INTRODUCTION
It gives me great pleasure to introduce the new editorial team to the readership of the American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology (AJP-Renal) and to update you on our first 6 mo of stewardship. We had an unusual beginning, starting our service during the height of the pandemic. Working through Zoom and email and with the exceptional help of the American Physiological Society (APS) Publications Department, we were able to assemble an outstanding team of Associate Editors to start a new term in the history of AJP-Renal. The journal has a rich history, led by talented renal physiologists who served as editors: Tom Andreoli, Jim Schafer, Keith Hruska, Steve Hebert, Jeff Sands, Tom Kleyman, and most recently Darwin Bell. We thank Darwin and his team of talented Associate Editors for moving the journal forward and thank Amy McEver for her outstanding service to the journal through the years. On a personal level, I was honored by the trust placed in me by the Publications Committee of APS, and I look forward to working with authors, reviewers, and our Editorial Board as we work to increase the impact of our journal while also increasing the diversity of our reviewers, editorial team, and authors. Here are your new AJP-Renal Associate Editors, and a link to my biography can be found here: https://journals.physiology.org/ajprenal/editors-bio.
DEPUTY EDITOR
Dr. Alexander Staruschenko
Dr. Alexander Staruschenko is a Professor of Physiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a Medical College of Wisconsin Eminent Scholar. Dr. Staruschenko received his PhD from the Institute of Cytology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia, and completed his postdoctoral training in the Physiology Department at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio under the mentorship of Dr. James Stockand. The focus of Dr. Staruschenko’s research is on water and electrolyte homeostasis and the relationship of kidney function to the control of blood pressure and chronic kidney disease. He is currently studying the role of the epithelial Na+ channel, transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily c member 6, KCNJ10/16, and other ion channels in hypertension, diabetic kidney disease, polycystic kidney disease, and glomerular diseases to understand the role of these critical renal channels in diseases (1). Dr. Staruschenko is currently a Chair of the Awards Committee for APS. Dr. Staruschenko has been a member of the Editorial Board of AJP-Renal since 2012 and was recognized as a Star Reviewer in 2016.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
Dr. Kate Denton
Dr. Kate Denton is a Professor of Physiology and Head of the Cardiovascular Disease Program Biomedical Discovery Institute, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. Dr. Denton earned her PhD from the Baker Medical Research Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, in 1992, working with Prof. Paul Korner and Prof. Warwick Anderson, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National University Singapore. Dr. Denton is a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Principal Research Fellow. Her work aims to improve cardiovascular health for men and women across their lifespan by building a strong interdisciplinary and translational research program focused on understanding of the integrative control of arterial pressure with an emphasis on the role of the kidney (2). Dr. Denton has been an active member of APS since 1992. Dr. Denton has served on the Editorial Board for AJP-Renal since 2013 and was a member of the Selection Board for the society-wide publication, APS Select (2016−2020).
Dr. Zheng Dong
Dr. Zheng Dong is the Regents’ Professor and Leon H. Charbonnier Endowed Chair at the Medical College of Georgia of Augusta University. He is also a Senior Research Career Scientist and Director of Research and Development at Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Augusta, GA. Dr. Dong received his PhD from Shanghai Institute of Physiology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, China, with Dr. Pei-Hong Zhu and Dr. Xiong-Li Yang before postdoctoral training at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio with Dr. Manjeri A. Venkatachalam. Dr. Dong leads a research group that studies kidney injury, protection, and repair with a focus on autophagy, mitochondrial regulation, and epigenetics (3). He is an active Editorial Board member of multiple research journals, including AJP-Renal since 2011, the Journal of American Society of Nephrology, and Kidney International.
Dr. Robert A. Fenton
Dr. Robert A. Fenton is a Professor of Molecular Cell Biology at Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. Dr. Fenton received his PhD in Physiology from the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, and undertook his postdoctoral training under the guidance of Dr. Mark Knepper at the Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Metabolism, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. He leads a research group that focuses on the molecular regulation of renal membrane proteins important for blood pressure control and water balance (4). Dr. Fenton is an active member of APS and is currently serving on the APS Perkins Memorial Fellowship Committee. Previous roles include being a member and Chair of the APS Renal Section Awards Committee (2009−2016) and the Renal Section International Representative (2013−2016) as well as serving on the APS International Physiology Committee (2011−2014) and APS Epithelial Transport Group Steering Committee (2010−2018). He has been an ad hoc reviewer for AJP-Renal for >20 yr and a member of the Editorial Board since 2008.
