25 November 2019 – Madan Babu, who heads the regulatory genomics and systems biology group at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, takes up the post with immediate effect.
“I am delighted to take up this post at a journal that so strongly and successfully represents the systems biology community,” comments Madan Babu.
“In the last decade and a half, systems biology has undergone a number of major transitions. At each stage, the scale of investigation, the degree of resolution and the level of accuracy at which living organisms can be studied has been vastly improved. And Molecular Systems Biology has reflected this evolution of the field,” he continued.
Thomas Lemberger, Deputy Head of Scientific Publications at EMBO and previous Chief Editor of the journal says: “Since its launch in 2005 Molecular Systems Biology has been at the forefront of establishing and shaping the field of systems biology. Through appointing a scientist actively working in the field as Chief Editor, we want to strengthen its position as a journal with deep roots in the research community. The field is constantly evolving, and it is our aim to establish Molecular Systems Biology as a home for the next generation of systems biologists.”
“We want to encourage people to break the silos and think about how to bridge fields of research and how to integrate work across all scales. The journal has an important role in disseminating pioneering studies that push the boundaries of the field,” adds Madan Babu.
Molecular Systems Biology offers those working on systems biology, synthetic biology and systems medicine global visibility with Open Access publication of influential research. As a member of the EMBO Press family of journals, Molecular Systems Biology applies transparency policies, including the publication of referee comments alongside editorial and author exchanges, referee-cross commenting, scooping protection and open data publication.
Attendees of the ASCB | EMBO Meeting in Washington DC, USA, between 7 and 11 December 2019 will have the opportunity to meet Madan Babu during a series of EMBO Press manuscript clinics at the EMBO booth (#724).
More information about the journal is available at https://msb.embopress.org
INFORMATION FOR EDITORS
Biosketch
Following undergraduate studies in Biotechnology at Anna University, Chennai, India, M. Madan Babu completed a PhD in Computational Genomics at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, UK in 2004. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the NCBI, National Health Institutes, USA, he returned to the LMB as group leader in 2006. He heads the regulatory genomics and systems biology group, which investigates how regulation is achieved in cellular systems and how this influences evolution of organisms and their genome.
Madan’s recent work on G protein-coupled receptors explains why people respond differently to certain drugs, which has direct implications for personalized and precision medicine. He also discovered the roles of disordered proteins in biology and disease. The high-throughput screen he and his team developed underpins the importance of disordered regions and their functions.
Madan is an EMBO Member and former EMBO Young Investigator. He has received numerous prizes, including the EMBO Gold Medal 2019, Blavatnik Award UK 2018, ISCB Innovator Award 2018, Royal Society Francis Crick Medal 2015, Lister Prize 2014, Biochemical Society Colworth Medal 2013 and the Genetics Society Balfour Award 2011.
