Abstract
Dear Readers
It is that time of year again!
You now have the opportunity to contribute to the selection of the American College of Toxicology (ACT) President’s Award for the best paper published in International Journal of Toxicology! The winner is selected by the Publications Committee with input from members of ACT. Papers eligible for the award are those that were published in issues 5 and 6 of the previous volume as well as issues 1 to 4 of the current year’s volume of the journal. Although there is a formal process for nomination of a paper (see http://www.actox.org/journal/BPAnom.asp), I would be delighted to receive your nominations via a quick e-mail message if that is more convenient for you. Just mention the paper and provide a brief rationale as to why you believe your nomination deserves this recognition. The winner will be announced at the ACT Annual Meeting Awards Luncheon. I look forward to hearing from you (by September 1) and assure you that the Publications Committee will take your suggestions seriously. To refresh your memory, I have included references to the 4 most recent winning papers below:
In order to reduce the number of off-target submissions and also to further try to clarify what we do and do not publish, Associate Editor Brock and the Publications Committee have assisted me in revising our submission guidelines. When we were done and stepped back to admire our handiwork, we realized that these were not just submission guidelines anymore. We have titled the new document “Author Information,” and even if you are not submitting a manuscript to the journal, it might be of interest to have a look. As always, I am most appreciative of ACT members who submit their work to the journal, and also to those who recommend us to their colleagues who are looking for a home for their manuscripts. Our Publishing Editor Courtney Pugh tells me that our average time to first decision is right around 2 weeks, so I believe that this is a selling point that we can use to our advantage in recruiting more of what we want to read to the journal.
Finally, to continue our discussion of interesting and high-impact papers published in other journals, I’d like to point you to a manuscript published late in 2012 in Toxicological Sciences. The work is from the laboratory of Thomas R. Sutter (a University of Cincinnati graduate and postdoctoral colleague at CIIT many years ago) at the University of Memphis. The paper is entitled “2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin-mediated production of reactive oxygen species is an essential step in the mechanism of action to accelerate human keratinocyte differentiation.” 1 This work essentially uses 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) as a tool to understand the mechanism by which oxidative stress drives keratinocyte differentiation. We have known for some time that TCDD induces oxidative stress, but this paper connects the dots, so to speak, to shed light onto how this process (specifically H2O2 formation in response to TCDD exposure) underlies the development of chloracne in TCDD-exposed humans and alters skin barrier function development in general. The most interesting aspect of this work to me was to learn about the enormous cluster of genes on human chromosome 1 (1q21, to be specific) that drives the formation of the cornified layer of the skin (called the epidermal differentiation complex [EDC]). Included in the EDC are many genes regulating ceramide biosynthesis, filaggrin (important for keratin filament aggregation), small proline-rich proteins, and calcium-binding S100A proteins. This is an interesting paper that continues the Sutter laboratory’s work on TCDD and brings together the fields of skin biology and toxicology in a most compelling way. Enjoy!
I’m looking forward to your nominations for the Best Paper Award, and appreciate your comments and suggestions. I look forward to seeing many of you at the ACT Annual Meeting in November!