found out in an Anatomical Record Board Meeting in Belgium, the beer capital of Europe)—belie a precision and effectiveness that could be found in a Marine sargeant! Indeed, if memory serves JL correctly (it is going quickly!) she had the fastest turn-around numbers of any Anatomical Record Associate Editor for manuscripts handled when we reviewed this some years ago (guess which native New Yorker was the worst?). Katherine also previously helped to organize and effectuate, as overseeing Associate Editor assisting Guest Editor Andy Wessels, a beautiful Anatomical Record Special Issue on the heart paying tribute to our former Editor-in-Chief, Roger Markwald (“Heart Development: Papers in Honor of Roger Markwald”) (Laitman & Albertine, 2019; Wessels, 2019; Yutzey, 2019). Looks like Katherine is the guru for Special Issues regarding our former Editors-in-Chief! (HFS is taking note!).

While this Special Issue has drawn science from researchers on respiratory, particularly lung, biology, it has also been created to honor, and say thanks, to Kurt for his “after-hours” job, having been the Editor-in-Chief of The Anatomical Record for over 15 years. Kurt had big shoes to fill when the Board of Directors of the American Association for Anatomy (our journal's parent organization) chose him to succeed the brilliant Roger Markwald, who, in turn, had followed the legendary John Ladman (Laitman & Smith, 2024b). JL—longer in the tooth than the other co-authors of this editorial—had the pleasure of serving as an Associate Editor of the journal under John and then Roger. Fine, thoughtful, and energetic fellows, and all committed to advancing science and the journal. Like them, Kurt is an energetic scientist. Like them, as well, he had no need for a hairbrush or comb (HFS is taking note; did the hair and comb disappear before or after becoming Editor of the journal?).

Kurt brought his own inimitable style to The Anatomical Record. Whereas John Ladman (who was a loving and caring man) could be described as a tough-fisted, old-time Anatomy Department Chair who expected things be done his way and on-time (JL can still recall trembling when a call would be received from Dr. Ladman—most never had the temerity to call him “John” or “Johnny”—who would often begin conversations “Jeff-er-ey, why has the review not been done!”); and Roger—also a classic Anatomy Department Chair—summarized as a gentleman scholar from Charleston who rarely raised his voice (yet demanded action in his own way), Kurt can be described as an “Energizer Bunny” who through constant nagging, mixed with guilt-inducing provocations and calls in the middle of the night, always figured out how to get his way! Unlike John or Roger who more-or-less expected obedience coming to the Anatomical Record from their positions as Chairs, Kurt did not approach his task with a similar background. As EiC Kurt was not so much the “Lord of the Castle” as he was the indefatigable coach of a team. In sports parlance, Kurt would be seen as “a player's coach,” meaning he knew his people and knew how to get them to do things for both themselves and their fulfillment, and for the collective good, in this case, the betterment of The Anatomical Record and scientific reportage. Kurt very much fit the definition of a successful coach once given by the great New York Giants and later Dallas Cowboys football coach and legend Tom Landry, who said: “Coaching is making people do what they don't want to do, so that they can become what they want to be.” And, oh, did Kurt know his team! (Figure 1).

A seminal advance that Kurt made as EiC was his replacement of annual Anatomical Record Board Meetings with, in essence, “Bonding Retreats” (Figure 2). Traditionally, journals of our parent society, the American Association for Anatomy (The Anatomical Record, Developmental Dynamics and its stem predessessor American Journal of Anatomy, and Anatomical Sciences Education) would meet for a few hours over lunch with limp sandwiches and watered-down soup at the Association's annual meeting. The Board would review progress, do their grumblings, see why the number of papers from Madagascar went down, try to explain why certain Associate Editors took too long in the review process (JL hated this part), had a few words from the Publications' Committee Chair as to why our budget could not be increased, etc. The EIC would perhaps introduce any new Associate Editors if they were present and we would all say hello. Then we would all go our separate ways (most to the bar). A generic board meeting; little was done but we fulfilled the charge.

When Roger took over as EIC of The Anatomical Record, he twice scheduled our Board Meetings at his home base at the Medical University of South Carolina in the incomparable city of Southern sophistication and charm, Charleston. Board members got to spend a few days there, and the exchanges were much more robust and meaningful than the two-hour move-alongs over stale Danish pastries at the annual meetings. Indeed, it was at one of these sessions that JL met Kurt, who had just been appointed as an Associate Editor of the journal by Roger. Kurt was an incredible raconteur, explaining over dinner libations to mystified colleagues how to handle oneself if you happen to unexpectedly come upon a moose when out hiking in the mountains (not something that the New York City based JL was likely ever to encounter; if this occurred he would likely die from shock within seconds anyway!). Kurt clearly has a fascination with moose; his anatomical knowledge was actually most useful when a number of us did a unique dissection of moose nasal regions at Mount Sinai some years later and published our findings in The Anatomical Record: Marquez et al. (2019). While Kurt's numerous tales of how to save oneself from moose, elk, buffalo, mountain lions, and bears, as well as catch salmon, avoid bald eagles, etc. would likely never be of practical value to those present (really? some of us are more likely to catch a cold than a salmon!) what impressed us, particularly JL—who was on the AAA Board, soon to be President, and in a few years to choose the new EiC of the journal—was the extraordinary enthusiasm and joie de vie that Kurt had.

