The HFSP Journal aims to publish high quality, innovative interdisciplinary basic research at the frontier of biology over a wide range of organizational levels (from the molecular level to population biology) using principles strategies or technologies from the more quantitative disciplines (e.g. physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, or informatics).
The goal of the HFSP Journal is to foster communication between the different disciplines of research, thus furthering the mission of the Human Frontier Science Program. It should be stressed, however, that the HFSP Journal is independent from the Human Frontier Science Program Organization and that submission to the HFSP Journal is open to all and that it is not restricted to awardees of HFSP grants and fellowships.
A truly interdisciplinary reviewing process: 'the reviewers' comments were unusually insightful and useful - spanning from mistakes in equations and other typos, to interesting suggestions for discussion. As an author I can say that this is really a very encouraging start for a new journal', Prof. Dan S. Tawfik from the Weizmann Institute of Science's department of Biological Chemistry in Rehovot, Israel explains.
New: Qubits: Qubits fast-track free open access publication of short reports on arising matters.
Advance Online Publication Articles | Current Issue Table of Contents
EDITORIALS
Guided-Self Organization, this Editorial explains, is defined as the evolution of a system into an organized form in the absence of external pressures. The relevance of Guided Self-Organization to the life sciences is discussed in a series of articles in this special issue.
pp. 287-289
Full Text: [ Abstract HTML Sectioned HTML PDF (50 KB) GZipped PS ]
COMMENTARIES
In this Commentary, a model is proposed to explain in quantitative terms how transcription elongation affects nucleosome structure at a distance, as a result of the positive torque the polymerases create as they translocate along DNA templates.
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PERSPECTIVES
Ratmann et al. review the state-of-the-art in the analysis and inference of protein-protein interaction networks (PINs) and give a perspective on future developments and on how we will ultimately need to integrate interaction data with functional models to be able to understand evolutionary dynamics fully.
pp. 290-306
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Guided Self-Organization: This Perspective discusses work aimed at identifying universal principles in biological systems.
pp. 307-316
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This interesting review combines a description of stochastic events in biology with a view of evolutionary biology. It offers to add a “noise” component to the variations between organisms that are due to environmental and genetic variations.
Full Text: [ Abstract HTML Sectioned HTML PDF (174 KB) GZipped PS ]
Quantum physics was originally centered on microscopic phenomena with photons, electrons, and atoms. But objects of increasing complexity have attracted growing scientific interest, and since the size scales of both physics and the life sciences have approached each other, this Perspectives asks the question: what is the role of quantum physics in and for biology?
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This Perspective investigates the mechanisms of activation of T cells, the role of mechanical cues and insight provided by biophysical approaches, in particular by the most recent advances in fluorescence super-resolution imaging coupled with the new classes of genetic fluorescent probes.
Full Text: [ Abstract HTML Sectioned HTML PDF (211 KB) GZipped PS ]
ARTICLES
Guided-Self Organization: This article presents a model of evolutionary dynamics in a generic information-theory way. It discusses how guided self-organization can be coupled to integrate the emergence of the genotype-phenotype relationship and the emergence of a universal genetic code.
pp. 317-327
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Guided Self-Organization: Does evolution tend to produce increases in complexity? This study aims to address this question using an evolutionary model—a computational ecology subjected to natural selection.
pp. 328-339
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Guided Self-Organization: A mathematical model for generic neural microcircuits, with potential engineering applications, as well as implications to understand how networks in biology are shaped to be optimally adapted to requirements of their environment.
pp. 340-349
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This study combines phylogenetics, computational structural modeling, biochemistry, systems modeling, and expressional profiling to comprehensively integrate the gene ELF4 into the mechanism of the circadian clock of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana.
pp. 350-366
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 Vol. 3 Iss. 2 April 2009 |
 Vol. 3 Iss. 3 June 2009 |
 Vol. 3 Iss. 4 August 2009 |
 Vol. 3 Iss. 5 October 2009 |
Goals of the HFSP Journal
- to serve as a forum for communication between scientists from different disciplines who are focusing on problems in the life sciences
- to ensure a system of peer review that does justice to all aspects of an interdisciplinary article
- to place studies from different disciplines in a context accessible to scientists from different fields
- to ensure rapid online publication of original articles
- to further the scientific mission of the Human Frontier Science Program
Scope of the HFSP Journal
The journal accepts articles involving an interdisciplinary approach to a broad range of topics in the life sciences including but not restricted to:- computational approaches to gene, protein or signal transduction networks
- physical studies of the structure and dynamics of the molecular machinery of the cell
- mathematical, chemical and physical approaches to biological processes (e.g. morphogenesis, growth, genotype/phenotype relationship)
- novel chemical and physical approaches to studying biological phenomena (such as from synthetic chemistry and materials science)
- single molecule approaches to biological systems
- new ways of studying intracellular processes (e.g. novel methods from non-linear optics)
- novel physical and computational approaches to understanding brain and cognitive functions
- new methods in experimental and theoretical sciences that open up new approaches to understanding biological systems
- mathematical and computational approaches to evolutionary studies
Types of articles
- primary research articles
- commentaries on articles published in the HFSP Journal and other publications
- perspectives articles on important trends in interdisciplinary research<