25th Anniversary of the Teófilo Hernando Foundation

When in 1996 the Teófilo Hernando Foundation (FTH) was born, my collaborators and I wanted to have a certain autonomy and flexibility to finance, manage and create quality Science and Teaching around R&D in medicine.

At that time a series of circumstances came together that led to the baptism of the new institution with the name of Mr. Teófilo Hernando Ortega, the ‘advanced of Spanish pharmacology’. One of them was my personal relationship with Mr. Teófilo in the period between 1966 and 1970; I was involved in clinical medicine courses at the Central University of Madrid - today Complutense University. In the third year, Professor Hernando gave a master class on digitalis, a field in which he had worked during his stay in Oswald Schmiedeberg's laboratory in German Strasbourg in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Schmiedeberg is considered the father of global pharmacology, then and now. After listening to his class, I was curious to personally meet such venerable octogenarian professor, something that I achieved by showing up at his home in the Salamanca district –Madrid- with a letter from my uncle Francisco Flores Guillamón, who knew him because he had sometimes called him for consultations, from the Murcian clinic where he worked.

Mr. Teófilo died in 1976 and a few years later, in connivance with the children of Mr. Teófilo Hernando, Professor Luís Hernando and Ms. María Hernando, and the initiative of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics of the Faculty of Medicine, Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), created and directed by Professor Pedro Sánchez García, the Teófilo Hernando Commemorative Lesson would be born, which would be taught periodically by renowned basic and clinical scientists, within the framework of an emblematic academic event.

A third circumstance would be the growth of the Neurotransmission and Neuroprotection Group of the UAM, which generated increasing resources and numerous national and international collaborations. Thus, the FTH would be born, with the support of Luís Hernando and María Hernando and a Board of Trustees that was first chaired by Professor Pedro Laín Entralgo; later it was chaired by Mr. Pedro Sánchez García and currently I am the President of it.

What have we done in this quarter of a century? Has the FTH been useful? For what and for whom? The way how it has evolved? What are your prospects for the future? We tried to answer these questions in an emotional institutional event that we held on December 2nd 2021 at the "José María Segovia de Arana" Aula Magna of the UAM Faculty of Medicine, with an attractive program that combined words and music.

The event was opened by the “Little Night Serenade” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, performed by the Merak Trio of flute, clarinet and cello: a gift for the ear and the soul. The words first expressed the professional and personal life of Don Teófilo. He was an excellent doctor who, together with Mr. Gregorio Marañón, would publish the first medical treatise in Spanish. He created a school of pharmacologists who would spread this matter throughout all Spanish universities, academically and scientifically. He was a visionary of clinical pharmacology, whose teaching was to be given in clinical medicine courses, when the student was already familiar with pathology. And it created the concern for accurate and safe prescribing, once the disease was diagnosed. Teófilo Hernando was a friend of a group of liberal intellectuals of the Second Republic, who fought with their ideas for the progress and modernization of Spain, following the patriotic sentiment of Don Santiago Ramón y Cajal, of whom Don Teófilo was first his disciple and then his personal physician. Don Teófilo would define his thought in this way: << Tolerance, according to the dictionary, consists of respect and consideration for the opinions of others, even with pain, since tolerating also means “suffering” and “bearing with patience”… It is not easy the intimate situation of a liberal, tolerant man. In the presence of groups of found ideas, he sees in each one the part of truth and error that they defend. It is not decided by either one or the other and, by adopting an intermediate attitude, you generally run the risk of losing on both sides. However, it is usually fair to take this intermediate attitude that means pondering, balance, of which only the liberal and generous man is capable. >>

