The skeleton in the closet

• Skeletal gifts provide important clues to modern molecular mysteries.
• FOP is a rare condition with implications for common diseases.
• The key to the closet is the key to the kingdom.

The origins of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) in human history are unknown but the condition has been well described since Freke's account in 1740. Important contributions by physicians and scientists in the past two and a half centuries have converged on the remarkable skeleton of Harry Eastlack at The Mutter Museum of The College of Physicians in Philadelphia.