The September 2025 issue of the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine (YJBM) has been published on PubMed Central (PMC). This focus issue features articles on the history of medicine, an interdisciplinary approach to understanding medicine within the context of the past.
Editor highlights of the issue include a perspectives piece by Chris Babits, PhD, (Utah State University, Logan, UT), who showcases how the religious right co-opted the 1993 study by Hamer et al. on the “gay gene” to bolster conversion therapy and treat homosexuality as “curable.”
Next, we present a paper by Uğurgül Tunç, PhD, (McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada) that explores the emergence of the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) through the letters of Wilder Penfield, MD, a neurosurgeon and leader of the MNI.
Another perspectives piece by Joseph Aaron Joe (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD) explores the postcolonial history of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila, Philippines and questions how we should approach the legacy of colonialism and the modern hospital.
For more modern medical history, Kendall Comish, MA, (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL) explores a lesser known account of Birmingham’s grassroots support of adults living with HIV/AIDs from 1985 to 2000. When there was little to no federal support, grassroots organizations, including local activist groups and faith-based establishments, stepped in to care for patients.
Lastly, we present an interview with Qi Yan and Xuezhu (Sunny) Wang by Hayley Serpa and Samuel Suh (Program in the History of Science and Medicine, Yale University), who made an interesting archival discovery about Chenghui Ge, DrPH, the first Chinese woman to graduate from Yale School of Public Health.
Read the entire YJBM archive for free on PMC. The YJBM is open-access for all.
Deputy Editors of this issue: Hayley Serpa (Program in the History of Science and Medicine, Yale University) and Shivesh Shourya (MPH ’25, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Yale School of Public Health); Editors-in-Chief: Charlotte Godfrey (Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, Yale University) and Aden Alemayhu (Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry, Yale University); Managing Editor, Hayley Serpa.