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In 2023 ISN Council approved production of a magazine style of communication for ecirculation among the Neurochemistry community, and ISN News was born.
ISN News will publish stories, interviews, articles and updates from our community. It will help us get to know the people in ISN and its related neurochemistry societies, to find out what is going on and learn about new opportunities.
Speaking of opportunities, we are looking for enthusiastic people with good writing skills who would like to gain some editing experience on the ISN News Editorial Board. If you fancy taking charge of commissioning, editing and producing just one article per edition get in touch! It should be a great way to get to know the community, get some editing experience and contributing to ISN
For more information contact Lindy Rae at c.rae@unsw.edu.au
Five years ago, I became a principal investigator, a labor that has brought setbacks but also key achievements that allowed me to establish solid ground. Here, I reflect on some key moments.
I began job searching seven years ago after completing two postdoctoral trainings in the USA After two years of multiple applications and becoming a mother of a beautiful baby boy, I got only three job interviews From these interviews, I received a job offer from the División de Biología Molecular at the Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (IPICYT) in San Luis Potosí, México. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to neuroscience research and train the new generation of neuroscientists in my home country.
Upon receiving this news, I submitted grant applications to establish my research laboratory at IPICYT
The International Society for Neurochemistry, through the Committee for Aid and Education in Neurochemistry (CAEN), granted me a return home grant, which allowed me to acquire the necessary laboratory supplies and reagents to begin our research work. While the objective of the return home grant was to support our research, little did I know that the circumstances we would face would give even greater value to the CAEN return home grant.
I started working at IPICYT in October 2019, but just two months later, the COVID-19 pandemic began. In March 2020, IPICYT implemented COVID-19 restrictions, which meant that a real beginning was nearly impossible to achieve for my group The return home grant became particularly relevant because the support arrived two months after I started my position The timing was perfect, as it allowed us to start working, albeit slowly
As a new PI and a mother handling the COVID-19 pandemic, I applied to various international and national agencies to fund our research. However, I received these comments: “The publication record is weaker upon return to Mexico, coinciding with the pandemic” and “There are no publications with last authorship. This raises the question of whether she can be considered suitable as an already independent”.
Thankfully, the CAEN return home grant provided me the seed funding to publish as a corresponding author, allowing me to prove that I can carry out research despite the complications that COVID-19 brought
I thank the International Society for Neurochemistry and the CAEN program for trusting and valuing my potential as a PI. The return home grant was crucial to building a successful academic career in San Luis Potosí Now, I have an enthusiastic, dynamic, and collaborative research group (Picture 1)
Last year, we celebrated the first International Brain Awareness Week, which reached about 2500 people through in-person and online talks and neuroscience workshops at IPICYT’s installation and downtown San Luis Potosí (Picture 2). Hence, our impact extends beyond our laboratory settings, making us proud to continue working as a team.
2: A young indigenous girl selling handcraft bags from San Luis Potosí listens to Rosario, who is explaining the different functions of the brain, during Brain Awareness week at the Plaza de Armas in downtown San Luis Potosí
To all the past and current members of the Laboratorio de Neurobiología at IPICYT. AMES thanks Araceli, Karen, Angy, Victor, Ares, and Alonso for their insightful comments.
ISN members are well aware of the ISN logo which is ISN’s brand and which is prominently present on all ISN announcements, letters and communications I have known this logo since I attended my first ISN conference 1991 in Sydney/Australia During my recent work on the reorganization of the ISN Archive I realized that the familiar and current ISN logo is not the first ISN logo. In fact, in the years up to 1986 ISN hadtwologos
These were used for different purposes Logo A was used for official communications of the society such as ISN newsletters, while logo B was used on the cover of the Journal of Neurochemistry (JNC) Unfortunately, I could not find any information in the ISN Archive about who created those initial two logos (this information appears to have already been lost in 1986). If any of the readers of this text know about the origin of the two initial ISN logos, please besokindtoletmeknow!