Dr. Michelle Gumz
Dr. Michelle Gumz is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Florida and Associate Director for the Center for Integrative Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease. Dr. Gumz received her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Florida before a postdoctoral fellowship in Renal Physiology in the Division of Nephrology, Hypertension, and Renal Transplantation, Department of Medicine, with Dr. Charlie Wingo. Dr. Gumz’s research group studies the role of the molecular circadian clock in the kidney and its contribution to blood pressure regulation and renal function (5). Dr. Gumz is very active in APS and has served 4 yr as the Treasurer of the APS Renal Section, served on the Women in Physiology Committee, and is currently on the APS Policy Committee and was a member of the Selection Board for APS Select (2018−2020).
Dr. Luis Michea
Dr. Luis Michea is an Associate Professor at Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, and Principal Investigator of the Institute Millennium of Immunology and Immunotherapy and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at Facultad de Medicina. Dr. Michea received his MD degree from the Facultad de Medicina (Faculty of Medicine) of the Universidad de Chile and his PhD in Biomedical Sciences of Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile. He completed his postdoctoral training with Dr. Maurice Burg, at the Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Metabolism at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. The focus of Dr. Michea’s research is on the role of immune cells in hypertension and hypertension target organ damage and the diagnosis of acute kidney injury using new biomarkers, along with mechanisms of treatment of acute kidney injury (6). He has served as the President of the Chilean Society of Hypertension.
Dr. Jen Pluznick
Dr. Jen Pluznick is an Associate Professor of Physiology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She earned her PhD in Renal Physiology from the University of Nebraska Medical Center (Omaha, NE) with Dr. Steve Sansom and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University (New Haven, CT) with Dr. Michael Caplan. Dr. Pluznick’s laboratory is interested in better understanding the roles of “understudied” G protein-coupled receptors in the kidney and in uncovering how these receptors aid the kidney and the cardiovascular system in the maintenance of homeostasis (7). In particular, she is interested in the concept that sensory receptors (olfactory and taste receptors) play roles in a wide variety of tissues where they act as chemosensors and thus influence various aspects of physiology. Some of the receptors studied by her laboratory are activated by metabolites secreted from the gut microbiome, and thus her group has also developed a strong interest in microbiome-host interactions. Dr. Pluznick is an active member of APS, having served on the Women in Physiology, Trainee Advisory, Communications, Joint Program, and Renal Awards Committees as well as the Renal Section Steering Committee and the Task Force for Sexual Harassment. She currently serves on the APS Diversity and Inclusion Committee and served on the APS Team2023 Task Force.
Dr. Timo Rieg
Dr. Timo Rieg is an Associate Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of South Florida. Dr. Rieg received his MD/PhD from the University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany, with Prof. U. Seidler and undertook postdoctoral training at the Division of Nephrology-Hypertension, University of California, San Diego, with Dr. Volker Vallon and Dr. Roland Blantz. The main areas of Dr. Rieg’s research interests are the physiology and pathophysiology of the kidney and intestine. His work has contributed to many projects related to kidney and intestinal function using genetically modified mouse models. His current research focuses on the characterization of channels, transporters, receptors, and signaling molecules in the physiology and pathophysiology of the kidney including arterial hypertension. His work has been instrumental in determining the physiology of sodium-glucose cotransporters and the pharmacology of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 and type II sodium-phosphate cotransporter 2a inhibitors using clearance and micropuncture studies in anesthetized mice as well as the measurement of glomerular filtration rate in awake mice using single-bolus and two-compartment kinetic models (8). Dr. Rieg is actively involved in APS; he has served on the Animal Care and Experimentation Committee and Joint Program Committee, and he is currently the Chair of the Epithelial Transport Group and serves on the APS Awards Committee.