The Charleston meeting obviously convinced Kurt that having our editorial board together for a period of time—even longer than the day or so allotted in Charleston—would produce a cohesive team. And so, Kurt birthed our Anatomical Record yearly board “mini-retreats,” all intentionally away from the tedium and time-frames of the annual meetings. As with Roger, they first started at Kurt's beloved home base at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and gradually morphed to go to the home base of the varied Associate Editors—we visited locales ranging from Kurt's beloved Utah sites such as Moab, and nearby Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons (lots of moose therein; Figure 3) to overseas locales in New Zealand, Belgium (Figures 4 and 5), China, Spain, Japan, Brazil, and Canada (that is not a US state yet, correct?). Some we have gone to a number of times, such as China, thanks to our energetic former Associate Editor Ji-Cheng Li (see, e.g., Smith & Laitman, 2023; Zhang et al., 2023) or a most memorable meeting in Belgium thanks to our equally energetic and flamboyant former Associate Editor J-P Timmermans (Laitman et al., 2023; Timmermans, 2023). Most especially, we have often visited magnificent Spain thanks to Associate Editor Jose-Luis Trejo (Indeed, J-LT's organization of meetings in Spain, coupled with his desire to teach us all how much fuller life would have been if the Americas had remained under Spanish control and culture, introduced us all the world of tapas, jamon, unparalleled wine, Plazas without equal, the Alhambra—where JL almost succumbed to 110 degree heat—the majesty of the bullfight—Kurt had to go to the clock museum instead—Madrid, Barcelona, Cordova, happy pig farms, and so much more. Dear J-LT could not pass on giving Kurt an adios “hug” when he saw this editorial, so see footnote¹).

Indeed, the home turf of almost all Associate Editors has served as the locales for our AR Meetings (except, interestingly, JL from NYC; hmmm…?) These meetings—in part due to their planned distance from the daily grind of the workplace—allowed for the Associate Editors and the grand papa to learn about each other and work together with an energy and creativity that were not possible with the old, limited style of Board Meeting. Many creative ideas and energetic directions were birthed in these intense think tank/bonding sessions.

No commentary on Kurt Albertine would be complete without mentioning his role as “prankster-in-chief.” Oh, what we colleagues and Anatomical Record co-dwellers have had to endure over the years! A brief note such as this cannot convey the nature of having one's EIC being the modern incarnation of Loki the Norse God of Mischief and Deception! So many examples, but you will have to read the planned volume that Kurt and JL are doing to see the many incidents. But a few examples for now: As noted, Kurt initially had our Board Meetings in his home base at the University of Utah. One of the highlights in the early years would be trips to the relatively nearby Green River Formation in Wyoming. Once there, Kurt arranged for us all to hunt for fossils in the soft rock formations. None of the AEs ever found more then miniscule fragments of some unidentifiable bone. Kurt, to the contrary, would strike the earth like some modern Moses and a largely intact school of Eocene Knightia spp would majestically appear! Whole, intact slabs of fossil fish (Figure 6)! At first, we credulous acolytes were in awe of his prowess until we figured out that he likely made some arrangements with the local guides to have these pre-planted in our rock beds (he still denies this but no one believes him!). Oh, and do you know what it is like to sit paralyzed with fear in the rear of a miniscule one-engine plane designed for Mickey Mouse when you were promised a Leer jet (and, to add insult to injury, not fit into the seat and have people push your stomach in so you would fit while el jefe supremo flies the plane) (Figure 7)? Or, to arrive at an airport and be forced into a wheelchair because someone called in advance advising the airline that you desperately needed a chair but would object? Or to send one constantly photos of their sumptuous meals (Kurt is a foodie! Figure 8) when you are desperately dieting? Or being told that it would be easy to navigate some sharp, jutting rock formations in Moab caves (“You can do it; no problem!”—our fearless leader would advise with a mischievious sparkle in his eye; Thank goodness for his beloved better half, his brilliant—and “take-no-nonsense-from-Kurt” wife, Laura Lake, who mercifully put a kibosh on his shenanigans and thus saved some of his poor, believing, tribe.) Or…

Back to the science at hand. This most special, Special Issue will honor our dear friend and colleague by providing a smorgasbord of scientific investigations into the world of developmental and comparative respiratory biology. From new modes of lung visualization with three-dimensional anatomical modeling, to applying CPAP in pre-term infants, to postnatal restrictions on rat lung structure and function, to an overview of new findings on the specialized respiratory adaptations of whales, to mention but a few, Kurt's colleagues have swum to The Anatomical Record to share their science and tip their collective hats to Kurt and his years of good work (see Joss-Moore & Yutzey, 2025, this volume). Sit back and breathe in the fascinating science within!

Some years back, JL wrote a piece in The Anatomical Record honoring Kurt when he received an award from the American Physiological Society for his years of mentoring students and colleagues (Laitman, 2018). The paper spoke about the gift that some special people are blessed with: the gift of building bridges. Of all of Kurt's many blessings has been his extraordinary ability to link minds and build a community of colleagues into life-long friends. Thanks, Kurt Albertine, for the gift that you have given to our journal and to all of us. You have been the master bridge-builder of The Anatomical Record.

Jeffrey T. Laitman: Conceptualization; writing – original draft. Kimberly McKay: Writing – review and editing; conceptualization. Heather F. Smith: Writing – review and editing; conceptualization.