Peter Huijing was far from enthusiastic when he received an invitation to speak at the Fascia Research Congress. The meeting, held here last month, would be the first dedicated to the soft part of the body's connective tissue system-an important but medically neglected organ. It would bring together top scientists from fields as diverse as cell biology and biophysics, but it would also include alternative medicine practitioners, such as chiropractors and deep-tissue manipulators known as Rolfers. "I had a fear of damaging my reputation," says Huijing, a world-renowned biomechanics researcher at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, who, despite his hesitation, decided to attend. By the time the conference was over, Huijing had agreed to organize the next one.
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