Fresh Perspectives from Emerging Experts

Abstract

About this time 1 year ago, we spent some time reflecting on the past 40 years of Trends in Biochemical Sciences (TiBS). What has TiBS done well, and what has set TiBS apart from other reviews journals? With that knowledge in hand, how do we stay true to the spirit of TiBS in the next 40 years, while keeping up with the current needs and trends of the biochemical community?One theme was immediately evident: scientists have always been the lifeblood of TiBS. Our authors, in particular, have been instrumental in shaping the personality of the journal. Their willingness to put their own interpretations of the literature forward in the form of opinionated TiBS articles has elevated TiBS articles above being simple summaries of the published literature. Because of our authors’ boldness, our Reviews offer original, creative, and sometimes dogma-challenging insights; in this way, our Reviews can help drive fields forward.While the role of authors in driving a reviews journal is not unique to TiBS, what you might find as unusual is that some of the most important TiBS articles have come from newly independent scientists. While a giant in a field who has unsurpassed mastery of the relevant literature may write an excellent review, sometimes the freshest ideas – which spur new research – come from those who are early in their careers and not yet entrenched in the field. For example, Donald Nicholson, co-author of ‘Caspases: Killer Proteases’, TiBS’ second-most highly cited review, was a mere senior research fellow at Merck Pharmaceuticals at the time of writing that review. His first senior-author paper had been published just 4 years before, and his breakout studies identifying the pro-apoptotic activities of caspases were published just 2 years before the TiBS Review. The other co-author, Nancy Thornberry, was also a senior research fellow at Merck at the time, and had been first author on the key Nature study that identified the first caspase, interleukin-1 converting enzyme/caspase-1, just 5 years prior to the TiBS Review.To continue our celebration of TiBS’ 40th anniversary, we are beginning a new Series of articles that continue this tradition and highlight the emerging experts of today who will help shape the direction of many biochemical fields in the decades to come. Identified for having made significant contributions already in their short careers, authors in the ‘Fresh Perspectives from Emerging Experts’ Series have contributed brief reviews that are infused with their personal perspectives on the most exciting aspects of their respective fields. Part of the purpose of this Series is to not only usher in a new wave of forward-looking Reviews by early-career researchers, but also highlight the researchers themselves and their contributions to the scientific community. Thus, in addition to the Review or Opinion article authored by the emerging expert, we will co-publish TrendsTalk (interview) articles on the respective senior authors to help you get to know these rising stars.The first Review and corresponding TrendsTalk in this Series are published in this issue of TiBS. Here, we present a Review on the exciting field of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) by Ling-Ling Chen. The many unanswered questions surrounding lncRNAs ensure that this field will be an immensely productive area of biochemical research in the years to come. In her Review, Dr Chen focuses on our emerging understanding of the mechanisms that regulate lncRNA subcellular (and suborganelle) localization, and the corresponding functional consequences of these distributions. In our TrendsTalk with Dr Chen, we learn more about what motivates her as a scientist, who has inspired her scientifically, and her philosophies in running a laboratory. We hope you will watch out for her work – and work by others in the lncRNA field – in the future; we know we will. We also hope you enjoy the rest of this Series, and learn something new from it, in the months to come.