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Editorial

Welcome to our Editorial Section

July 20, 2010

It has now been three years since the inaugural issue of the Journal of Cell Communication and Signaling as published by Springer. Taking into consideration its predecessor, Cell Communication and Signaling (JCCS) published by Biomed Central, it has now been seven years since the International CCN Society has sponsored a journal.

The original intent of the International CCN Society was to create a journal disseminating knowledge concerning the CCN family of matricellular proteins. In 2003, it was perceived that the CCN family of proteins was under-recognized within the broader scientific community and was in need of a journal emphasizing their role.

It is our belief that, in this regard, the journal has been a great success and has aided in the overall growth of interest in the CCN family as critical modifiers of signaling pathways involved with a wide range of physiological activities. In particular, we feel that the CCN family is now recognized by the translational research community as playing an essential role in human diseases including cancer and fibrosis by modifying cellular responses to signaling molecules including cytokines and extracellular matrix.

Indeed, we feel that detailed knowledge of these interactions will be essential, in the future, for developing novel therapeutic approaches to combat disease. In 2010, we recognize that there is a need for a journal that aims to publish quality manuscripts focusing on the complex, context-dependent interactions between cells and their environment and the role of these interactions in disease.

We have decided to alter and broaden the focus of JCCS to fill this gap. Thus, with this issue of JCCS, we are instituting several changes. First, in consultation with Springer, we have modernized the cover of JCCS, which will now change each quarter to include a photograph or illustration of a key concept published in the issue.

Second, the membership of the editorial board has been altered to reflect the broader focus of the journal on translational research. Finally, to emphasize the continuity with the original scope of JCCS, Prof Bernard Perbal will remain as Executive Editor, but Prof Andrew Leask will now assume a new position as Scientific Editor.

We hope that you will consider sending articles to JCCS. We continue to promise a rapid and fair review process focused on the quality of the science presented.

Bernard PERBAL and  Andrew LEASK

February 12, 2009

With the dawning of 2009 and on behalf of the ICCNS executive committee, it gives me great pleasure to wish you a very happy and prosperous new year.

Ten years ago, our knowledge of CCN proteins biology was expanding at a regular pace and promised to open new avenues for better understanding cell signaling in normal and pathological conditions. At that time, 71 publications quoting ctgf were indexed on PubMed, 55 quoting cyr61. At the same time, 12 manuscripts had been issued from my laboratory on CCN3/nov.

Considering the potential expansion of this field, it occurred to me that the whole field would benefit from workshops that would permit direct contact between actors in the field, should they be already established or newcomers. Since my friend H. Yeger, to whom I submitted this idea, was very enthusiastic about the idea, I contacted Gary Grotendorst and Lester Lau who had discovered ctgf and cyr61 respectively. Very rapidly they also agreed that it was indeed time for meeting -- The fruit was ripe !—

When I suggested organizing the first International Workshop on the CCN family of Genes in France, we had no idea of how many groups would attend the meeting. I must admit that without the support and help from my wife, Annick, the CCN meetings would not have been.

From the original Call for Communications that we posted on the Web until a few weeks before we had to close registration, we both spent a lot of energy raising funding, dealing with every single aspects of organizing a meeting -- including selection of meals, wines, entertainment, renting meeting rooms, etc.-- with not a single idea of how many attendees would respond…. A month before the meeting date, after booking the meeting rooms and having committed ourselves with the catering companies, we still had no clue as to the exact number of participants !

We pulled it off, and it was a successful first meeting, followed by two other great meetings that we organized at the same place.

At that time, Annick and I felt that we had “infused” the CCN meeting with the “family spirit” that had been a key factor for the success of this venue, and we both felt that it was time to move on and have the meetings held in other places around the world. With the organization of the 4th CCN meeting in Okayama, Japan, M. Takigawa showed that the spirit was alive and would carry over into future meetings.

Parallel to the establishment of the International Workshops on the CCN family of genes, there was a need for an organization that would permit the scientists in the CCN field to exchange ideas, share new techniques and results, discuss the organization of meetings, etc. The International CCN Society was born soon after setting up a CCN steering Committee at the first CCN meeting in Saint-Malo.

Since then, I have done my best as the President of the ICCNS, with the help of many colleagues, to establish our Society as the reference for researchers in the CCN field.

The most recent moves to reinforce the strength and visibility of our Society consisted of launching the Journal of Cell Communication and Signaling and remodeling our ICCNS web site.