Inthe1980s,ISNaimedtobecomemore professional in its procedures For example, manuals and guidelines were written, describing how the society should be run. Consequently, the use of two ISN logos for different purposes was felt to be suboptimal with the design of the initial two logos in need of professional updating In 1984, ISN Council authorized ISN Secretary Victor Whittaker to employ a professional designer to develop a new logo and a „house-style“ for ISN communications, and allocated (in 1985) up to $10,000 for the logo design and its implementation In 1986, the new ISN logo, designed by Nucleus Design Associates (UK), was presented to Council and ISN members in Prague. The total costs were, surprisingly, lower (around $3,500) than initially expected. Blue and grey were initially approved as colors for the logo, butthosecolorswererapidlycriticizedas not matching the existing colors of the JNCcover.
If you have wondered what the ISN logo stands for, the ISN Newsletter from October1986explainsit:
„Here the frequent preoccupation of neurochemistry with isolated, surviving nerve cells and their component parts –intissuesamplesandslices,inculture,in subcellular fractions – is symbolized by the asymmetric but formalized neuron enclosed within a rectangular frame, the latter standing for the constraints and accuracyofchemicalinvestigation.“
During the next decades the ISN logo was used in different colors and styles for ISN communications and JNC Only very recently, in 2018, in the design of a new ISN Webpage, the ISN logo was updated and modern branding standardsweredefined.
Seán O’Donoghue is a Conjoint Professor at UNSW in Sydney, Australia, and a Visiting Scientist at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Seán’s career has focused on developing methods, tools, and practices to help life scientists uncover insights buried in complex data, resulting in online resources used by tens of thousands of researchers worldwide He is a cofounder of VIZBI, an international conference on the visualisation of biological information. He will be conducting tutorials on how to best present data at the upcoming 2024 ISN-JNC Flagship School in Naxos, Greece. ISNews asked Seán to tell us a little about himself and how he came to grapple with graphs
Wasn’t your original doctorate on protein structure determination? How did you come to be interested in data visualization?
I have always been interested in applying my background in pure maths, physics, and programming to address data challenges in the life sciences. During my PhD and early postdoc work, I focused on improving the algorithms used to transform biomolecular data into 3D structural models – these 3D models are now very common, for example, models showing proteins bound to DNA segments
For me, a big shift came in the year 2000, when I was working in a biotech start-up company called Lion Bioscience AG in Germany. We had an amazing collaboration with the US company, Celera. Basically, Celera had the first human genome, and Lion had the first genome analysis pipeline So, our collaboration focused on analyzing the human genome, and making the analysis results accessible to life scientists in industry and in academia Initially my role was on 3D structural models; because these models are often complex, I focused on making them understandable using data visualization and user-interface design. This work got a lot of attention, and at some point, I was put in charge of all of the user interfaces across our suite of analysis tools. This is when I realized with shock how inadequate modelling is in the whole process. Even if we have the very best models, it may not matter; if scientists don’t understand the models and their errors, the scientific process is in trouble.
I believe this is one of the main rate-limiting steps in discovery today since our data and models are often so complex So, I now focus on how to make models understandable, mostly using data visualization, but also using related methods, such as graphic design, interactive visualization, and animation
You started VizBI. Tell us a little about why you did that and what motivates you to continue with it.
The VIZBI initiative grew quite naturally out of my realization that data visualization is going to become increasingly important for the life sciences, and developing the new data visualization methods we need is a huge task, well beyond the scope of any single research group. This requires a community effort – but there wasn’t much focus on DataVis in the bioinformatics community
So, in 2010, together with Jim Procter from the University of Dundee, we applied for funding from the European Molecular Biology Organization to invite into one room developers of the data analysis tools widely used across all areas of the life sciences, including biomedical research Most of these people had never met before: and honestly it was something of an experiment in itself to see if the developer of a genome viewer would find common ground with, say, a developer of brain imaging tool. But, as it turned out, we all have a lot to talk about – while most of us admit that we are overwhelmed with the complexity of our data, we’ve found a lot of value in sharing the imperfect solutions being developed across different fields
Into this already diverse mix of scientists, we also invited computer scientists who specialize in data, visualization, as well as related topics, such as uncertainty visualization, human-computer interfaces, or graphic design. As a final bonus we invited science communicators who specialize in using data, visualization to inspire and educate the public with some of the important breakthroughs that are being made in life science research.