The music of the Merak Trio with its “Palladio” by K. Jenkins and “La vida es bella” by N. Piovani, paved the way for the evolution of the FTH, which was laid out by its director, Mr. Arturo García de Diego. If "the works are loves and not good reasons", Arturo explained in a brochure that was distributed to the assistants and on the screen, the activities of the Foundation during its first 25 years of life. He highlighted two aspects with great social projection: (1st) the granting of 171 pre-doctoral scholarships and employment contracts to as many collaborators whose names were appearing on the big screen of the Aula Magna and (2nd) the training and job placement of 1,000 young graduates and doctors with master's degrees and specialized courses, in close collaboration with the UAM. The resources to finance these activities come from the numerous clinical trials from phases I to IV, carried out in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry. This activity as CRO (English acronym for 'Contract Research Organization') is complemented by other activities of social projection such as coordination, management and financial assistance for basic scientific meetings (Spanish Group of Neurotransmission and Neuroprotection, GENN, 42 annual meetings throughout the national geography, Farmadrid, 27 annual meetings of the pharmacologists of the Community of Madrid) and clinics (National Day of Clinical Trials, 4 annual meetings); for the edition of books (four volumes of the book "Poetic Recipe Book for Medical Students of the UAM", "50 Years of the Faculty of Medicine of the UAM", etc.) and other publications ("News in Pharmacology and Therapeutics", 19 annual volumes, in collaboration with the Spanish Society of Pharmacology). And calls for the "Teófilo Hernando Awards" for the best pharmacology works carried out by UAM third-year medical students, or the "Poetry Contest" called by the UAM Medical Students Poetry Group. The FTH has also shown concern about the dissemination activities of medical advances, providing support to the creation and activities of the "Foundation for Medical Studies of Molina de Segura", the "Annual Open Doors Day" of the "Health Center Antonio García García” in this city or the teaching by young doctors of introductory science seminars in the six secondary schools in Molina. This support was extended to young researchers with autonomy to develop science and quality in Spain, through the creation of the “Teófilo Hernando” Forum of Young Researchers, in collaboration with the Royal National Academy of Medicine of Spain.

With the irruption of the music from the magnificent grand piano of the Aula Magna, caressed by the expert hands of Rubén Sánchez-Viero, with the fragment "El Puerto" from the Iberia Suite by Isaac Albéniz, the words of Professor Manuela García López, director of the Teófilo Hernando Institute for Drug R&D (ITH), a UAM-owned center which shares spaces and infrastructures with the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics. The FTH and IFTH work in harmony, collaborating in scientific and educational activities: they are so united that there are several professors from ITH and the department on the Board of Trustees of the FTH. We all want a mixed FTH-ITH center to be created at the UAM, the germ of the long-awaited idea of giving life to the Comprehensive Center for Medicine -Centro Integral del Medicamento- of the UAM and the Community of Madrid (CIMED). That center is already working, although in a scattered way; one day we will see the inclusion of its preclinical and clinical activities in the practice of all stages of drug R&D. With national or international repercussion, in its own building located on the UAM Campus.

Dr. Marcos Maroto highlighted the rich collaboration of the FTH with the pharmaceutical industry, reporting some clinical trials of different phases, with national and foreign companies. For his part, Professor Jorge Fuentealba (University of Concepción, Chile) echoed the collaborations between the FTH, the ITH and the department of pharmacology with different groups of researchers in Latin America, a clear vocation of the Foundation. Finally, Dr. Josep Vergés, founder and director of OAFI, a Foundation for the care of osteoarthritis patients located in Barcelona (Spain), with which the FTH collaborates, highlighted that in all the teaching and scientific activities of both foundations, the limelight should be the patient. Support for the FTH, recorded on video, expressed by personalities from within and outside of Spain, was another relevant element of the event. The music and the word were combined at the end of the Celebration, with the superb performance by the baritone Manuel Más, of a fragment of the opera “El Barbero de Sevilla” by Rossini, accompanied on piano by Rubén Sánchez-Vieco.

In addition to the many collaborators and friends who accompanied us, in person or online, we felt the warm presence of two personalities from the local government of the Community of Madrid. At the inauguration of the event, Mr. Fidel Rodríguez-Batalla, Deputy Minister of Universities, Science and Innovation, expressed his support for the IFTH idea and the CIMED project. At the closing of the event, Ms. Teresa Chavarría Giménez, Director of Research, Teaching and Documentation of the Health Department, emphasized the relevance of clinical pharmacology in teaching and clinical trials, ideas that Mr. Teófilo Hernando already expressed in the first half 20th century. At the catering, we were able to continue chatting and hoping for the further development and consolidation of the IFTH and CIMED ideas. So be it.

An institutional act that lasted two hours, however, required meticulous preparation for months. It is worth highlighting the participation in it of several members of the FTH, but particularly Christopher Óscar de Andrés, María José Cieza, María Fagoaga, Eloy Ferreras, Estrella García de Diego, and Adriana Zapardiel; all coordinated by Arturo García de Diego. Our entire team is grateful to them for their enthusiasm and professional competence.

To be remarked:

• Words and music shook hands in an emotional institutional act that took place in a festive atmosphere, as corresponds to the celebration of a “silver anniversary”, those of the Teófilo Hernando Foundation.

• The idea of creating the joint FTH-ITH center and the CIMED, Comprehensive Medicine Center of the UAM, presided over the entire act.

• The members of the FTH collaborated enthusiastically in the preparation and celebration of this emotional event

Author: Antonio García García