Introducing Molecular Therapy— Methods & Clinical Development

On behalf of the Society and our publishing partner, Nature Publishing Group, Editor-in-Chief Malcolm Brenner and I are thrilled to announce the launch of the latest addition to the ASGCT publishing portfolio: Molecular Therapy—Methods & Clinical Development (MTMCD). The inaugural issue, which will focus on gene and cell vector production, is scheduled to go live in the fourth quarter of 2013. As many readers may know, this venture has been years in the planning, but the pieces have finally fallen into place and we are encouraged by the interest in the new title. As we noted in an editorial in these pages late last year,¹ we began to consider reports of new methodology for publication in Molecular Therapy–Nucleic Acids (MTNA) early this year in anticipation of the launch of MTMCD, and the response has been robust. MTNA is now publishing six to eight articles a month, including many high-quality methods papers.

We are equally delighted to announce that Matt Porteus has agreed to serve as the Editor-in-Chief of the new journal. Matt joined the Deputy Editor (DE) board of Molecular Therapy (MT) this year in anticipation of this new post and will continue this role after the launch of MTMCD. A not insignificant fraction of submissions to MT are returned to authors either before or after external review if the advances they describe are determined to be primarily methodological, and Matt will be instrumental in transferring some of these papers to the new journal. As we have previously noted, MT will continue to publish papers describing novel, high-impact methods and technology development when presented in the context of a therapeutic strategy being evaluated in a preclinical model or in patients. However, MTMCD will enable us to publish a greater number of such studies and to capture more early-stage technology development in gene and cell therapy in general. It will also afford us the opportunity to report significant improvements to established research techniques along the entire continuum from basic research through clinical translation and commercial development.

A full description of the purview of the new journal can be found at http://www.nature.com/mtm, and authors of potential contributions are encouraged to contact us directly at methods@molther.org to discuss the suitability of particular studies for consideration for publication in either MT or MTMCD. As is the case for MTNA, MTMCD is an online-only, open-access journal. As such, all papers will be readily available to readers worldwide, and we expect these articles to be fully searchable in PubMed Central and indexed in PubMed itself in short order. Society members receive a substantial discount on the publication fee in the journal.

Finally, both Malcolm and I extend our sincere thanks to three members of the DE board whose terms were completed this year—Chris Baum, Pedro Lowenstein, and Jacques Tremblay—who have all been instrumental in the continuing success of MT and its sibling journals. All three are joining the Associate Editor board, where they will continue to play an important advisory role for the journal. In addition to Matt Porteus, we are pleased to welcome Bobby Gaspar and Bev Davidson as the newest members to the DE board. Beginning this year, we will retire two or three members of the DE board each year with a view to enabling greater participation by the community at large in the operations of the journal.