From the very first meeting, there was a palpable sense of excitement due to the sharing of ideas across these disparate fields. This has now continued for 15 years, with each annual meeting having the same level of excitement. I can’t see this stopping, as there are always new frontiers in the life sciences – and each year we look for speakers who are dealing with new, challenging datasets that we have never seen before, and where the current visual analysis methods are inadequate. We’ve had some great successes where VIZBI has helped bring together teams that have invented new visual methods and tools that have helped to unearth insights buried in these data
Without embarrassing anyone in particular, what are some of the worst examples of data visualization that you have seen?
I think the most common mistake is using the rainbow color scale for quantitative data (Figure 1a). There are many problems with this (Borland, 2007), so it should be generally avoided Unfortunately, some visualization tools still use this as a default coloring scheme.
Another common mistake is over-use of forcedirected layouts for large network graphs (Figure 1b) The usual result is a ‘hairball’ graph that provides little, if any, insight.
One solution to these mistakes is to use a table that shows visual channels ranked by their effectiveness (Figure 1c & 1d) If you take the time to learn to read these channels, it can really help in deciding between alternative visual strategies, or in designing your own visual method
Figure 1 | Which visualizations are effective? (a) The widely-used rainbow colour scheme has many problems. From NOAA. (b) Force-directed graph layouts are also widely used, but are often ineffective for large networks. From Roger (2012) (c) For quantitative data, this table ranks visual encodings from most (top) to least effective (bottom) (d) Same for categorical data. From O’Donoghue et al. (2018).
Let me pick two ‘bests’: the first is a bit more objective – it’s the classic metabolic pathway graph created by Gerhard Michal over decades of work and distributed by Roche (Figure 2a) It communicates an extraordinary amount of detail, yet is relatively easy to read, so is regarded by some in the DataVis community as an exemplar.
My subjective ‘best’ pick is the recent advances in the CellPACK tool by Maritan et al. (2022). CellPACK can create atomic-scale 3D models of small cells, which, in turn, can be used to visually explore the spatial distribution of molecular properties (Figures 2b-d) Even though eukaryotic cells are still out of scope, as a structural biologist, I’m excited that something we could only dream about at the beginning of my career is now feasible
Figure 2 | Two exemplary visualizations of biological data. (a) A summary of biochemical reactions in all cells (black). Coloring shows reactions occurring only in animals (blue), plants (green), or fungi (red). Adapted from Michal & Schomburg (2012) (b) Using structural models of entire proteomes (left), molecular-scale 3D models can be assembled for small cells (middle). These models can be used to map properties such as gene and protein expression (right). Images by Martina Maritan, Scripps Research (Maritan et al , 2022)
What can we all do to make the most of our data presentation?
I’d suggest doing three things:
1
2
3.
Learn basic principles of data visualization – this can be done within a few hours (e g , Figure 1c & d)
Learn basic principles of graphic design – again, takes just a few hours (e g , Figure 3)
Study exemplary data visualizations (e.g., the books of Edward Tufte, or the collection of 1,000 posters at https://vizbi org/posters)
To get started, I’d suggest the review written by a group of us in the VIZBI community (O’Donoghue et al., 2018) – our goal in that review was to summarize the core principles, define key concepts, and provide links and references to the main resources in data visualization
A few years ago, some students asked me to give a talk about how to thrive in graduate school. I told them to get lost. Here's what I meant...
