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From origins to open questions – Ten years of BMC Biology

BMC Biology was launched as the flagship journal of BioMed Central in 2003, and we cannot leave a ten-year anniversary unmarked. But suspecting a reluctance to dwell on history, in this age when it is enough trouble to keep up with the breakneck present, we have in this collection of anniversary articles looked resolutely forward, and invited the authors of some of our most highly cited articles to produce updates on progress since they were published, and our Editorial Board members to contribute the open questions they would like to see answered in their fields. Even Patrick Brown, who spoke to us about the origins of open access, had his eyes so firmly fixed on the far horizon ten years ago that his vision remains in the future; and Peter Walter, with whom we did indulge in a little history in his interview on the origins of re-review opt-out, addresses an issue that remains perennial.

  1. First discovered in Drosophila, the Hedgehog signaling pathway controls a wide range of developmental processes and is implicated in a variety of cancers. The success of a screen for chemical modulators of this p...

    Authors: Tom J Carney and Philip W Ingham
    Citation: BMC Biology 2013 11:37
  2. Good early training of graduate students and postdocs is needed to prevent them turning into future generations of manuscript-savaging reviewers. How can we intercalate typical papers into our training?

    Authors: Virginia Walbot
    Citation: Journal of Biology 2009 8:24