Announcements

We are pleased to share that 197 Editorial Board Members and Guest Editors from MDPI’s journal Genes (ISSN: 2073-4425) were featured in Stanford’s List of the World's Top 2% Scientists.

The list was created by Prof. John P. A. Ioannidis from Stanford University and his research team. They have created a publicly available database of 100,000 top-cited scientists that provides standardized information on citations, h-index, co-authorship adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions and a composite indicator (c-score). Scientists are classified into 22 scientific fields and 176 sub-fields.

We would like to congratulate our Editorial Board Members and Guest Editors on their excellent achievement and thank them for their immense contribution to the scientific progression and development of Genes.

1. “HMGA2 as a Critical Regulator in Cancer Development”
by Mansoori, B., Mohammadi, A., Ditzel, H. J., Duijf, P. H. G., Khaze, V., Gjerstorff, M. F. and Baradaran, B.
Genes 2021, 12(2), 269; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12020269
Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/2/269

2. “Liquid Biopsies: Applications for Cancer Diagnosis and Monitoring”
by Martins, I., Ribeiro, I. P., Jorge, J., Gonçalves, A. C., Sarmento-Ribeiro, A. B., Melo, J. B. and Carreira, I. M.
Genes 2021, 12(3), 349; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12030349
Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/3/349

3. “Decipher the Glioblastoma Microenvironment: The First Milestone for New Groundbreaking Therapeutic Strategies”
by Fanelli, G. N., Grassini, D., Ortenzi, V., Pasqualetti, F., Montemurro, N., Perrini, P., Naccarato, A. G. and Scatena, C.
Genes 2021, 12(3), 445; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12030445
Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/3/445

4. “Analysis of RNA Modifications by Second- and Third-Generation Deep Sequencing: 2020 Update”
by Motorin, Y. and Marchand, V.
Genes 2021, 12(2), 278; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12020278
Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/2/278

5. “Protective Role of a TMPRSS2 Variant on Severe COVID-19 Outcome in Young Males and Elderly Women”
by Monticelli, M., Hay Mele, B., Benetti, E., Fallerini, C., Baldassarri, M., Furini, S., Frullanti, E., Mari, F., GEN-COVID Multicenter Study, and Andreotti, G. et al. 
Genes 2021, 12(4), 596; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12040596
Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/4/596

6. “Drugging the Undruggable: Advances on RAS Targeting in Cancer”
by Molina-Arcas, M., Samani, A., and Downward, J.
Genes 2021, 12(6), 899; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12060899
Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/6/899

7. “Epigenetic Evolution of ACE2 and IL-6 Genes: Non-Canonical Interferon-Stimulated Genes Correlate to COVID-19 Susceptibility in Vertebrates”
by Sang, E. R., Tian, Y., Miller, L. C., and Sang, Y.
Genes 2021, 12(2), 154; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12020154
Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/2/154

8. “Novel Approaches to Epigenetic Therapies: From Drug Combinations to Epigenetic Editing”
by Majchrzak-Celińska, A., Warych, A. and Szoszkiewicz, M.
Genes 2021, 12(2), 208; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12020208
Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/2/208

9. “The Role of Lipid Sensing Nuclear Receptors (PPARs and LXR) and Metabolic Lipases in Obesity, Diabetes and NAFLD”
by Dixon, E. D., Nardo, A. D., Claudel, T. and Trauner, M.
Genes 2021, 12(5), 645; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12050645
Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/5/645 

10. “Real-Time Culture-Independent Microbial Profiling Onboard the International Space Station Using Nanopore Sequencing”
by Stahl-Rommel, S., Jain, M., Nguyen, H. N., Arnold, R. R., Aunon-Chancellor, S. M., Sharp, G. M., Castro, C. L., John, K. K., Juul, S., and Turner, D. J. et al.
Genes 2021, 12(1), 106; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12010106
Full text available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/1/106

Peer Review Week began 19 September 2022 under the theme of “Research Integrity: Creating and Supporting Trust in Research”. Through various blog articles, podcast, and webinar, we discussed this crucial subject throughout the week, celebrating the essential role peer review plays in maintaining research quality.

To begin, we held a Webinar on the topic. Professor Peter W. Choate and Dr. Emmanuel Obeng-Gyasi joined Dr. Ioana Craciun, one of MDPI’s scientific officers, for an in-depth discussion.

We invite you to view the event recording:

During the week, the MDPI Blog in a series articles highlighted how good Peer Review safeguards research integrity. The following topics were covered:

• Peer Review Week 2022
• Research Integrity
• What We’ve Learned About Peer Review Reports
• 4 Steps to the Perfect Peer Review Report
• How to Write the Perfect Peer Review Report: An Interview
• Inviting Great Peer Reviewers

In a new edition of Insight Faster, an MDPI podcast, we were delighted to talk to the co-chairs of the Peer Review Week committee, Jayashree Rajagopalan (Senior Manager of Global Community Engagement for CACTUS) and Danielle Padula (Head of Marketing and Community Development at Scholastica) to get their take on this year’s event and its related topics.

You can find the Podcast here.