To preface, graduate school can be stressful. As in life, there are rarely unmistakable guideposts that signal that you’re on the right track
But feeling lost is something you can and should expect, and I worry that students needlessly compound their stress because they perceive that there's something wrong when they feel adrift. Instead, feelings of lostness can (though not always) be a sign that something is actually going right
Graduate school is often a journey to the frontier of knowledge, where you take it upon yourself to learn something that no one has known before. A roadmap? Where you’re going, there might not even be roads, and it’s easy to feel like you’ve lost your bearings Alongside the lostness come crises of confidence
But and I think this is important things look different if you can get yourself to zoom out for a wider perspective. Re-imagine “the abyss” – the feeling of lostness – as one of the most important steps of your own “Hero’s Journey”
The “Hero’s Journey” is a story structure in which the hero begins in familiar territory before feeling a tug to adventure. They might initially resist, but fate and curiosity conspire to pull them to the threshold between what is known and what is unknown. Beyond it lie challenges and temptations, but the hero is not alone: they often have companions and mentors. Things are hard but exciting, and the future looks bright
But suddenly, the ground gives way and they tumble into “The Abyss". Maybe the mentor disappears or disappoints, or friends fall by the wayside. Or the hero fails spectacularly Suddenly, the hero is adrift, seemingly down for the count All seems lost
This is the test, the grinding stone against which the hero is honed If they dust themselves off and wrestle their way back up, they might – in the process – master what had seemed insurmountable. They might return home a changed person, now ready to mentor those following in their footsteps. This transformation could not have happened without the abyss, without getting lost
Many modern and ancient stories follow this structure… Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Moana. Even the biblical story of Moses contains several elements.
In times of trouble, I find it useful to mentally transpose the “Hero’s Journey” onto my own path, situating my current strife between my preceding trajectory and what I imagine to lie around the bend. When you’re in the abyss, it’s hard to see the light, but mentally zooming out and forcing the abyss into context shows why it can mean that you’re on the path to transformation
You might have already noticed parallels to graduate school, where you find mentors in your advisors and companions among your fellow students Rejections, failures, self-doubt, and paralyzing uncertainty form the bedrock of your own personal abyss. Mentors can give advice, open opportunities, & help connect the dots, but ultimately you own this abyss. This darkened corner of potential knowledge is yours to illuminate That’s not a bad thing
In the face of frustration and feelings of defeat, there’s a temptation to lean heavily on mentors and allies in the hope that they will pull you where you need to go, but if you over rely on them you won’t have developed the hard-won vision to achieve intellectual independence
This is what I meant when I told the students to “get lost”... Allow yourself to feel adrift and bewildered; recognize that these feelings are the roots of wonder and awe; indulge in them knowing that they are the pains of metamorphosis
After I gave my talk, some of the students told me that the perspective helped them view their own abysses more positively. But there’s a part of the Hero's Journey analogy that never sat right with me.
It’s this: the Hero's Journey suggests that once the protagonist has passed through the abyss, they’ve transformed into a master. But that’s not the way it works. There's never just one abyss. The cycle repeats (and repeats).
If you treat the abyss as a one-time experience, the analogy of the Hero’s Journey can backfire It risks disillusionment when you fall again, and it casts mentors as fully actualized masters, ready with answers and a map to show the way. I think this mischaracterizes the mentor-advisee relationship because here's the thing: from a student's perspective, it may look like advisors and mentors have reached endpoints on their journeys, where they can hand down wisdom as if from high Olympus.
But in truth they are cycling between the known and unknown like you, with more of a head start. That said, they're not just retreading the same ground with each cycle anew. Understanding how mentors' paths relate to yours might be useful for gaining perspective on where you are in the cycle yourself, but what's the best way to represent it?
The classic depiction of the Hero’s Journey looks simply like a circle when viewed front on, like a path that repeatedly brings you back to where you began But look at it from a different vantage point: turn it on its side, and it may reveal itself as a corkscrew, with each revolution rising like a spiral staircase.
