Dedication to Dr. Richard T. Johnson

摘要

This issue of Neurotherapeutics is focused on neurovirology and is dedicated to Dr. Richard T. Johnson, who passed away at the age of 84 on 22 November 2015. The term Bneurovirology^ was first used by Dr. Johnson, although he credited the coining of it to a grants manager who truncated the title of a grant he had submitted to the National Institutes of Health. Nonetheless, Dick, as he was known, was unques- tionably the father of neurovirology. He pioneered the entire field, with a focus on pathogenesis, and developed research programs on several viruses that invade the nervous system. Initially, each fellow he trained was given a different virus on which to develop a research program, and the laboratory in- vestigators and trainees purposefully came from many differ- ent backgrounds. He believed that to understand virus- induced disease of the nervous system required expertise not only in virology, but also in neurology, pathology, immunol- ogy, animal models, and eventually molecular biology. This approach resulted in a huge impact on the understanding of a large range of viral diseases, for example measles, mumps, rubella, visna, arbovirus encephalitis, herpes simplex, rabies, and HIV, but perhaps more importantly, a legacy of training many investigators who, along with their trainees, continue to contribute to the field.