The Journal of Cell Communication and Signaling (JCCS) was created a little more than one year ago, replacing our previous electronic journal that I originally launched at BMC under the name of Cell Communication and Signaling. Due to BMC’s particular approach to publishing which was not in line with our concept, the whole editorial board agreed to follow me in the new venture that P. Butler and I decided to run with Springer.

Having JCCS as the official journal of the ICCNS is a unique opportunity to promote our field. This year, we have actively worked to increase our contacts with other societies in fields which we believe have scientific interests that are overlapping with ours. Along the same line, we have had a great support from Springer for the 2008 5th CCN meeting in Toronto co-organized with H. Yeger, through the funding of scholarships and the creation of the ICCNS-Springer award.

The strong support of Springer should not make us forget that the credibility of our Journal and of our Society is very much dependent upon the quality of work that is produced and published in our media.

We can understand that sending a good original work for publication in a journal that has not yet showed an impact factor, may be a difficult decision to take, in spite of the fact that JCCS is indexed on PubMed. The only way to get a good IF is to have good papers submitted on a regular basis. Obviously, this task cannot be achieved by only one or two. It requires the participation of a whole group of people sharing the willingness to reinforce the position of our field in biology. This year we expect to have several theme issues of great interest, and I wish to extend my deepest thanks to the colleagues who show us support and confidence.

In addition to JCCS, we have this year worked with Current Medicine Group Ltd -- Part of Springer Science+Business Media -- to remodel the ICCNS web site. The web site is the window of our Society and we are proud of the very professional tool that we have now in hand. This is OUR collective site ! Anyone is welcome to suggest modifications and alterations. We, as the managers of the site, are fully open to your feedback. Please don’t hesitate to send us your comments and suggestions.

The ICCNS web site is tightly related to JCCS. In order to value the efforts of those contributors who write comments, reviews, technical discussions, etc. we have decided that all scientific material published in the Newsletters and/or Nuts and Bolts sections of the ICCNS web site, will be automatically sent to JCCS for publication after proper reviewing. In other words, those who spend time writing articles and comments for the ICCNS web site will be acknowledged by the publication of their manuscript in JCCS and instant indexation on PubMed.

Until now, the access to all sections of the ICCNS has been open to anyone. Starting this year, access to sections reporting original scientific contributions will be restricted to members of ICCNS. For a modest fee, membership to ICCNS also provides several other significant advantages such as a free subscription to JCCS, the ability to sponsor scholarships and a significant rebate on CCN meeting fees.

We urge you to join us if you haven’t yet. You are most welcome to step up to the plate and participate actively to the life of our Society.

Of course ICCNS and JCCS are very dependent upon your support, both financial and scientific. This year we are approaching 1400 manuscripts indexed under “ctgf”. A great number of the scientists who were involved in these publications don’t even know about our Society and JCCS. It is our goal, as a whole, to make our organization known and to spread the word. The number of web pages pulled from a Google search run on CCN Proteins -3740- indicates that our field is expanding at a fast pace. However, we need to attract more colleagues in order to more efficiently share the information relevant to our topics of interest.

Great advances have been reported at the last CCN meeting that was co-organized with H. Yeger in Toronto. The abstracts and report that are published in JCCS through the support of the ICCNS can be freely consulted. We do hope that it will help to draw the attention of other colleagues, but most importantly, your support is the key to our successful development.

Hoping that this year will see a significant increase in our membership and the number of manuscripts submitted to JCCS, I wish you again a very happy new year.

February 12, 2009

Bernard Perbal
President ICCNS,
Editor in Chief JCCS

August 10, 2008

Our Society is dynamically growing and as such is always open to accepting new members;
We of course encourage all members to contribute their expertise by participating in our three main activities:

  • attending the International Workshops on the CCN family of Genes--this year in Toronto, Canada.
  • submitting material to be published in the Journal of Cell Communication and Signaling
  • visiting and interacting the newly ICCNS redesigned web site to stay current and informed

With the introduction of the Journal of Cell Communication and Signaling in 2008-- the official journal of the ICCNS-- our Society has clearly positioned itself at the cutting edge of Intra- and Inter-Cellular Signaling. There is more and more evidence suggesting that micro-environment plays a key role in the control of normal and pathological cell biology. This points to cell-cell and cell-medium communication as fundamental regulatory processes of the utmost importance.