If each loop brings you higher, what is it that you’re gaining with each loop around? In addition to a better view of the intellectual landscape, I’d like to think that you gain the confidence that comes with knowing that you’ve been through the lostness before. That being lost doesn’t mean all is lost.
The lostness loses its bleakness
Although you may have once perceived it as a dark, oppressive abyss, with each revolution comes greater confidence that the bewilderment signals potentially exciting insights around the bend. (And if such insights don't eventuate this time, you'll survive – like you did before – to have another shot the next time around.) Hopefully, with each revolution you become a little more adept at finding your way
At times it may seem like you and your advisor are both lost for answers and searching for understanding of where your work has taken you. If your advisor seems sanguine in the face of such bewilderment, it may simply be because they’ve been adrift before and have seen that it’s not as bad as it seems. It may also mean that they have faith in you
I think the notion of a corkscrew path also contains a reassuring truth When we view our intellectual, artistic, or personal heroes from afar, it may seem like the climb from where we are to where they are is too steep.
But maybe that’s because the spiral path we need to follow twists sideways and around rather than heading straight up. Intelligence, motivation, curiosity, and resilience are all important, but I think it's equally important to be willing to venture down blind alleys, feel lost, and draw your own map.
So how can you thrive in graduate school? There’s no one right answer, but it’s worth thinking about whether you can embrace the feelings of lostness that come with it. My aim is not to minimize other reasons that graduate school can be stressful, but when it comes to feeling lost, what I've tried to do here is to at least let you know that you should expect it and that it's not a bad thing. It can be a great thing
Of course, programs and advisors vary Check with them about how they monitor student progress Find out how much lostness your advisor thinks is too much or too long, and keep the channels of communication open. You are the ultimate arbiter of what will work for you. This is, after all, your story, and finding the right match will make a big difference in your happiness
So, go on now. Get off my lawn. Get lost.
ISN Officers and ISN Secretariat attended the annual ASN Meeting in Portland and showcased ISN Membership and the Journal of Neurochemistry to the American Society of Neurochemistry.
Thank you to ASN for hosting!
As an academician with over five years' experience conducting clinical research in Nepal and witnessing research support in high-income countries like
Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and the United Kingdom, I provide some reflections on the challenges of research in Nepal and similar low/middle-income countries (LMICs).
In LMICs, there are unique challenges to conducting and publishing research compared to high-income countries Many LMICs and institutions within these countries do not prioritize research, leading to limited/no research funding and lack of a research culture. As a result, academic roles are primarily teaching focus with limited to no research-related roles. Despite no researchrelated time, they are expected to publish research paper for academic promotions. Academic institutions often do not provide optimal infrastructure (e.g., research laboratories, equipment), enough resources for research (e g , research staff) Academics and researchers often face unfair expectations related to research outputs without any dedicated research time, resources, or assistance
Research policy and regulation is less streamlined for many LMICs. For example, regulatory processes for clinical trial approval can be much more stringent and ill-defined compared to high-income countries Costs of ethics approval for collaborative and funded research can be incredibly expensive (in some cases/countries up to 3% of the total grant funding needs to be set aside for ethics approval alone). Political instability, conflict, or social unrest are common is some countries/regions which can also disrupt research activities, jeopardizing participant safety and study continuity. Finally, there is little awareness about research among health professionals and the public Therefore, as a result, recruiting research participants and health professionals for clinical research can be challenging
Publishing research from LMICs also possesses several barriers. Language is a significant challenge, especially for those who aren't native English speakers, which is true for most researchers from LMICs. Additionally, the differences in research priorities between LMICs and high-income countries can make it difficult to find suitable journals and reviewers
Many researchers in LMICs also fall into the traps of predatory publishers, leading to publication in low-quality journals. Finally, some international journals may
overlook research from LMICs, pushing researchers to publish in local journals that often go unnoticed and contribute to research duplication and therefore research waste
To address these challenges, there needs to be more support for research in LMICs, including better funding, training, and opportunities for collaboration with international researchers. This would not only benefit the local communities but also contribute to global knowledge and understanding around the research topic. Early career researchers should team up with experienced peers, locally and internationally, who share similar interests. Initiatives such as the AuthorAID offer mentorship opportunities for early career researchers These strategies aim to enhance the quality and impact of research in LMICs
Experienced researchers can offer mentorship to junior colleagues, locally and abroad, and help them get involved in journal editorial boards or assist with reviewing papers.
