BioMed Central Blog
BMC Research Notes publishes 250th article
In October last year BMC Research Notes reached its 100th article milestone, only eight months after its launch. I am now delighted to announce that after a further eight months we have reached the 250th article landmark.
BMC Research Notes remains firmly within the top 10 BMC-series journals, in terms of both submissions and publications, and continues to attract the submission of valuable manuscripts that otherwise may have remained unpublished.
The 250th article, A comprehensive resource for integrating and displaying protein post-translational modifications, by Tzong-Yi Lee and colleagues, will also feature in our Databases Topical series, which is a collection of articles describing new or improved databases.
In this data note, Lee and colleagues present the implementation of dbPTM 2.0, a database of both experimentally verified and predicted post-translational modifications (PTMs). In its latest version the database integrates, in an enhanced web interface, tools to visualise PTMs in the context of the proteins' secondary and tertiary structure, structural properties of PTM sites such as solvent accessibility to substrate and information on the evolutionary conservation of these modifications.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all authors, reviewers and committed Editorial Board Members who have been involved in the successful growth of BMC Research Notes. Our Editorial Board has played a significant role in developing the journal by investing their time and efforts into providing their expert advice, and we appreciate their continued dedication to this important and innovative journal.
We welcome readers’ feedback on the journal and its contents. If you have any questions about the journal and our editorial policies, or if you would like to be involved in the journal, as an author, reviewer, or Associate Editor, please do get in touch.
Rhian Cunliffe
Senior Journal Development Editor, BMC-series journals
Posted by Rhian Cunliffe at 11:31 Comments (0)
Copy number variation: larger clues to cancer?
‘Copy number variations and cancer’, a Review article published in Genome Medicine, describes the emerging importance of the role of genetic structural variation and diversity in cancer.
Copy number variations (CNV) are large, structurally variant regions of DNA that contribute substantially to genetic diversity. Until recently, the majority of genomic studies in cancer have focused on the single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with different forms of the disease. Technological progress in the form of high-resolution SNP arrays, however, has allowed the identification of increasing numbers of CNVs and the association of these components of genetic variation with different forms of cancer has become apparent.
As Dr Adam Shlien and Dr David Malkin discuss in this Review, the importance of understanding the complex structural dynamics of CNVs, both in constitutional and somatic mutations, and their association with cancer, is evident. The authors analyze the research in this field to date, and highlight the possibility of exciting developments for the future.
Genome Medicine, BioMed Central’s premier medical journal, stands at the forefront of research and clinical practice in the post-genomic era. The journal is led by six Section Editors and is supported by a world renowned Editorial Board.
We welcome cutting-edge genomic and post-genomic research reporting findings that significantly advance our understanding and management of human health and disease.
Keep abreast of recent developments in these exciting times: register for article updates and submit your next manuscript of outstanding research to Genome Medicine.
Jasmine Farsarakis
Commissioning/Development Editor, Genome Medicine
Posted by Jasmine Farsarakis at 11:26 Comments (0)