Between 2006 and 2021, the Hungarian Twin Registry (HTR) operated a volunteer twin registry of all age groups (50% monozygotic [MZ], 50% dizygotic [DZ], 70% female, average age 34 ± 22 years), including 1044 twin pairs, 24 triplets and one quadruplet set. In 2021, the HTR transformed from a volunteer registry into a population-based one, and it was established in the Medical Imaging Centre of Semmelweis University in Budapest. Semmelweis University’s innovation fund supported the development of information technology, a phone bank and voicemail infrastructure, administrative materials, and a new website was established where twins and their relatives (parent, foster parent or caregiver) can register. The HTR’s biobank was also established: 157,751 individuals with a likely twin-sibling living in Hungary (77,042 twins, 1194 triplets, 20 quadruplets, and one quintuplet) were contacted between February and March of 2021 via sealed letters. Until November 20, 2022, 12,001 twin individuals and their parents or guardians (6724 adult twins, 3009 parents/guardians and 5277 minor twins) registered, mostly online. Based on simple self-reports, 37.6% of the registered adults were MZ twins and 56.8% were DZ; 1.12% were triplets and 4.5% were unidentified. Of the registered children, 22.3% were MZ, 72.7% were DZ, 1.93% were triplets, and 3.05% were unidentified. Of the registered twins, 59.9% were female (including both the adult and minor twins). The registration questionnaire consists of eight parts, including socio-demographic and anthropometric data, smoking habits and medical questions (diseases, operations, therapies). Hungary’s twin registry has become the sole and largest population-based twin registry in Central Eastern Europe. This new resource will facilitate performing world-class modern genetic research.

The European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT) is the umbrella organisation for national European psychiatric trainees’ organisations. It primarily aims at advancing and harmonising the quality of psychiatric education and practise. As a permanent observer member of the European Board of Psychiatry and the European Board of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the EFPT actively participates both in the development of educational guidelines and in the evaluation of psychiatric training institutions in Europe. Through its annually held European Forum for all Psychiatric Trainees the EFPT provides a unique opportunity for the exchange of training-related experiences and opinions on current developments in psychiatry. This is the first comprehensive overview of the history, goals, and political work of the EFPT, depicting its evolution from an informal meeting of psychiatric trainees to a recognised organisation representing over 10 000 young psychiatrists throughout Europe.

Human genetics spans every facet of biology from molecular science, through laboratory and clinical practice, to psychology and anthropology. In each of these areas, the history of human genetics has been punctuated by paradigm shifts in knowledge. Each such new concept has been received with skepticism, often with perplexity, and sometimes with frank incredulity. Such comprise the datum milestones along the path leading to our present corpus of genetic knowledge. In parallel to the personal threats to Copernicus and Galileo in the field of astronomy in the 17th century, almost all genetic discoveries of the 19th and 20th centuries were seen as challenges to the received wisdom, and sometimes the social order, of their time and place. Researchers, scientists and clinicians encountering such new and often-heretical paradigm shifts have required considerable resolve to promote and publish their work. Just as in the field of astronomy, new directions in genetics have threatened not only the reputations and sometimes the careers of scientists, but also have been challenges to fundamental religious and sociological beliefs in society more broadly. Examples followed the discovery of biological sexual dimorphism (in plants as well as animals) by Nehemiah Grew (1641–1712). Darwinian evolution, Mendel's First and Second Laws, the existence of mitochondrial genes, apoptosis and its genetic basis, and uniparental disomy are more recent examples. Many of these new revelations, which today have led to the current understanding of fundamental biology, were discovered by individuals working in relative isolation. To promote and publish findings that fundamentally challenge received wisdom continues to require considerable resolve, if not courage. Herein lies a message for all clinicians and researchers.