Maria Roussomoustakaki, MD, PhD (1961-2012)

It has already been almost a year since the sad day when Maria, very prematurely, at the peak of her career, left us for the eternal life. It has been said, and I think correctly, that people only die when nobody remembers their presence in this world any more. This means that Maria will be alive for very many years to come, not only because she will be affectionately remembered by her family and friends, but most importantly as a doctor by literally thousands of patients and their families who benefited from her professional and human help at their difficult moments. Maria graduated in 1986 from the Medical School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and startedhed training in Internal Medicine at the General Hospital of Siteia (first year), and at the Gennimatas Hospital of Athens (second year). She then returned to her homeland Crete the her specialist training at the Department of Gastroenterology of the Heraklion University Hospital, under Prof. Manousos, where I first met her. Since that time, she had started to develop an interest in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and during the last 6 months of her training she moved to Oxford, UK, on an educational leave, where she completed her specialty at John Radcliffe Hospital, under Prof. D.P. Jewell. She then continued working at the same UK center for one more year as a Research Registrar, where she collected the material for her doctoral thesis, and gained further valuable experience both at clinical and experimental aspect, doing lab research on immunological and genetic mechanisms implicated in IBD pathogenesis. She presented her results in important meetings in the UK and the US. She defended her doctoral thesis at the University of Crete in 1997 under the supervision of Prof. O. Manousos, with the topic: “Cytokine gene polymorphisms and genes of the major histocompatibility complex in patients with ulcerative colitis. Association with the occurrence of pouchitis after ileal-pouch anal anastomosis”. In January 1996 she was awarded a domestic scholarship by the Hellenic Society of Gastroenterology on the application of molecular biology in gastrointestinal diseases. Finally, in March 1996, she returned as a mature Gastroenterologist to our Department in Heraklion Crete where she offered her valuable services until the end. For all of us who were fortunate enough to work with IN mEmORIAm