Search

Our research activities would be better served if they were communicated in a manner that is openly accessible to the public and all researchers. The research we share is often limited to representative data included in research papers—science would be much more efficient if all reproducible research data were shared alongside detailed methods and protocols, in the paradigm called Open Science. On the other hand, one primary function of research journals is to select manuscripts of good quality, verify the authenticity of the data and its impact, and deliver to the appropriate audience for critical evaluation and verification. In the current paradigm, where publication in a subset of journals is intimately linked to research evaluation, a hypercompetitive "market" has emerged where authors compete to access a limited number of top‐tier journals, leading to high rejection rates. Competition among publishers and scientific journals for market dominance resulted in an increase in both the number of journals and the cost of publishing and accessing scientific papers. Here we summarize the current problems and potential solutions from the development of AI technology discussed in the seminar at the 46th Annual Meeting of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 36th International Mammalian Genome Conference (IMGC) was held in a hybrid format at the Tsukuba International Congress Center in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, for 4 days from March 28 to 31, 2023. This international conference on functional genomics of mouse, human, and other mammalian species attracted 246 participants in total, of which 129 were from outside Japan, including Europe, the United States and Asia, and 117 participants were from Japan. The conference included three technical workshops, keynote lectures by domestic researchers, commemorative lectures for the conference awards, 57 oral presentations, and 97 poster presentations. The event was a great success. Topics included the establishment and analysis of disease models using genetically engineered or spontaneous mutant mice, systems genetic analysis using mouse strains such as wild‐derived mice and recombinant inbred mouse strains, infectious diseases, immunology, and epigenetics. In addition, as a joint program, a two‐day RIKEN Symposium was held, and active discussions continued over the four‐day period. Also, there was a trainee symposium, in which young researchers were encouraged to participate, and excellent papers were selected as oral presentations in the main session. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Front cover: In establishing the left‐right axis of the body in Drosophila, a torsion‐like deformation of the cell occurs (cell chirality). Two myosin Is, Myo1D and Myo1C, are thought to be involved in this process, producing right‐handed and left‐handed cell chirality, respectively. A paper published in the May issue of this journal (Utsunomiya et al. (2024) Genes Cells 29: 380‐396, DOI: 10.1111/gtc.13110) reported that when these myosin Is were expressed in macrophages to observe their interactions with the membrane at the single‐molecule level, Myo1D exhibited mobility consistent with free diffusion, whereas Myo1C showed notably lower mobility. This picture, depicting two vortices in a strait, aptly illustrates their differences. Compared to the fast currents that produce the right‐handed vortex in the back, the currents of the left‐handed vortex in the foreground are docile. Designed by TRAIS Co., Ltd. (Kobe, Japan). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B Front cover: b Fukuwarai is a traditional Japanese New Year's game in which blindfolded players compete on how well or strangely they can create faces by placing cut-out facial parts (eyes, nose, etc.) on paper with an outline of a face. Now, what kind of cells will they make? What these women are enjoying is a fukuwarai with cell organelles likened to facial parts. [Extracted from the article]

B Front cover: b People are fl eeing from a tornado that has suddenly appeared. Designed by TRAIS Co., Ltd. (Kobe, Japan). The tornado swallows a bundle of rope with shide (paper ornaments attached to ropes at Japanese shrines) as it unravels and tears the rope into small pieces to spit them out, just like the 26S proteasome that recognizes and degrades ubiquitinated target proteins. [Extracted from the article]