Academic Editors
The following people constitute the Editorial Board of Academic Editors for PeerJ. These active academics are the Editors who seek peer reviewers, evaluate their responses, and make editorial decisions on each submission to the journal. Learn more about becoming an Editor.
Songning Zhang
Songning Zhang (PhD & FACSM) is a professor of biomechanics and the director of the Biomechanics/Sports Medicine Laboratory at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is a fellow of American College of Sports Medicine and a member of American Society of Biomechanics, International Society of Biomechanics, and China Sport Science Society. He is a visiting professor at the Shanghai University of Sports and at the Nanjing Sports Institute, China. His publications include work appearing in biomechanics, sports science, medical journals, and book chapters. He is currently an associate editor and editorial board member for Journal of Sport and Health Science, and an associate editor for Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, and an editorial board member of PeerJ. He has reviewed manuscripts for many academic peer-reviewed journals, including the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise; Journal of Biomechanics, Gait and Posture, Clinical Biomechanics, Arthritis Care & Research, etc.
Daniel F Hughes
Dr. Daniel Hughes is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Coe College, where he studies how organisms, species, and entire communities respond to change, both in the past and present. His research begins with natural history observations and then leverages comparative approaches from diverse fields to study ecological and evolutionary processes, mostly in reptiles and amphibians. Dr. Hughes' work stems from the interrelated aims of tracking the impacts of global changes and improving the conservation of species.
Helder Nakaya
Prof. Helder Nakaya is Deputy Director of School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of São Paulo, Brazil, Associate Professor at University of São Paulo, Brazil, and Adjunct Professor of the School of Medicine, Emory University, USA. He has a PhD in Molecular Biology with extensive training in Bioinformatics. He is an expert in Systems Vaccinology, an interdisciplinary field that combines systems-wide measurements, networks, and predictive modelling in the context of vaccines and infectious disease. Dr. Nakaya has developed systems biology approaches to understand and predict the mechanisms of vaccine induced-immunity for Yellow Fever, seasonal Influenza, Meningococcal, and Tularemia vaccines. His lab is focused on investigating the basis of infectious diseases using computational systems biology.
Supreet Agarwal
I am a cancer biologist with 13+ years of experience and diverse background in clinical pharmaceutical sciences, cancer stem cells, cancer therapeutics, and data analytics. My research has focused on using innovative 3D organoid models for the understanding of cancer cell signaling pathways to facilitate cancer biomarker discovery and drug discovery for metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer. I have successfully completed multiple preclinical trials of which two drugs are currently in clinical trials. Some of the methodologies I have gained expertise in include high-throughput drug screening, preclinical trials, flow cytometry, confocal microscopy, CRISPR screens, patient-derived xenografts, 3D organoid cultures, bioinformatics tools, and statistical analysis.
Marek W. Radomski
Vice-Dean Research and Professor of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology College of Medicine University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. A highly-cited pharmacologist, recipient of Scientist of Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Trinity College Dublin Fellow and Complutense University Madrid Honorary Doctorate awards.
Paula I. Moreira
Paula I. Moreira is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Principal Investigator at the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra. Moreira published more than 100 scientific peer-reviewed articles and she is on the editorial board of over 10 journals. Paula Moreira won the Stimulus to Research prize, in 2003, supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and, the L’Oreal for Women in Science, in 2008, supported by L'Oreal Portugal/UNESCO/ FCT.
Gustavo R Pedrino
Dr. Gustavo Pedrino is currently, an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiological Sciences at the Institute of Biological Sciences of the Federal University of Goiás (ICB/UFG), where he coordinates the Center for Research in Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Physiology.
His research focuses on the influence of central inflammatory processes on neuronal and sympathetic hyperactivity in cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and heart failure; neural pathways and mechanisms involved in the cardiovascular improvement observed with physical training; polymorphisms of ACE and ACE II enzymes and susceptibility to the development of cardiovascular diseases; synthesis of prototypes for drugs that act on the cardiovascular system; metabolic programming during pregnancy, lactation, and puberty; and physiopharmacology of natural and synthetic products.