International journal editors have a vital role in supporting research in LMICs Journals should prioritize fairness, diversity, and inclusion within their editorial boards, with editors and reviewers representing different countries and regions who understand the local research contexts. By combined global collaborations, research from LMICs can be supported and improved. For more information on the topic, please read this published paper, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37778960/.
Publishing in JNC comes with a two-year complementary ISN Membership!
Articles are published in the following categories:
Gene Regulation & Genetics
Signal Transduction & Synaptic Transmission
Neuroinflammation & Neuroimmunology
Molecular Basis of Disease
Brain Development & Cell Differentiation
Bioenergetics & Metabolism
Neuronal Plasticity & Behavior
Clinical Studies, Biomarkers & Imaging
Tell us a bit about yourself - background, where you grew up, how you got into science, how you ended up in Canada – that sort of thing.
I’m originally from Santos, a coastal city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil This is the town where Pelé used to play soccer and one of the largest ports in South America I grew up playing lots of sports; competitive swimming and basketball were the two I enjoyed the most throughout my life. I also loved going to the beach I left for university when I turned 18, earning my degree in pharmacy from The Federal Fluminense University in the state of Rio de Janeiro in 1986. Then, I moved to Belo Horizonte for graduate school, where I completed my master’s and PhD in biochemistry under the direction of Marcus Vinicius Gomez, focusing on the cholinergic system During this period, I spent three years at McGill University working with Brian Collier. After my PhD, I had a short postdoctoral stint before securing a faculty position at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in 1994. My independent research focused on neurotransmission, ion channels, and neurodegeneration, specifically prion diseases I took advantage of the presence of venomous animals such as spiders and scorpions to work on toxins affecting neurotransmission. I also worked on prion biology and continued my interest in the cholinergic system and Alzheimer’s disease I spent about 15 years as a professor of pharmacology in Brazil, during which my lab also developed mouse models for Alzheimer's disease research in collaboration with Marc Caron at Duke University.
Early in my independent career, I recognized the need for interdisciplinary research. One of my most important accomplishments was convincing my wife to collaborate with my group Vania Prado was trained in genetics and biochemistry, focusing on the molecular origin of the Brazilian population From 1996 onward, she gradually started helping us use molecular biology to answer neurochemistry questions and fully transitioned to neurochemistry in the early 2000s Surprisingly, we have continued to work together until today.
Facing infrastructure challenges in Brazil to develop my research, I was advised by Marc Caron to move out of Brazil I applied for and accepted a position at the University of Western Ontario in Canada in 2008 This move enabled me to leverage my experience in international funding and significantly advanced my research endeavors over the following 16 years Our lab coalesced with two PIs, and we found a very collaborative environment in Canada that helped us advance our research, focusing mainly on neurodegenerative diseases.
