From physiotherapy to psychopathology, and pushing yourself to try something new

Kam Marwaha on March 7, 2014 at 10:00 am - 0 Comments

This is a guest post by Professor Rosemary Tannock, Editor-in-Chief of Behavioral and Brain Functions. To mark International Women’s Day, she takes a look back over how her career has developed from physiotherapy to psychopathology.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
Robert Frost, 1915

My current career as a behavioral scientist in the field of developmental psychopathology and as an editor for a scientific journal, which I started in my mid-40’s and 60’s respectively, was unanticipated and unplanned when I underwent initial training as a physiotherapist in England.

As I criss-crossed oceans with our young children, following my husband as he pursued his scientific and medical career, …

My career in academic psychiatry

Kam Marwaha on March 7, 2014 at 10:00 am - 0 Comments

This is a guest post by Professor Phillipa Hay, Foundation Chair of Mental Health at University of Western Sydney and Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Eating Disorders. To mark International Women’s Day, she takes a look back over her career in psychiatry and publishing.

My first love has always been the humanities but I also found science stimulating. Medicine, being both an art and a science has given me the opportunity to have the best of both, as well as an extremely rewarding career as a clinician, educator and scientist.

Not surprisingly perhaps, I pursued psychiatry where an understanding of the brain, mind and behavior is essential, as well as a rich appreciation for the diversity of human life. As a teacher I …

From plant genetics to publishing, over 30 years in science

Kam Marwaha on March 7, 2014 at 10:00 am - 0 Comments

This is a guest post by Sheila McCormick, an editor for BMC Plant Biology. To mark International Women’s Day, she takes a look back over her career in plant genetics and publishing.

When I started college at Illinois State University, I thought I might become a high school biology teacher. But as the semesters went on I started to consider going to graduate school. The professor who taught Genetics, Dr. Herman Brockman, was an inspiration – I basically fell in love with Genetics and decided to do a PhD.

I first started graduate school at Univ. Texas-Austin, intending to work on fruit fly genetics. As an undergraduate I had read a paper in the journal Genetics about the …

Inspiring change – marking International Women’s Day

Kam Marwaha on March 7, 2014 at 9:59 am - 0 Comments

Since its inception in the early 1900s International Women’s Day has witnessed lots of changes both in societal attitudes and equality. The work in creating an equal society is far from over and this ties in with this year’s theme of ‘Inspiring Change’.

In light of this theme we’ve asked some of our Editors to talk about what has inspired them. Rosemary Tannock, Editor-in-Chief of Behavioral and Brain Functions, tells us how it is never too late to make a change. She talks about the difficulties of starting a scientific career later in life, and juggling a family and research. Despite these challenges, she has contributed important work to her field, which encourages us all …

Who’s been sitting in my chair? The microbes that live indoors.

Ben Johnson on March 7, 2014 at 1:30 am - 0 Comments

When the three bears returned to their house in the woods, they found that their porridge had been eaten, their chairs had been sat in and ultimately that Goldilocks was fast asleep in baby bear’s bed. Unbeknownst to Goldilocks, she would have left more than a broken chair behind. Each of her interactions with the bears’ house would have transferred microbes from her to the built environment in which they lived.

We know that humans are covered in microbial life, with more bacterial cells than the cells in our own bodies. We know much less about the microbes living in the built environment – the homes we live in, our offices, farms and factories. Most humans in industrialized countries now spend …

SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands

Jennifer Franklin on March 5, 2014 at 4:42 pm - 0 Comments

Antimicrobial resistance is a global and critical issue facing the world today. Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control is supporting the World Health Organisation in their campaign ‘SAVE LIVES: Clean your hands’, which aims to increase global awareness of the role of hand hygiene to combat antimicrobial resistance.

The WHO awareness day is the 5th May, when two global surveys will be taking place on the following topics, which you can contribute to:

- A Global Prevalence Survey on Multidrug-Resistant Organisms (MDROs) – laboratories in healthcare facilities around the world are asked to submit data from inpatient clinical blood and urine laboratory specimens, related to five selected key multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs).

- A Point Prevalence Global Survey on use of Surgical Antibiotic …

Recent advances in targeted breast cancer treatments

Kathryn Smith on March 5, 2014 at 10:19 am - 0 Comments

Substantial progress has been made in the targeted therapy of breast cancer, with three new targeted therapies licensed for advanced breast cancer over the last two years. Targeted therapies block the growth and spread of cancer by interfering in specific biological processes responsible for cancer cell growth. Therefore targeted therapies may be more effective and less harmful to normal cells than other cancer treatments, such as traditional chemotherapy that targets all rapidly dividing cells. The most well known targeted therapy at the moment is trastuzumab (Herceptin).

A new thematic series in Breast Cancer Research brings together the translational research behind these new approaches, as well as reviewing treatments with early evidence of efficacy that are still …

The cancer-obesity connection: where are we now?

Kam Marwaha on March 4, 2014 at 1:45 pm - 0 Comments

Post by Rabia Begum

Obesity is emerging as a major risk factor to cancer susceptibility. With obesity rates on the rise around the world, this has major health and policy implications for us all.

This link between cancer and obesity was debated at the Metabolism, Diet and Disease Conference in 2012, in which the focus was on metabolic factors in common between obesity and cancer and potential strategies for intervening to reduce the associated health risks.

The panel, including Michael Pollak and Stephen Hursting, also discussed the fact that anti-cancer agents are less effective in obese cancer patients, and that the metabolic link to different cancers may not always be the same. Take a look at some of the highlights from …

Here’s to our reviewers!

Kam Marwaha on March 4, 2014 at 9:45 am - 0 Comments

When a researcher gets their work published, months of hard work and dedication finally pay off. The rewards of being published in a reputable journal are immediately obvious, but what about the hard work that goes on behind the scenes?

Peer review remains the gold standard for the evaluation of new research and key to the process of refining an article before publication. It is a widely debated issue, and not without its flaws, but new practises are emerging, and adaptations have been made to the process to provide the best possible service.

For example, BMC series medical journals operate an open peer review policy which enables authors and the reading public to see the names of the reviewers who …

Could a malaria drug provide a possible route to treating gallbladder cancer?

Jennifer Franklin on March 3, 2014 at 12:07 pm - 0 Comments

The incidence of gallbladder cancer varies significantly worldwide, with very high rates in South America, Japan, China and Eastern Europe and lower rates in the US and UK. Interestingly gallbladder cancer is also twice as common in women than men, which arguably may be due to increased exposure to the hormone oestrogen.

The prognosis for living with gallbladder cancer is very poor, and thus research into finding an effective treatment is crucially important. Xiao Liang and colleagues have recently published a promising early study on this subject in Cell & Bioscience, reporting the results of a preliminary experiment using the antimalarial drug chloroquine to aid treatment of the cancer.

Gallbladder cancer is notoriously difficult to treat as …