The European Society for Muscle Research (ESMR) started in 1971 as “European Muscle Club” in a joint initiative of Marcus Schaub, Eduard Jenny and Rudolf Billeter (Zurich), Caspar Rüegg (Heidelberg), Jean Légér (Montpellier), Bernard Swynghedauw (Paris), George Maréchal (Brussels), Gabriel Hamoir (Liege), and Endre Biró (Budapest), see Fig. 2. Since 1972, local organizers took care of muscle conferences held yearly in different European countries and in Israel in 1987. At the 50th anniversary of the European Society of Muscle Research those who personally knew the founders of the European Muscle Club were able to share their memories with those who might still be in good shape at the 100th anniversary in 50 years’ time.

Six of the founders of the European Muscle Club. Upper row, from left to right: Marcus Schaub, Caspar Rüegg, and Rudolf Billeter. Lower row from left to right George Maréchal, Bernard Swynghedauw, and Endre Biró. Unfortunately, no photographs were found of Eduard Jenny, Jean Légér, and Gabriel Hamoir

To identify the DNA of the ESMR it is of interest to look at the research the founders were conducting around 1970. Marcus Schaub, who obtained his medical degree in Switzerland, initially performed research on collagen (Schaub 1964) and had been working in the late sixties for almost five years in the biochemical laboratory of Sam Perry in Birmingham in the UK on the isolation and purification of the troponin subunits. During his stay, he participated in the Muscle Dining Club with dinners at different locations in the southern part of England where at that time astonishing advances were made in the understanding of the molecular basis of muscle contraction. In 1970, Marcus returned to Switzerland and joined the group of Prof. Peter G. Waser at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich, where he was appointed Professor of Pharmacology in 1980. Back on the “continent” he continued research on interactions between contractile and regulatory proteins of the myofibril (Schaub et al. 1972) and contacted Caspar Ruegg. Ruegg was at that time an omnivore researcher, studying smooth muscle, insect flight muscle and skeletal muscle. The common denominator in his research was the use of glycerinated (permeabilised) muscle tissue which enabled the manipulation of the intracellular environment on which he applied a variety of (bio) mechanical techniques. As a side note, one of us (GS) visited the lab of Caspar Ruegg as a postdoc in the 80’s to learn these techniques. As another twist of history, it can be mentioned that the current chairman of the ESMR (Wolfgang Linke) continued the research, which he had started with Gerald Pollack on titin in the 90’s, in Caspar Ruegg’s lab in Heidelberg. The host town of many ESMR meetings.

Marcus also contacted Jean Légér and Bernard Swynghedauw (Inserm, Paris), who were working on cardiac myosin ATPase and atherosclerosis. Jean Légér remained an active member of the Club/Society for many years. Bernard Swynghedauw, a giant in his field, was more cardio-vascularly oriented (themes not intensely covered during the early meetings of the Society). In a recent paper in 2020 Bernard discusses the Brandolini’s principle, “a rather amusing but deeply true principle, named after an Italian computer scientist, Alberto Brandolini” (Swynghedauw 2020). Brandolini’s principle is also known by its original name of ‘bullshit asymmetry principle’. It states that “the amount of energy needed to refute nonsense (Brandolini uses the term bullshit) is an order of magnitude greater than that needed to produce them”. Bernard Swynghedauw used it in the context of results published in low impact journals, but likely his remarks were fuelled by concerns about society in general.

Marcus also contacted two colleagues from Belgium, George Maréchal and Gabriel Hamoir. George Maréchal (Physiology, Brussels) studied the energetics of skeletal muscle (Maréchal and Lebacq 1972). Gabriel Hamoir (Biochemistry, Liège), studied muscle types amongst others in fish. George Marechal was an active regular participant of the early meetings; Hamoir as can be judged from his publications (Hamoir 1953; Syrovy et al. 1970) was an eminent scientist in fish muscle biology and organised the first EMC meeting.

Two other younger colleagues of Marcus from Zurich were also involved, Edi Jenny and Ruedi Billeter (Pharmacology and Biochemistry, Zurich). They studied fast and slow myosin within single skeletal muscle fibres of adult rabbits and coauthored somewhat later a paper in Nature (Lutz et al. 1979).

Most likely with the aim to actively involve colleagues from Eastern Europe, Endre Bíró was contacted. Endre Bíró was born in Budapest in 1919, into a liberal-minded Hungarian-Jewish family. Endre Bíró started his scientific career at the Biochemistry Institute of the Pázmány Péter University of Budapest, an institute Albert Szent-Györgyi had founded in 1945. His research on the biochemistry of muscle found international recognition (Rusnák and Biró 1971; Biró et al. 1973).

Hence in the DNA of the society we see people with a solid biochemical basis but also a wide interest in the variety of muscle, skeletal, smooth, cardiac and insect flight muscle (Fig. 2). People who enjoyed life in the postwar rapidly developing Europe.

The first EMC foundation meeting took place in 1972 under the auspices of the late Gabriel Hamoir in Liège (Belgium). This dates well back into the pre-computer era where history meets the misty dawn of the EMC. “Records may be holey and some details have been forgotten altogether. From memory, we recall that 47 participants gathered at the Liege − 1972 first EMC. Beside scientific sessions, one of the main endeavors was the official establishment of the Muscle Club” (Schaub 2010).