Inspiration from inspirational cell biologists.

Abstract

This year Molecular Biology of the Cell is publishing two special issues, this award issue and a second “quantitative biology” issue. In the award issue, MBoC's tradition of publishing essays by ASCB award winners continues. These highly accomplished individuals inspire us with engaging stories of their lives and careers and share with us their considerable wisdom. The diversity of the career paths followed by this year's award winners and the ways in which they and earlier ASCB award winners (www.molbiolcell .org/content/by/section/ASCB+Award+Essays) achieved success show that there is not a single formula for a fruitful research career. If there is a common theme in these essays, it is that the award winners all share a passion for scientific discovery and for improving the scientific enterprise. Some of the award essays also remind us that there is still work to be done to make the research community more inclusive and supportive of women and minorities. Also featured in this issue for the benefit of our readers is an excellent Perspective article, “How to Start a Biotech Company” by Adriana Tajonar. The cover illustration was provided by the authors of the 2014 MBoC Paper of the Year (Mana-Capelli et al., 2014 ). A printed collection of the ASCB Award Essays and the Perspective to be distributed at the 2014 ASCB/IFCB meeting will include the Paper of the Year. This special issue is only one reflection of MBoC's continued commitment to its authors and readers. We continue to make changes to better serve the cell biology community. For example, we recently implemented practices to improve recognition for co–first authors of research articles (Drubin, 2014 ). If you have ideas for other ways in which MBoC can help scientists communicate their work, further their careers, and promote our profession, please drop me an email. MBoC's second special issue, to be published on November 5, recognizes the importance of quantitative approaches in modern cell biology research. The ASCB's president, Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, served as guest editor for this issue, which will contain a fantastic collection of research articles and Perspectives and signals an exciting expansion in the scope of MBoC to include articles that apply physical and quantitative approaches to cell biology problems. We are particularly interested in publishing articles on topics such as quantitative imaging, biophysical properties of cells and cell structures, computational and mathematical modeling, innovative physical or computational approaches to cell biological problems, and systems studies of cell signaling and complex physiological processes. All manuscripts submitted to MBoC are handled exclusively by working scientists. To better handle manuscripts in quantitative biology, we are excited to announce the addition of the following individuals to our editorial board: Patricia Bassereau, Margaret Gardel, Diane Lidke, Wallace Marshall, Samara Reck-Peterson, Thomas Surrey, and Valerie Weaver. We are also pleased to announce the addition to the editorial board of Gia Voeltz, who provides expertise in organelle biogenesis and structure. Special thanks go to our Features editors Doug Kellogg, Keith Kozminski, and Bill Bement, and to MBoC staff members Eric Baker and Mark Leader, whose hard work helped make both of these special MBoC issues possible. David Drubin Editor-in-Chief