Dr. Pedrino graduated in Biological Sciences (Medical Modality) from the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP). He obtained the titles of Master and Doctor in Science from the Graduate Program in Pharmacology at UNIFESP. During the doctorate, he spent one year as a Research Fellow at the Department of Physiology of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and completed postdoctoral studies at UNIFESP.
He served as the Coordinator of the Multicenter Graduate Program in Physiological Sciences (2012-2013) and the Undergraduate Course in Biomedicine at ICB/UFG (2014-2018). Acted as Secretary (2017-2018) of the Deliberative Council and Treasurer (2019-2020) of the Brazilian Society of Physiology (SBFis).
Currently, he is the Director of ICB/UFG (2018-2022/2022-2026), President of the Deliberative Council of SBFis, and Treasurer of the Federation of Experimental Biology Societies (FeSBE 2022-2023/2024-2025). Recognized as a Productivity Research Fellow 1C by the Committee on Biophysics, Pharmacology, Physiology, and Neurosciences of CNPq (2020-2024).
Yonghong Peng
Dr. Peng is a Professor of Data Science at the University of Sunderland. He is a Principal Investigator in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology and Medicine, and Principal Data Scientist working on Big Data Integration, Data Mining and Computational Intelligence. Dr. Peng's Data Science and BioMedical informatics (DS & BMI) research group focuses on development of innovative data analytics approaches to enable systematical analysis of biological data, medical images, and healthcare data and to gain new knowledge and insights from the integrative analytics of diverse data sources.
Shivam Mehta
Dr. Mehta has expertise in the biology of orthodontic tooth movement, mini-screw assisted rapid palatal expansion, Artificial Intelligence in dentistry and a passion for improving the health and wellbeing of Osteogenesis Imperfecta. Dr. Mehta is thankful to the American Association of Orthodontists Foundation (AAOF), Northeastern Society of Orthodontists (NESO), National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) for supporting his research with more than 4 grants. He works as an Assistant Professor at Marquette University School of Dentistry, American Dental Association (ADA) Standard’s Committee - Represents the interests of United States regarding dental and orthodontic materials as an active member of ADA Standards Committee on Dental Products (SCDP)/Standards Committee on Dental Informatics (SCDI); Secretary American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Postgraduate Application Support Service Advisory Council; Northeastern Society of Orthodontists (NESO) Annual Planning Committee and moderator for scientific sessions; Past core-member of President’s Council on Race and Diversity.
Christopher Cooper
Senior Lecturer in Biological Sciences at the University of Huddersfield, since 2015. Previously Junior Research Fellow, College Lecturer In Biochemistry and various postdocs at the University of Oxford (2013-15). Working on DNA replication, genome integrity and transcription factors in human cancers (and also in prokaryotes). Additional interests in phylogenomics and novel protein expression systems.
Mark O. Gessner
Mark O. Gessner is an aquatic ecosystem ecologist with a particular interest in the functioning and biodiversity of lakes, streams and wetlands and how global environmental change affects these ecosystems. Currently, he holds a professorship in Applied Aquatic Science at the Berlin Institute of Technology (TU Berlin) and serves as department head at Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), a research institute in Germany that is devoted to providing the fundamental knowledge needed to meet the challenges faced by inland waters and human societies in a rapidly changing world. Previous legs on his career path include the University of Kiel in Germany; Eawag/ETH Zurich in Switzerland; a research lab of the CNRS in France, where he completed his doctoral studies; Trent University in Ontario, Canada, as exchange student; and Stanford University in California, USA, and the Australian Rivers Institute (ARI) at Griffith University as a sabbatical visitor.
Marco Iacoboni
I am a neurologist and systems neuroscientist originally from Rome. I am interested in perception-action coupling. My interest in perception-action coupling led me to the study, among other things, of mirror neurons. Mirror neurons led me to study human imitation, empathy, and more generally what is called social cognition. As a neurologist, however, I also have a strong interest in the neurobiological mechanisms of neuropsychiatric conditions and how to intervene on those mechanisms.