Monthly Archives: January 2012

Genome Biology’s two-mile high epigenomic epiphanies

"A Lamarckian contribution to natural selection doesn't make much sense to me," says father-of-(modern) epigenetics Andy Feinberg as he opens his talk at the Keystone Symposium on Epigenomics. Admittedly, expressing skepticism toward Lamarck's theory on the heritability of acquired traits is hardly controversial in the 21st century, but a number of better accepted theories were… Read more »

Biology

Aquatic Biosystems: Riding the wave

Aquatic Biosystems, previously Saline Systems, was relaunched today with a broader scope to incorporate all aspects of basic and applied research on aquatic organisms and environments.  The first articles published today in Aquatic Biosystems include research by Patricia Assuncao et al. on the molecular taxonomy of new strains of Dunaliella, and research by Steve Ferguson… Read more »

Biology

A new tool in the fight against healthcare-associated infection

Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control (ARIC) has launched with BioMed Central today. Led by Andreas Voss, ARIC is a global forum for the scientific community working on the prevention, diagnosis  and treatment of healthcare-associated infections. Healthcare-associated infections are on the rise because of changes in healthcare systems and the spread of antimicrobial-resistant strains of both… Read more »

Biology
2

The Open Access legal issue

On January 24th an editorial entitled Supporting the advancement of science: Open access publishing and the role of mandates, written by Lisa Phelps, Bernard Fox and Francesco M Marincola, has been published on Journal of Translational Medicine (JTM). It deals with a very relevant issue which could undermine the survival of the Open Access system: the… Read more »

Biology

Gut Pathogens making a positive impact in 2012

The year has started positively for Gut Pathogens with the news that the journal will receive its first Impact Factor in June 2012. Gut Pathogens is aiming to be ranked in the first quartile of Gastroenterology and Hepatology journals. Gut Pathogens, an internationally recognized journal, boasts an Editorial Board consisting of leading researchers from around… Read more »

Biology

Presentation of Retrovirology Prize Trophy in Kyoto

An international symposium on Infection, Immunity, and Cancer was held January 16-17, 2012 at Kyoto University, Kyoto Japan.  The symposium brought together speakers from Japan, the USA, Taiwan, Germany, and Australia.  The symposium was organized by Prof. Masanori Hatakeyama of Tokyo University and Prof. Masao Matsuoka of Kyoto University.   The setting of this symposium was an opportune occasion for the… Read more »

Biology

Bacterial symbionts – the key to fighting pests and diseases?

Arthropods such as insects can be devastatingly efficient pests and disease vectors, posing significant challenges to the agricultural and medical communities. Pesticides used to be a common solution to dealing with pests but, with more stringent environmental regulations on pesticides and increasing pest resistance to the chemicals, new solutions are required. Many arthropods have evolved… Read more »

Biology