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We had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Kenneth Lundstrom, Editorial Board Member of Biomedicines (ISSN: 2227-9059), to discuss his experience with Biomedicines and the recent research trends in the field.

Dr. Lundstrom received his Ph.D. in molecular genetics at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He has spent most of his career in big pharma and biotech start-ups in cancer therapy and vaccine development. Dr. Lundstrom has published more than 300 scientific articles. He is currently involved in vaccine development against SARS-CoV-2 and cancer immunotherapy.

We hope you enjoy the interview.

1. Why did you decide to work for Biomedicines?

I was attracted by the new set-up of MDPI and also by its presence in Switzerland. It seemed like a good opportunity to build something of value for the scientific community. Let me point out that I have engaged with other journals as a reviewer but also as an Editorial Board Member and even Editor-in-Chief.

2. Why should scientists submit their manuscripts in Biomedicines?

Biomedicines has a good impact factor, it is reliable, the reviewing process is fair and straightforward (most of the time!), the reviewing process is professional and rapid, and the turnover time from acceptance to online publication is impressively fast.

3. How would you recommend picking the right journal to submit your research in?

The reputation and impact factor of the journal are important. Reliable and fast procedure from submission, through reviewing, revision, proof corrections, and publication also affects the decision of which journal to choose. Obviously, when you publish frequently, it is great if you can receive waivers to limit the publication costs.

4. What do you look for most to determine if a paper will be published in the journal?

The scientific soundness of the data and the novelty are the most important things. However, the style of presentation, to ensure the manuscript is understandable for not only the experts, and also the language issue should not be forgotten. As quite a few manuscripts today are submitted by non-English speakers (i.e., native English speakers or persons with good knowledge of English), it is important to make sure that the text does not contain typos and grammatical errors and that the text does not sound like a direct use of Google Translate!

5. What is the priority for a good scientific article: great research with high scientific value or a well-thought-out composition and good writing?

As I already said above, high-quality science is most important, but the composition and writing standard are also important. Moreover, novelty and timely presentations should be highly valued.

6. What makes a great research paper?

Novelty, good science, good presentation, and good writing!

7. What excites you the most about the field of alphavirus-based gene therapy and vaccine development?

The field is relatively new, although alphavirus vectors have been around since the early 1990s. It seems that some sort of renaissance is going on, partly because of substantial progress in cancer immunotherapy and, not least, the development of nucleic acid vaccines against COVID-19. Perhaps the most attractive feature of alphaviruses is their flexibility as they can be used as recombinant and oncolytic viral particles, naked or nanoparticle-encapsulated RNA, or replicon DNA molecules. I could go on, but that would be another review!

8. Could you describe the difficulties and breakthrough innovations encountered in this research?

One difficulty has been to convince the scientific community of the safety of using alphavirus vectors and also demonstrating efficacy in clinical trials. Perhaps the most impressive breakthrough has been the demonstration of the efficacy of the current COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, which has had a direct impact on using alphavirus-based RNA delivery.

9. What are some current challenges in this field?

The main current challenges are to transfer the successful proof-of-concept findings from preclinical animal models to humans in clinical trials. Moreover, today, plenty of suspicion of the safe use of viral vectors has been encountered, especially due to so much misinformation/disinformation mainly related to the development of recent COVID-19 vaccines based on nucleic acids but also viral particles.

10. Do you have any advice for young researchers?

Conduct good research and ensure that you will be able to publish the results in good journals.

We are thankful for Dr. Lundstrom's time and his support for Biomedicines.