What's New in 2009?

RNA Families

RNA Biology is now including the new section RNA Families. RNA Biology thereby supports and continues the efforts of the existing Rfam database to more systematically collect and annotate primary ncRNA data.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Paul Gardner from the Welcome Trust Sanger Institute (UK) will serve as Associate Editor for the RNA Families section.

In this section we will primarily publish articles that describe either substantial updates of existing RNA families or novel RNA families. These articles are suitable as underlying detailed documentation and will be linked with the corresponding Rfam entries. Instructions for authors of Rfam papers can be obtained in the guidelines.

In addition, the RNA Families section will accept manuscripts that describe global analyses of non-coding RNAs or descriptions of tools and methods for ncRNA annotation, as well as Reviews and Perspectives relevant to the field.

Read about RNA Families in Nature.

Special Focus on Therapeutic RNAs

RNA Biology regularly provides a special focus on a current and interesting RNA topic. The year 2009 is dedicated to regulatory RNAs!

We are happy to announce that Dr. Eric G. Moss (University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Stratford, NJ, USA) has kindly agreed to serve as Guest Editor for the third issue in 2009 featuring a Special Focus on Therapeutic RNAs.

Towards the end of the year RNA Biology will feature a Special Focus on Riboswitches, guest-edited by Dr. Beatrix Suess (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt/Main, Germany).

We invite you to send us your original manuscripts on Riboswitches. The appearance of your research paper in the context of a series of Reviews on Riboswitches written by experts in the field will increase its visibility and round out this special issue!

Please contact the Editor-in-Chief (renee.schroeder@univie.ac.at) with suggestions for future Special Foci.

RNA Biology: Mission Statement

An understanding of the role of ribonucleic acid (RNA) within the cell has changed dramatically in recent years. Its status expanded with reports of catalytic RNA 20 years ago, of endogenous RNA interference 10 years later and noncoding RNAs very recently. Now there are a lot of data which suggest that RNA is not merely the intermediary between DNA and protein, but the functional end product. Diverse eukaryotic organisms harbor a class of noncoding, small RNAs which are thought to function as regulators of gene expression. Noncoding RNAs play a key role in many steps of epigenetic regulation. There are antisense transcripts that can bind by Watson-Crick interactions functional transcripts and short RNA transcripts that are complementary to repeats throughout the genome. It seems that RNA provides the command and control of cells. Some of the noncoding RNAs associate with human diseases.

RNA Biology is an excellent medium to discuss the current thinking on RNA, from coding and noncoding to therapeutic strategies based on that still very magic molecule. Our journal will emphasize RNA regulatory mechanisms (both natural and potentially therapeutic) and genomics as well as include post-transcriptional regulation at the mRNA level, even if a non-coding RNA is not involved. The scope would therefore cover non-coding RNAs, non-coding regions in mRNAs, and RNA-binding proteins.

This multidisciplinary journal publishes original research articles and reviews covering the latest aspects of molecular, biological and biomedical studies of genomic RNA. We will also include timely minireviews that reflect the broad scope of the journal. The goal is to foster communication and rapid exchange of information through timely publication of important results using traditional as well as electronic formats.