Fig. 3 Frequency distribution of papers by heading and year of publication of the newsletter (restricted to the 10 headings with the largest number of references in each year). Percentage was calculated on the total number of cited references for each year (white, dark gray and light gray bars) or in total (black bars). Explanation of symbols: A Genetic disorders, B Specific disorders or mutations in specific communities, C Genetic screening, D Complex conditions, E Congenital disorders, F Prenatal screening

and testing, G Genetic testing, H Miscellaneous, I Family history, J Population history, K Genetic counseling, L Genetics education and literacy, M Psychological Proton pump modulator issues in hereditary

cancer, N Patient perspective, O Bio-banks, P Testing minor, Q Genetic services, R Susceptibility genes and testing Discussion The original question whether community genetics’ concept and name would be able to attract a sufficient number of “followers” for a viable continued existence can be answered positively, at least when a so-named service Combretastatin A4 mouse is offered free of charge. The recruitment of members and the production of the newsletter were done by the first author who is officially retired. Since November 2009 preparation and sending of the newsletter are transferred to the second author who is on the pay list of the ECOGENE-21 project at Chicoutimi, Canada. At the time of submission of the revised version of this paper, the number of members is 939 in 73 countries. The e-mail address [email protected] is still valid for readers who want to contact us. Apart from the JNJ-26481585 establishment of the Community Genetics Network and its newsletter, three more relevant developments took place. In 2010, the first issues of the Journal of Community Genetics appeared (Schmidtke and Ten Kate 2010), published

by Springer; there was a consensus definition Alanine-glyoxylate transaminase of “community genetics” published (Ten Kate et al. 2010), and the ECOGENE-21 team took steps to establish an International Society of Community Genetics and Genomics. Finally, this case report shows that it is not too difficult to establish an international multidisciplinary e-mail network and a regular newsletter based on scientific and other output if its members. Our model may serve as an example for others who want to bring together those sharing a common interest. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. References Karger T (2008) Publisher’s note. Community Genet 11:311PubMedCrossRef Schmidtke J, Ten Kate L (2010) The journal of community genetics.