We hope you enjoy the contents!

Date: 6 October 2022
Time: 4:30 p.m. CEST | 10:30 a.m. EDT | 10:30 p.m. CST Asia
Webinar ID: 875 9531 5334
Webinar Secretariat: genes.webinar@mdpi.com
Webinar Link：https://genes-2.sciforum.net/
Register for free here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/6016617624627/WN_qHhc0H22QG6cIUFwSalY1w

Chair

Prof. Dr. Ponnazhagan is a trained molecular geneticist with a focus on cancer. He is currently a Full Professor and holds an Endowed Professorship in Experimental Cancer Therapeutics. The major research areas of Dr. Ponnazhagan’s lab are experimental cancer therapeutics, including stem cell and gene therapy using adeno-associated virus (AAV), tumor microenvironment (TME), and cancer–bone metastasis. In reference to cancer–bone interaction, Dr. Ponnazhagan’s lab models breast cancer to adopt strategies that target tumor cells, immune suppression, and aggressive osteoclast functions. To overcome the limitations in current therapies, his lab developed novel molecular tools and targeted delivery mechanisms, utilizing mesenchymal stem cells as effective therapeutic vehicles for bone remodeling in breast cancer osteolytic pathology. Towards targeting the receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa-B ligand (RANKL) activation using osteoprotegerin (OPG), a decoy receptor for RANKL, without interfering in tumor-necrosis-factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL)-mediated apoptosis of tumor cells, his lab developed an OPG mutant by structural protein engineering that lacks TRAIL binding affinity and validated in vivo in a disseminated osteolytic malignancy model. His group is the first to identify a subset of immature myeloid cells, known as myeloid-derived suppressor cells, in the TME within the bone, that directly undergo osteoclast differentiation and serve as osteoclast progenitors to enhance bone damage. Recent studies from his lab have established the role of RANKL in activating M2 macrophages in the breast cancer microenvironment and have shown that dampening the effects of elevated RANKL using the OPG mutant resulted in a shift in the immune milieu favoring an anti-tumor cytokine and chemokine response.

Invited Speakers

Dr. Bodamer was recruited to Boston Children’s Hospital in 2015 as Associate Chief for Genetics and Genomics, where he also has an established translational research laboratory. He is a member of several editorial and scientific advisory boards as well as of patient organizations. Dr. Bodamer has a busy clinical practice at Boston Children’s Hospital where he sees patients of all age groups with complex genetic disorders, including Kabuki syndrome and other disorders of histone modification. In 2017, he founded the Roya Kabuki Program at Boston Children’s Hospital with a focus on integrated clinical care and research to improve health outcomes and identify novel therapies. In addition, Dr. Bodamer is active in several areas of translational genetics and genomics research, in clinical trials and in educational and teaching activities within Harvard Medical School, and he is also an associate member of the Broad Institute of Harvard University and MIT. Since 2021, he has directed the NORD center of excellence for rare diseases at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Dr. Isa Houwink was born on 13 December 1973 in Haarlem, the Netherlands. After she received secondary education at the Barlaeus Gymnasium in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, she successfully passed the Propadeutics in Health Sciences. After obtaining her medical degree in 2003, she started working as a resident at the departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology both in Amsterdam and in Heerlen. She then decided to become a General Practitioner to be able to foster a more personal relationship with her patients and started her residency in Maastricht in 2005. In 2006, she published an accredited written Accredidact CPD module on pre- and postnatal screening together with Prof. Martina Cornel. In 2010, they also published a book on “Genetics in general practice” published by Elsevier in the series of Praktikum Huisartsgeneeskunde. From 2008 until 2013 Dr. Houwink participated in a Ph.D. project in the section Community Genetics, Department of Clinical Genetics (VU University Medical Center Amsterdam) under the supervision of Prof. Martina Cornel and Prof. Geert Jan Dinant (Department of Family Medicine in Maastricht). Her project, funded by the CSG Centre for Society and the Life Sciences /Centre for Medical Systems Biology, aimed to reflect on current genomics developments with primary care workers and to help them identify their learning priorities. On the 20th of December 2013, she defended her thesis "Training in genetics and genomics" Cum Laude. Dr. Houwink worked as an Associate Professor ((Pharmaco)genetics in primary care) at the Leiden University Medical Center and a GP in Kerkrade (GC Terwinselen). In Leiden, her focus was on interprofessional education, (pharmaco)genetics education, implementation and research in primary care, personal genetic lockers, and providing non-genetic healthcare workers clear guidelines and definitions of their responsibilities and roles in addressing genetic risk profiles (common and rare diseases), and she is a member of the Netherlands eHealth Living Lab (NeLL).

We look forward to your participation in this event.

Genes Editorial Office

MDPI will be attending ASHG 2022, held in Los Angeles, USA, from 25 to 29 October 2022.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Genes;
• JPM;
• Biomedicines;
• Biomolecules;
• Cardiogenetics;
• Cancers;
• Brain Science;
• Symmetry;
• Diagnostics;
• Metabolites;
• Cells;
• Biology;
• Humans;
• DNA.