Dr. Maria Luisa S. Sequeira-Lopez
Dr. Maria Luisa S. Sequeira-Lopez is a Professor of Pediatrics and Biology and holds the Harrison Distinguished Professorship at the University of Virginia. Dr. Sequeira-Lopez received her MD from the University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina, before completing a Pediatric Residency and Fellowship at the Hospital Garrahan, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and postdoctoral training in kidney development and renin cell differentiation at the University of Virginia with a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Sequeira-Lopez’s research interests examine the fundamental contributions of kidney vascular development to disease and regeneration. Dr. Sequeira-Lopez identified the earliest progenitors for all cells in the kidney vasculature and the mechanism whereby they differentiate into renin cells, smooth muscle cells, and endothelial cells. Her work has demonstrated a crucial role of kidney vascular progenitors in tissue regeneration with enormous implications in kidney disease and hypertension (9). Dr. Sequeira-Lopez is a leader in advocating faculty well-being and the inclusion of women and minorities at all levels of the academic and administrative spectrum and serves as a member of the American Heart Association Hypertension Awards Committee and American Heart Association Hypertension Trainee Advocacy Committee, is a soon-to-be member of the APS Awards Committee, and recently Chaired the Gordon Research Conference on Angiotensin (2020).
Full biographies including the team research awards and honors are on the AJP website: https://journals.physiology.org/ajprenal/edboard.
In addition to recruiting a diverse and accomplished Editorial Team, we have also assembled a prestigious, diverse, and enthusiastic Editorial Board, with members from across the world. We will be keeping to the AJP-Renal tradition of providing concise, fair, and timely reviews of your manuscripts. We have moved to the expectation of three reviewers per manuscript (where possible), and this has assisted our Associate Editors to identify the key areas needed to facilitate an improved revision process for the authors. We moved to an editorial review of each manuscript before sending for external review, and this has increased our ability to prevent reviewer fatigue as the editorial team will triage papers that do not fit our scope or are limited in rigor and reproducibility. While our overall rejection rate has increased through this editorial review process, with only 45% of manuscripts sent for external review, those manuscripts selected for external review have a higher probability of a favorable outcome. We will be providing reviewer reports to each member of the Editorial Board at the end of each year so that all board members have a record of their service to the journal.
One of the major changes at APS on the last 6 mo has been the appointment of managing editors to the APS Journals. Colette Bean, Publications Director of APS, made the decision in March to significantly invest in our journal and appointed Teki Best as our Managing Editor. Teki is responsible for all aspects of our journal management and has been exceptional to work with in the past 9 mo. In addition to her editorial duties, Teki runs the journal social media and is a liaison with the Marketing and Communications Department at APS.
NEW PROGRAMS AND INITIATIVES FROM THE EDITORIAL TEAM
Early Career Editorial Fellowship
In October, we announced the competitive application process for our Early Career Editorial Fellowship. Postdoctoral fellows and early career faculty were eligible to apply. The goal of this program was to train the next generation of Editorial Board members and future AJP-Renal Associate Editors. We received 50 applications and selected 11 awardees. The awardees started on January 1, 2021, and have been trained in the ethics of reviewing by Dr. Chris England (Associate Publisher, Ethics and Editorial Development, for APS) and have met with APS peer review staff to orientate them in the journal review process. Each awardee is working directly with an Associate Editor on the process of reviewing manuscripts and is learning about the expectations of an Associate Editor in making final decisions and how to give constructive balanced feedback to authors and to the Associate Editor. On successful completion of this program, the awardees will join the Editorial Board of AJP-Renal (https://journals.physiology.org/ajprenal/edboard).
Congratulations to the 2021 Early Career Editorial Fellowship Awardees:
Dr. John Henry Dasinger (Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University)
Dr. Eryn Dixon (Washington University School of Medicine)
Dr. Louise C. Evans (University of Minnesota)
Dr. Ellen Gillis (Augusta University)
Dr. Jose Gomez (Vanderbilt University Medical Center)
Dr. Malgorzata Kasztan (University of Alabama at Birmingham)
Dr. Andrew Scott Terker (Vanderbilt University)
Dr. Keith Siew (University College London)
Dr. Justin Pieter Van Beusecum (Vanderbilt University)
Dr. Lei Wang (University of South Florida)
Dr. Nathan Zaidman (Johns Hopkins University)
First Author Spotlight
Starting in the April issue, we are now shining a spotlight on our first authors (https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajprenal.2021.320.4.AU). Each first author will be highlighted in the journal with a picture and a short statement of current interests. Our AJP-Renal authors and researchers are a dynamic and diverse group; however, we recognize that first authors are often hidden from recognition, and thus our goal is to highlight the individuals behind the papers.
