News Release

Open access research celebrated

Grant and Award Announcement

BMC (BioMed Central)

The winners of BioMed Central's 3rd Annual Research Awards were announced at an awards ceremony at London's Barbican Centre last week. The event was attended by shortlisted authors, eminent researchers from around the world, open access advocates and science journalists.

The Research Awards, now in their third year, recognize excellence in research that has been made universally accessible by open access publication. The Awards celebrate the best medical and biological research published in any of BioMed Central's open access journals in the last year.

The Medicine and Biology Prizes, sponsored by Microsoft Research, were won by the following research articles:

Biology Award – Basil Honegger, University of Zürich
Imp-L2, a putative homolog of vertebrate IGF-binding protein 7, counteracts insulin signaling in Drosophila and is essential for starvation resistance
Honegger B, Galic M, Köhler K, Wittwer F, Brogiolo W, Hafen E, Stocker H
Journal of Biology 2008, 7:10 (15 April 2008)
http://jbiol.com/content/7/3/10

This research describes the genetic identification of the first functional insulin-like growth factor binding protein ortholog in invertebrates.

Medicine Award – Weiqi Yan and Guomin Xiao, Hangzhou Normal University
Improved outcomes from the administration of progesterone for patients with acute severe traumatic brain injury: a randomized controlled trial
Xiao G, Wei J, Yan W, Wang W, Lu Z
Critical Care 2008, 12:R61 (30 April 2008)
http://ccforum.com/content/12/2/R61

This study explains how a common component of the contraceptive pill (progesterone) could improve the neurologic outcome for patients with severe head injuries.

This year, three new awards were introduced:

Editor of the Year - Chris Arme, Parasites & Vectors

Case Report of the Year
Derek Rajakumar, University of Saskatchewan
Mycobacterium tuberculosis monoarthritis in a child
Rajakumar D, Rosenberg AM
Pediatric Rheumatology 2008, 6:15 (18 September 2008)
http://www.ped-rheum.com/content/6/1/15

This case demonstrates the unusual ways that tuberculosis can present in our patients and highlights the difficulty in diagnosing non-pulmonary tuberculosis.

Open Access Institute of the Year - University of Nottingham

BioMed Central Publisher Matthew Cockerill said "We are delighted with the diversity and quality of this year's award nominees and would like to congratulate the winners, and those shortlisted, on their exceptional research. We would also like to thank our sponsors, Microsoft Research and Pfizer, whose support made the awards possible."

Guests at the event were treated to a lively routine from Brian Malow, 'the science comedian'. As part of their commitment to open access, Pfizer were proud to be the sponsor the Research Awards Dinner.

Photos and full details of the awards can be found at the BioMed Central Annual Research Awards website (http://www.biomedcentral.com/researchawards/)

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Notes to Editor:

1. BioMed Central (www.biomedcentral.com) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector.

2. The runner-up for the Biology Prize went to Henrik Glenner and Jens Høeg, both from the University of Copenhagen, for their research article in BMC Biology:

Induced metamorphosis in crustacean y-larvae: Towards a solution to a 100-year-old riddle
Glenner H, Høeg JT, Grygier MJ, Fujita Y
BMC Biology 2008, 6:21 (20 May 2008)
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7007/6/21

3. The runner-up for the Medicine Prize was awarded to Joachim Silber et al of the University of California for their research article published in BMC Medicine:

miR-124 and miR-137 inhibit proliferation of glioblastoma multiforme cells and induce differentiation of brain tumor stem cells
Silber J, Lim DA, Petritsch C, Persson AI, Maunakea AK, Yu M, Vandenberg SR, Ginzinger DG, James CD, Costello JF, Bergers G, Weiss WA, Alvarez-Buylla A, Hodgson JG.
BMC Medicine 2008, 6:14 (24 June 2008)
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/6/14


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