OMICS is becoming increasingly global in scope, and is read in over 140 countries worldwide. Recently, manuscript submissions from Europe and Asia, specifically from China, have exploded. This issue is comprised of research entirely from Europe. We thank many of our new International Editorial Board members for encouraging this trend.
One of our friends and member of our Editorial Board,
Andrew F. Siegel
(US-based), is stepping down, and we sincerely thank him for his great support! At the same time, we welcome two new Europe-based (actually, Iberia-based) members to our Board:
Maria-Isabel Covas
and
Isabel Sá-Correia
. Professor Maria-Isabel Covas is one of the world leaders of nutrigenomics research, and is currently head of the Cardiovascular Risk and Nutrition Research Group of the Program of Research in Inflammatory and Cardiovascular Disorders at the IMIM-Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain. Isabel Sá- Correia is Professor of Biological Sciences at the Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering at Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal. Her work is published in the current issue (see below); Isabel is also currently working on a special issue of OMICS devoted to
response to drugs and other chemical stresses in yeasts
. If you are interested in participating in this exciting issue, please e-mail her at: isacorreia@ist.utl.pt.
Last year we lost one of the giants of 20th Century Biology,
Piotr W. Slonimski
, who had been a member of our Editorial Board since the inception of OMICS. Professor Slonimski was not only one of the fathers and stars of yeast genetics, but also a huge proponent of new genomics approaches. His unconditional support helped not only the yeast genome to become the first eukaryotic genome to be sequenced, but also helped OMICS to be formed and mature. Therefore, we are happy that another yeast genetics and genomics star Isabel Sá-Correia has joined our Board. Isabel and Maria-Isabel, welcome aboard!
We plan to have one more special issue in 2010, devoted to
Cancer OMICS
. Two Guest Editors, Drs.
Giuseppe Carruba
(lucashbl@unipa.it) and
H.
Leon Bradlow
(bradlowhl@gmail.com), are organizers of the 10th European (again!) Congress on Cancer OMICS in Erice, Sicily, Italy. This special issue will follow the scope of this conference on
implementation of OMICS sciences in the prevention and treatment of human tumors
. If you are interested in learning more, please either visit http://www.ericecancermeeting.com/2010/ or contact Giuseppe or Leon directly.
This issue is a very exciting one. The first two manuscripts represent metabolomics studies. The first one, by
Antoni Caimari, Paula Oliver, Jaap Keijer
, and
Andreu Palou,
shows a striking difference in metabolic adaptations between normal and obese rats. This analysis of changes in metabolism (lipid, carbohydrate, energy, etc.) of peripheral blood mononuclear cells due to acute changes in feedings is an important work in the development of a new fascinating research area of clinical nutrigenomics. The second manuscript, by the U.K.'s University of Birmingham and University Hospital Birmingham team, led by
Mark R. Viant,
is a proof-of-principle study of metabolism in orthotopic liver transplantation. Based on mass spectrometry and coulometric electrochemical array detection of biopsies, this integrative study unequivocally shows a considerable change in redox-active metabolites between pre- and postperfusion.
Let us switch gears and cite the first sentence from the Abstract of the third manuscript by
Mathieu Lonquety, Jacques Chomilier, Nikolaos Papandreou
, and
Zoé Lacroix
: “Proteins come in all shapes and sizes.” And if you now guess that this work claims that despite all proteins being equal there are some that are more equal than others, you guess correctly! Specifically, by analyzing most interacting residues (MIR, which also means “peace” in some other contexts) in protein molecules using five algorithms, this work is able to predict new candidate positions for autonomous protein folding units. These are MIRs that exhibit minimum stability, which means mutations to those residues, in particular, can be particularly destabilizing and deleterious.
In the fourth study, a Barcelona team led by
Carles Arús
focuses on improving classifications of human tumors by implementing transcriptomics approaches. Based on their own and publicly available gene expression data, a high degree of accuracy was achieved in distinguishing glioblastoma and meningioma cases. The fifth work, by
Wanwipa Vongsangnak, Intawat Nookaew, Margarita Salazar
, and
Jens Nielsen,
crosscompares genome-wide expression and evolution of two Aspergillus species: A. oryzae and A. niger. Among other fascinating findings, this work shows that fatty acid catabolism and transport, glyoxylate bypass, and peroxisomal biogenesis coevolved in these two closely related fungi.
The sixth manuscript, by
Ana Rotter
et al., introduces an integrative statistical approach for transcriptomics analysis. It combines expression values with so-called closed itemset mining and validates its power on independent sets of potato microarray experiments. In the seventh study,
Salvatore Campo
et al. initially focuses on molecular cloning and characterization of adult Sparus aurata haemoglobin genes. It then involves comparative phylogenetic analysis of different haemoglobins. As a result, this work deepens our understanding of adaptive biochemical mechanisms of fish under extreme conditions, which in turn, has clear implications for fish farming.
Two chemogenomics (genomic responses to chemical compounds) studies of yeast by the team led by
Isabel Sá-Correia
round out this issue of OMICS. The first study identifies genes required for maximal tolerance to high glucose concentrations and compares these genes to those needed for yeast resistance to ethanol stresses. These shared genes are involved in vacuolar function, cell wall biogenesis, and transcriptional control of nutrient metabolism. These findings will lead to developing more robust yeast strains to be used in industrial alcoholic fermentation processes. The second study focuses on determining the molecular mechanisms that underlie the toxicity of mancozeb, an agricultural fungicide linked to cancers and Parkinson's in humans. Yeast deletion mutants uncover almost 300 genes that provide protection against mancozeb toxicity. These genes are primarily associated with transcription, vacuolar organization, and biogenesis (see first study!) as well as with intracellular traffic and intracellular pH regulation.
Finally, please carefully read and follow our updated Author Instructions: http://www.liebertpub.com/products/manuscript.aspx?pid = 43, because we made a couple of changes with regard to the MIBBI standards and References.
As always, please don't be a stranger, and do e-mail us!
