Bioengineered: Editor Q&A

We caught up with Mohammad Taherzadeh, Editor-in-Chief of 'Bioengineered', to discuss the development of the journal, current challenges within the research community and what the journal has to offer to authors. 

There are many challenges posing a threat to society that the research community needs to be addressing. The increasing population globally combined with longer life expediencies and higher welfare standards means that current rates of consumption are not sustainable. In the environment and health aspects of biotechnology, there is currently not enough research or resource to face these challenges and take results and research into society. Bioengineering is an advanced tool to help meet these challenges, and so we need to work as a research community to encourage and develop new food sources, new energy sources, and encourage policy makers towards a bio-economy. By developing new ideas and publishing new achievements carried out by prominent research groups. the journal can contribute to a wider conversation in society.

The journal covers various aspects of biotechnology and bioengineering that could be important for health and the environment, and we welcome submissions in various relevant topics (see our aims and scope for a full list of topics). However, I would like to see more submissions on research that deals with a particular challenge in the world, such as how bioengineering can provide food for future generations with low environmental impacts, or how we can treat cancer, or even papers that introduce a new method in biotechnology. For another example, biofuels was a 'hot topic' last year,  but I'd like to see the conversation move more towards biomaterials and materials with particular functions that could be beneficial to the environment, health, food production, and so on. 

Join an active research group and try to publish several papers with open access to improve the visibility of your research. Also, review others manuscripts if you get a chance to keep on top of what is happening in your field. The key is to build up your research network - don't be afraid to get in touch with other like-minded researchers to share ideas and collaborate if appropriate.

We offer personal communication with the editors if needed, and have a rapid, reliable, and constructive review process. Anyone who is interested in publishing in the journal can get in touch with me or or the associate editor to see if your research will be a good fit for publication in Bioengineered.

Mohammed has chosen a selection of popular recent articles from the journal below on the theme of RNAs.

About RNAs

The majority of RNA species in eukaryotic cells is comprised of non-coding RNA (ncRNA) rather than messenger RNA (mRNA), and studies have shown that these ncRNAs play a vital role in physiological and developmental processes. Previously, scientists mainly focused on linear ncRNAs, such as long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and micro-RNAs (miRNAs), indicating that these linear ncRNAs have multiple functions in physiological and pathological processes. As a kind of unique circular ncRNA, circular RNAs (circRNAs) have been considered accidental by-products or ‘splicing noise’ with low abundance and little functional potential, resulting from errors during post-transcriptional processing. Now, circRNAs have been recognized and taken seriously in various biological fields. Recent studies have experimentally confirmed the significant biological functions of circRNAs, especially in the field of cancer.

Source: Shang Q et al. The novel roles of circRNAs in human cancer. Mol Cancer. 2019 Jan 9;18(1):6. doi: 10.1186/s12943-018-0934-6

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