If you plan on attending this conference, feel free to stop by our booth: #1844. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have.

For more information about the conference, please see the following link:

https://www.ashg.org/meetings/2022-annual-meeting/.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, it is our pleasure to invite scientists, academicians, young researchers, and students from all over the world to attend the International Conference Single Cell Genomics Moving Forward and present their research. This conference will be held as a three-day event in Barcelona, Spain, from 29 to 31 March 2023.

Our goal in holding this conference is to facilitate innovative collaborative research on the interface of single-cell genomics, spatial transcriptomics, and artificial intelligence. The demand for integrating these fields is quickly growing, and by bringing together multi-disciplinary groups of scientists to present and exchange breakthrough ideas, we hope to stimulate advances in the single-cell research field.

Our program includes keynote lectures, invited talks, workshops, and collaborative discussion sessions on recent outstanding achievements made in single-cell research. In particular, we will focus on identifying future trends and the needs of the field and on proposing and discussing innovative interdisciplinary approaches to address them.

This conference is initiated and sponsored by the journal Genes (ISSN: 2073-4425, IF: 4.141) with the goal of establishing a regular event to provide a venue for initiating collaboration, and discussing the latest achievements and challenges in single-cell biology. We hope to inspire young scientists to join this emerging and exciting field.

We are inviting researchers, experts, students, as well as innovative businesses focusing on any aspect of single-cell multi-omics technologies and analysis, the use of artificial intelligence in single-cell genomics, and spatial genomics and transcriptomics to attend and present their research and products. It is only through an exchange of the widest variety of research possible that we can offer the best forward-thinking solutions in this challenging field. Furthermore, all presenters at the conference will be encouraged to submit a full manuscript of their presentation for consideration for publication in a Special Issue of Genes.

We look forward to meeting you and discussing your exciting single-cell research in the beautiful city of Barcelona!

Genes 2023 Conference Chairs
Professor J. Peter W. Young and Dr. Anelia Horvath

MDPI will be attending SEBBM 2022, held in Malaga, Spain, from 6 to 9 September 2022.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Genes (leading journal);
• Biomolecules (co-leading);
• Cells (co-leading);
• Marine Drugs;
• JFB;
• Biochem;
• CIMB;
• Metabolites;
• Proteomes;
• IJMS.

If you plan on attending this conference, feel free to stop by our booth #25. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have.

We are pleased to announce that the European Worm Meeting 2022 (EWM 2022) has set up a free media partnership with Genes (ISSN: 2073-4425).

Conference: European Worm Meeting 2022 (EWM 2022)
Date: 27–30 July 2022
Place: University of Vienna, Austria

The 2022 European Worm Meeting (EWM) will take place in the wonderful city of Vienna from 27 to 30 July.

The meeting is hosted by the University of Vienna and will take place at the Lecture Hall of the Campus of the University of Vienna. The University Campus is located near the historic center and is easily accessible by public transport, which means that visitors will have the opportunity not just to attend our event and partake in the sharing of recent research developments and high-quality, but also to experience our beautiful city.

We look forward to an exciting in-person meeting which will offer attendees the opportunity to network with C. elegans researchers from across Europe and beyond.

Further details can be found on the event’s website: https://ewm2022.univie.ac.at/.

Genes Editorial Office

The Genes Editorial Office is pleased to inform you that applications are open for the Topical Advisory Panel. Should you decide to serve on the Topical Advisory Panel, you would be responsible for some of the following tasks, depending on your availability:

• Providing regular reviews of manuscripts;
• Setting up at least one Special Issue in partnership with a senior researcher within two years of your appointment and proposing a detailed strategy plan for the Special Issue (including soliciting papers, promoting the Special Issue, etc.);
• Providing support for Special Issues/Topics related to your expertise when their Guest Editor(s) are not available. This includes Special Issue promotion via social media and giving advice on some scientific matters;
• Promoting our journal at conferences (adding 1–2 slides into your presentation, distributing flyers, recommending the journal to your colleagues, etc.), on social media, and other relevant platforms;
• Working with Editorial Board Members or the Editorial Office to promote high-quality/featured papers (for example, writing summaries or highlights for editor-selected papers).

To qualify as a Topical Advisory Panel Member, applicants must:

• Have expertise and experience in a field related to Genes;
• Have completed their Ph.D. within the last approximately 10 years;
• Have at least 6 papers published in the last 5 years as a first author or corresponding author;
• Currently hold an independent research position in academia or at a government institute.

Each year, members’ performance is evaluated, and outstanding members are promoted to the Editorial Board by the Editor-in-Chief. Please visit the following link to submit your application: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/genes/topical_advisory_panel.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Editorial Office (genes@mdpi.com) for further details and clarification.

Genes Editorial Office

The 2021 citation metrics have been released in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), and we’re pleased to announce the following results for MDPI journals:

For more information on Impact Factors and what it means to index academic journals, please visit our related blog posts.

* Journals given their first Impact Factor in 2022

Source: 2021 Journal Impact Factors, Journal Citation Reports ^TM (Clarivate, 2022)