In this “Meet the Editors” blog series, we catch up with representatives from leading scientific publications like JCI’s assistant Science Editor, Lisa Conti, Ph.D, who will be attending the upcoming Keystone Symposia meetings. These Editors are on the hunt for emerging topics and research frontiers to highlight in future issues and gather insights about where the field is heading.
Be sure to grab their attention with your work at your next Keystone Symposia meeting!
Here, The Journal of Clinical Investigation’s (JCI) Assistant Science Editor, Lisa Conti, Ph.D., shares her thoughts and goals in attending the upcoming joint meetings on Cerebral Spinal Fluid Flow and Function: Lymphatics, Glymphatics and the Choroid Plexus, and Brain Therapeutics: Disruptive Technologies and Opportunities which will be held February 16-19 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Why are you attending this conference? What do you hope to get out of it?
Dr. Lisa Conti: This Keystone Symposia Conference provides an excellent opportunity for me to learn about a new area of research. It will also be nice to connect faces with people in the field who I know mostly through written manuscripts and who may publish with the JCI.
As science editor for Commentary articles at the JCI, I’m particularly interested in learning more about cerebral fluid flow and the clinical implications of work in this area.
How does this conference fit into the research landscape of the field?
Dr. Lisa Conti: The glymphatic system is a fairly recently described system that’s compatible with disparate theories about sleep function, memory, and degenerative disease.
In the context of population aging and consequent trends in age-related diseases, the topic of cerebral spinal fluid regulation pared with brain therapeutics is of increasing relevance.
What sessions, speakers and/or special workshops are you most looking forward to and why?
Dr. Lisa Conti: I’m excited to attend the session on Glymphatics to learn about basic biological process that underlie brain function and disease. I’m also interested in the translational implications related to brain therapeutics in the Challenges and Opportunities for Brain Therapeutics: Preclinical to Clinical Translation session.
As a science editor for the JCI, communicating how biology relates to health, disease, and treatment is essential to advancing research that extends our understanding and improves the treatment of diseases and all people.
What types of stories are you looking out for/ do you expect to highlight from this meeting?
Dr. Lisa Conti: The JCI publishes basic mechanistic studies relevant to disease and clinical articles. I will be particularly interested in seeing exciting and emerging research in these areas.
How does this meeting fit into your publication’s recent coverage of this field?
Dr. Lisa Conti: The JCI has published several articles on the glymphatic system including:
- “Understanding the functions and relationships of the glymphatic system and meningeal lymphatics” (https://www.jci.org/articles/view/90603)– a review that is co-authored by speakers Maiken Nedergarrd, Kari Alitalo and Jonathan Kipnis
- “Brain-wide pathway for waste clearance captured by contrast-enhanced MRI” (https://www.jci.org/articles/view/67677) –a primary research article by Iliff et al. in which the study authors also provided an Author’s take video.
- “Bathing the brain” (https://www.jci.org/articles/view/68241) — an upcoming commentary by Warren J. Strittmatter that speaks to the technical advance of using MRI to visualize the glymphatic pathway.
See our virtual ePanel discussion featuring meeting previews and highlights with meeting organizers here
About the Author:
Lisa Conti, Ph.D.– Assistant Science Editor, Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI)
Lisa received her PhD in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. As a graduate student in the laboratory of Carol Vandenberg, she studied ion channel structure and protein trafficking. She then went on to serve as a project scientist with the Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering at Santa Barbara, and the laboratories of Dennis Clegg, Peter Coffey, and James Thomson. In August of 2019, she joined the Journal of Clinical Investigation’s editorial team. As the handling editor of Commentary articles, she am excited to learn about the latest biomedical research and their implications.
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