We have actively worked this year to reorganize the ICCNS so as to open up new directions, and to broaden the scope of JCCS, and ICCNS meetings.

Internal ICCNS organization

With the reorganization of the ICCNS , we created an international scientific committee whose main purpose is to provide scientific expertise on all matters pertaining to the scientific orientations as determined by the Executive Board of the Society.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Masaharu Takigawa, Herman Yeger, Sandra Irvine and Annick Perbal for their sustained participation in the Executive Board and sharing with me the directionship of the ICCNS.
Thanks also to the colleagues who accepted the invitation to join the Committee, with particular acknowledgments to Lester Lau for his strong support and suggestions. I am most grateful to Andrew Leask , John Castellot, and Satochi Kubota who have volunteered, at my suggestion, to take responsabilities for running new activity panels - this has really invigorated our Society.
The new organization of the ICCNS should help us to develop a stronger presence within our scientific community with an eye towards a leading role in the field of cellular communication.

ICCNS website

The web pages have been completely remodeled as to reflect the fact that we have become an established group and are now internationally recognized for our activities.

Several new pages have been introduced:

  • Under "Newsletters", you can access the "Bits and Bytes" and "CCN Express" pages that are fueled by Andrew Leaks
  • The "Bits and Bytes" pages contain commentaries on recent exciting developments in the CCN field, with brief reports on published articles that are of particular significance.
  • "CCN Express" features a number of review articles written by opinion leaders in fields relevant to the CCN biology. Andrew Leask is open to contributions from all sources. Please fell free to contact him with the names of potential contributors.
  • John Castellot took the challenge of developing our new "Nuts and Bolts" section in which you will find a "Reagent Registry" and a "Technical Issues" corner.

We urge you to participate and send information for inclusion in these pages. I believe that they represent a unique tool and are extremely useful to all colleagues seeking reagents and technical help.

All comments and articles published in these sections will also appear, after peer reviewing, in upcoming issues of the Journal of Cell Communication and Signaling, with immediate indexing on PubMed.

It is important that we all make an effort to stimulate connections with other scientific societies and all work together to broaden the scope of our activities. Along this line, Satochi Kubota is to be acknowledged for taking the responsability of the "Other Meetings" section on the ICCNS website. Keeping these pages up to date is pivotal to the development of outside contacts and a fruitful exchange of information.

We count on you all to help us keep these pages active and useful.The success and utility of these sections will greatly depend on you "stepping up to the plate".

JCCS

Let's work together to expand the scope and recognition of JCCS. Owing to the wide variety of pathways in which CCN proteins are involved, and the great number of proteins and ligands with which these proteins interact, it became immediately evident that CCN proteins are part of a large signaling network. Understanding their exact roles and functions in highly organized signaling is one of the biggest challenges in the field. It also points to other signaling pathways as acting in concert with or being regulated by members of the CCN family of proteins.

In an effort to broaden the scope of our journal, I have invited a handful of new Editors to join the board of JCCS and I am grateful for their participation. We count on our Editors, members and readers to foster scientific excellence in publication.

ICCNS Workshop 2008

Peter Butler offered both his generous personal support and financial help from Springer, which enabled us to introduce exciting new features in our upcoming meetings. The next International Workshop on the CCN Family of Genes will take place in Totonto, from October 18th to October 22nd.

Details pertaining to hotel booking and meeting registration have been posted on the website. We are now in receipt of abstracts and the final program should be available soon.

Let me take this opportunity to thank Annick Perbal and Herman Yeger for their work. As many of you know, organizing a meeting is not an easy task but it is essential that these meetings be run on a regular basis because they provide a unique opportunity for researchers inside and outside the field to meet with experts, discuss new ideas, and set up new collaborative projects.

I have introduced this year an "Educational Session". The purpose of this new type of session is to provide our attendees with a group of conferences dealing with a subject of interest not necessarily directly related to CCN proteins. Peter Butler will be sponsoring a ICCNS-Springer award that will be given to a scientist whose is recognized for his or her major contribution to a field of interest.

This year, the award will be given to Pr. Paul Bornstein who will chair a session that he organized on matricellular proteins. I wish to express my personal thanks to Paul Bornstein and Peter Butler for making this a reality.

This first Editorial is inaugurating a new communication track with ICCNS members and all those who are interested in the activities of our Society. Again, we welcome all suggestions.

If you haven't joined our Society yet, there is no time like the present!

Yours Sincerely,
Professor Bernard Perbal
President, International CCN Society