Journal Art Cover
In August, we restarted the age-old tradition of replacing the journal cover with an exceptional image from a current publication. Please nominate your work! A message request from Teki Best is included in each letter of acceptance, inviting you to actively promote your work through your images. We are currently replacing the art every 3 mo; however, we hope to move to every 2 mo. Past journal covers are now highlighted on the AJP-Renal website (https://journals.physiology.org/journal/ajprenal/journal-covers).
Collections
Collections were initiated in July; these are listed on the journal website (https://journals.physiology.org/ajprenal/collections). These are a great resource for you as authors and reviewers to identify manuscripts from our journal that have been recently published in your area of research. Authors have the opportunity to select a Collection during the submission process; if you forget, Editors can also assign papers to a Collection at the acceptance stage. We highlight Calls for Papers, past and present in these collections, and we currently have three Calls for Papers that are running from July 2020 until July 2021. Mechanisms of Renal Electrolyte Transport and Ion Channel Regulation in Honor of Dr. Gerhard Giebisch is a Call for Papers to honor the distinguished career of Dr. Gerhard Giebisch, who passed away in 2020. Dr. Peter Aronson has kindly agreed to act as a Guest Editor for this Call. Dr. Chris Banek is serving as a Guest Editor for the Call for Papers in Neural Control of Renal Function in Hypertension and Kidney Disease. Our third Call for Papers is an APS cross-journal collaboration, Deconstructing Organs: Single-Cell Analyses, Decellularized Organs, Organoids, and Organ-on-a-Chip Models.
Graphical Abstracts
Graphical abstracts are now part of the submission process, and we have provided authors with a PowerPoint template to aid in the production of properly formatted graphical abstracts (https://journals.physiology.org/author-info.manuscript-composition). These abstracts are now featured in each issue of the journal on the AJP-Renal website and are being used to promote your work in our social media forums.
Free Article of the Week
Those who follow the AJP-Renal Twitter or Facebook page have probably seen one of our new programs, the Article of the Week. One recently published manuscript will be made available, open access and free for download, for 1 wk. This is in addition to the APSselect program, which also provides open access for APSselect papers for 1 mo. Our team has been very successful in nominating AJP-Renal manuscripts for the monthly APSselect program, and you will have seen these awards highlighted by the APS Marketing and Communications Department (https://journals.physiology.org/journal/apsselect).
APS Renal Section
We are working with the APS Renal Section to increase the communication and presence of the journal in the Section as well as to develop ideas on how we can best reward Renal Section awardees with opportunities to publish and review for AJP-Renal. Together we are committed to making AJP-Renal a primary publication in renal research, and we encourage you, our authors and reviewers, to cite your colleagues’ papers and highlight publications via social media.
AJP-RENAL SOCIAL MEDIA CONNECTIONS
We encourage you to connect with our journal and the editorial team on social media. Here are our social media connections:
Heddwen Brooks (@AJPRenalEIC)
Alexander “Sasha” Starushenko (@staruschenko)
Timo Rieg (@RiegTimo)
Michelle Gumz (@MLGumz)
Jennifer Pluznick (@jenpluznick)
Maria Luisa Sequeira-Lopez (@MLSequeiraLopez)
Robert Fenton (@rofe6065)
Kate Denton (@katedentonmona1)
AJP-Renal Twitter (@AJPRenal)
Facebook AJP-Renal (https://www.facebook.com/AJPRenal).
Articles of the Week, journal covers, APSselect, Images of the Week, and recent papers are all posted.
Please use your social media to amplify our published papers and news stories and keep submitting your best work to AJP-Renal.
GRANTS
H.L.B. is supported by the National Institutes of Health Grants RO1HL131834 and R01NS110749-01 and by the Arizona Biomedical Research Commission Grant ADHS16-162517.
DISCLOSURES
No conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, are declared by the author.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
H.L.B. drafted manuscript; edited and revised manuscript; and approved final version of manuscript.
REFERENCES
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