Open questions in biology
Collection published: 1 February 2013
Last updated: 2 September 2013
BMC Biology has a scope that extends across all of biology and that is reflected in the varied expertise of our Editorial Board. Because their input is in turn crucial in the selection of both our research and our commissioned content, we invited all of our Editorial Board members to mark the tenth anniversary year of BMC Biology with short contributions representing their views on pressing or just interesting open questions in their fields, and thus to share their perspective with readers, contributors, and authors or potential authors of research submissions.
Contributions will be added throughout the year, and beyond, as new Editorial Board members join us.
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Open questions: Zombie projects, translational research, and the real secret of the inside of the cell
Gregory A Petsko BMC Biology 2013, 11:97 (2 September 2013)
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Editor’s summary
Gregory Petsko, writing for the BMC Biology tenth birthday Open questions series, argues, with his usual forthrightness, that we need to pay more attention to where the balance of ‘big’ and ‘little’ science is going, and remember how little we know about the interior of the cell. |
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Open questions: two challenges in chemical biology - chemical engineering and the science of diet
Philip A Cole BMC Biology 2013, 11:87 (30 July 2013)
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Editor’s summary
In his contribution to the 10th anniversary Open questions series in BMC Biology, Philip Cole proposes synthetic biology for probing the mysteries of protein modifications and dynamics, and chemoprevention through diet for improving public health. |
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Open questions: A logic (or lack thereof) of genome organization
Laurence D Hurst BMC Biology 2013, 11:58 (28 May 2013)
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Editor’s summary
Laurence Hurst reflects on the range of genome biological factors determining whether mutations have a selective effect, and how knowing more might help us to predict which will cause disease. |
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Open questions: Reflections on plant development and genetics
Virginia Walbot BMC Biology 2013, 11:25 (28 March 2013)
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Editor’s summary
For the BMC Biology 10th anniversary series of open questions, Virginia Walbot reflects on how genomics has contributed to our understanding of plants over the last ten years, and the challenge of understanding how the flexible phenotypes of plants may adapt to environmental effects in future. |
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Open questions: Epigenetics and the role of heterochromatin in development
Susan M Gasser BMC Biology 2013, 11:21 (4 March 2013)
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Editor’s summary
As part of BMC Biology’s 10th anniversary collection, Susan Gasser’s open questions link heterochromatin-mediated silencing, nuclear localisation and the true nature of epigenetic control. |
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Open questions: What is there left for cell biologists to do?
Sean Munro BMC Biology 2013, 11:16 (27 February 2013)
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Editor’s summary
In a contribution to the 10th anniversary series on open questions in biology, Sean Munro asks provocatively what there is left for cell biologists to do, and with great elan and a touch of waspish humor produces five unanswered questions on issues from the special properties of non-dividing cells to the architecture of the brain. |
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Open questions: Chromosome condensation - Why does a chromosome look like a chromosome?
Frank Uhlmann BMC Biology 2013, 11:9 (31 January 2013)
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Editor’s summary
In his contribution to the ‘Open questions’ anniversary collection for BMC Biology, Frank Uhlmann poses the unsolved problem of chromosome packaging |
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Open questions - in brief: Beyond -omics, missing motor proteins, and getting from molecules to organisms
Stephen J Benkovic, Julie Theriot, Dagmar Ringe BMC Biology 2013, 11:8 (31 January 2013)
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Open questions in biology - a tenth anniversary series
Miranda Robertson BMC Biology 2013, 11:7 (31 January 2013)
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Editor’s summary
To celebrate its tenth anniversary, BMC Biology asked its Editorial Board members to write a paragraph or two on their favorite open questions in biology, and this month it publishes the first contributions, on topics from the challenges of proteomics to the mechanisms of apoptosis. |
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Open questions: missing pieces from the immunological jigsaw puzzle
Gillian M Griffiths BMC Biology 2013, 11:10 (31 January 2013)
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Editor’s summary
Gillian Griffiths, in her ‘Open questions’ contribution for BMC Biology, pinpoints some critical missing links in the cell-biological specializations of immune cells |