Well, there's so much to enjoy about research I couldn't see myself doing any other type of work. I certainly enjoy the social components of research, such as interacting with people Interacting with younger
students and trainees is a privilege, and I get to help them achieve their dreams and become researchers That is really something! Seeing a student mature and become an expert in the field is so rewarding Over the years, I've been fortunate to work with some incredible trainees, many of whom have become faculty members or moved into the industry Hearing from former students is always a huge pleasure for me. I also greatly value my interactions with mentors. I've been lucky to have had multiple mentors, such as my PhD supervisors and lifelong friends, Marcus Gomez and Brian Collier, who were instrumental in my PhD journey However, several others had an influential role in my career. Ivan Izquierdo was an icon in memory research, and I was lucky to have multiple grants and collaborations with him Another great mentor was Ricardo Brentani, who introduced me to prion research Marc Caron, with whom I did a sabbatical, was key to my move to Canada and was a dear friend. And when I arrived in Canada, John McDonald, the director of the Robarts Research Institute, became a fantastic friend and collaborator, who helped us to settle and made us feel as family. I was therefore lucky enough to interact with the right people at the right times who greatly enriched my enjoyment of research. Moreover, I relish the opportunity to continuously learn new things The lab offers endless possibilities to explore how the nervous system functions, how new drugs can be used to treat diseases, and how animal models can provide fundamental insights into the nervous system and treatments of diseases. Writing or reading a great science paper is a huge pleasure for me. I guess that was one of the reasons I became involved with scientific publishing and, in particular, with the Journal of Neurochemistry
How did you end up joining the JNC
I joined the editorial board of the Journal of Neurochemistry in 2000 and served until 2023 in various capacities I still remember when I received a fax with an invitation from Brian Collier, who would later become one of the chief editors of the Journal of Neurochemistry I was one of the few South Americans on the board when I worked in Brazil, and when I moved to Canada, I actually offered my resignation, given that I would no longer be representing South America. However, the Editor at that time saw fit to invite other members from Brazil and other South American countries to the board and decided to keep me on.
I worked with multiple Editors-in-Chief, including Brian Collier, Anthony Turner, Sean Murphy, Jörg B Schulz, and lastly Andy Lawrence. I became Editor for Reviews in 2018 and then Deputy Editor-in-Chief in 2020 It has been a great journey, and I am thankful for the opportunity to help our community. Moreover, I have learned so much from each member of the board and the Editors-in-Chief, with a great partnership with Andy and Tony Turner who is the chair of ISN publication’s committee
I started hearing about ISN when I was an MSc student, as my supervisor attended a meeting in Portugal to present some of my work. It was also through ISN that I contacted my other supervisor, Brian Collier, in Montreal During my PhD, I had the opportunity to attend the ISN Meeting in Australia in 1991 and also to present my work I then attended almost all the ISN Meetings after that and started to participate in the Society through various committees. I was elected as a Council member and had the opportunity to serve ISN and help steer the Society. Eventually, I served as a member of the Program Committee for ISN Meetings and also as the local host for the meeting in Montreal One of the reasons I appreciate the Society is all the support it provides to young scientists, particularly to members of our community who work in developing countries. I have always been very proud of this and other initiatives from ISN to support our members
You were reviews editor for JNC from 2018 until recently. What do you look for in a good review article?
That is the million-dollar question, isn’t it? Well, I look for a number of things. Is this review authoritative? Have the authors published in the field? Is it original? Does it discuss the main questions being addressed experimentally in the field? Is it comprehensive but also avoids unimportant details? And of course, it needs to be really well-written. So those are the main things that I look for, and obviously, I like to see some original thoughts in the review
There is this idea in most labs that a grad student, when starting to review the literature, should write and publish a review. I find that this sometimes works and sometimes does not. Unless the supervisor is an authority on the topic and is willing to spend the time shaping the review, these papers are usually a bit superficial. However, they can be well-written and provide the level of information one expects in a scholarly review with proper work from expert collaborators
You have been active on social media. Would you advise young scientists to develop a presence? Why and on which platforms?
This is a difficult question to answer Any platform can be used to disseminate knowledge and my advice is to focus on having open and frank conversations on any platform with academic chatter However, I may not be the best person to give advice because I am currently taking a break from social media. It is upsetting to see the amount of disinformation and hate that has spread on these platforms, especially after COVID I have a good reason for my disappointment. During COVID, I was dragged into a lawsuit by an MD with contrarian views on COVID and vaccines. This individual sued over 20 Canadians, including scientists, journalists, and other MDs In Canada, we have something called a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) The judge found that this lawsuit was a SLAPP, meaning it was intended to silence critics This was a significant win against online misinformation the lawsuit was dismissed, and all costs were awarded to the defendants However, it is disheartening to see social media platforms, including Twitter, continue to allow misinformation to spread under the guise of "free speech " In science, we deal with facts, not opinions. If you get the facts wrong, it is appropriate to be corrected However, for a small but very loud fraction of people, including some MDs and scientists, ideology is more important. They become quite upset if criticized for spreading misinformation If you are a professional in health sciences or medicine, spreading misinformation under the banner of free speech is just wrong You are not entitled to fact-free opinions in science. That is the dilemma scientists face: how to correct misinformation effectively and deal with this minority of grifters
Academic publishing is undergoing big changes at the moment Where do you see things heading on that front? How have those changes altered the publication of original results?
Indeed, there have been many changes The shift to online-only publications had the potential to completely change how we write and read manuscripts Unfortunately, we have been very slow to adopt major changes that can help make science more robust and reproducible For example, we still publish papers as PDFs of printed publications instead of evolving towards an online format where datasets can be easily accessed with hyperlinks Online manuscripts have evolved, but we are still driven by the PDF format. The move to open access was thought to be an important step to democratize publications, but unfortunately, as a community, we did not plan well, and there are many issues with open access
One major issue is the proliferation of predatory publishers and journals The pay-for-publish model that many predatory journals have adopted has flooded the literature with irrelevant, low-quality, and sometimes fraudulent publications Paper mills have been created to sell authorship in fraudulent publications, and AI can write manuscripts, leading to recent examples of unethical behavior in using AI without disclosure Open access for serious publications also has several drawbacks. It disproportionately impacts scientists from low-income countries or those whose laboratories do not have extensive funds. Publishing a manuscript in a Nature journal as open access can cost over $10,000. I don’t think funders anticipated the unintended consequences when they mandated that papers appear mainly as open access Forcing authors to publish open access or to preprint their work can negatively impact laboratories in low-income countries. This imposition comes from a place of privilege and may affect the contributions that smaller and less well-funded research groups can make to science.
However, I do think there is a huge role for open science in improving science publishing Making datasets, codes, and protocols freely available upon publication using FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles is crucial for scientific reproducibility. In fact, open science is how science should be done. We are now seeing an important impact of open science and AI in overall data analysis, prediction of protein structures and interactions, and imaging Large language models are also helping scientists who do not speak English as their first language to better write and edit their work. Non-English-speaking scientists have always been disadvantaged in disseminating their work, and this change is expected to become the norm. I also expect that, despite our collective complaints, serious and rigorous peer review will continue to be the standard. I trust in expertise and have found over the years that peer review helps to improve the work I do Yes, it is not perfect; there are problems, and it can delay publications. But in general, it has more positives than negatives in my opinion
Finally, the crucial question. Which is your favorite bicycle?
My favorite topic But, there is no good answer for that one. It depends on the occasion and the bike ride Nowadays, my preferred bike is a cargo bike that lets me do shopping and move around town without depending on a car. Climate change is the highest threat for humanity, and by switching from a car to a bike, I can make a small contribution to reducing emissions. Moreover, with this bike, I can enjoy my favorite ride, which is going around town with my granddaughter in the child seat
ISN is sad to report the deaths this year of two PastPresidents, Abel Lajtha (President 1975-77) and Arne Schousboe (President 2003-2005).
Both of these men were giants in the field of neurochemistry. The service they gave to ISN was instrumental in establishing and advancing the Society.
They are seen here at the ISN-ASN meeting held in Montreal in 2019, along with the current ISN President Caroline (Lindy) Rae. Abel Lajtha was 97 years old but still attending our Biennial Meeting!
We mourn their loss from our neurochemistry family and send our best wishes to their families, friends and collaborators. They will be missed.
Vale Abel and Arne.
October 2024
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Emerging Group Leaders Symposia
Young Scientist Lectureship Award
Young Members Symposium
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February 2025
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