Meet our new PeerJ Section Editor – Robert Winkler

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Robert Winkler as our newest Section Editor for PeerJ Life & Environment’s Plant Biology Section.

Robert is the Principal Investigator of the Laboratory of Biochemical and instrumental Analysis (labABI) at the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV Unidad Irapuato, Mexico), and a faculty member for the postgraduate programs Plant Biotechnology and Integrative Biology. His research focuses on developing mass spectrometry tools, such as ambient ionization for direct analyses and imaging, real-time monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), mass fingerprinting of plant products, and data mining in metabolomics and proteomics.

Robert joined CINVESTAV in 2010 and is on the Editorial Board of a number of PeerJ journals, including PeerJ Life and Environment, PeerJ Computer Science, PeerJ Analytical Chemistry, and PeerJ Materials Science. More recently, Robert has been involved in one of our first PeerJ cross-journal Special Issues, Analytical Methods in Plant Science, which will launch later this year.

We caught up with Robert to find out more about him, his research, and his hopes for PeerJ’s Plant Biology Section.

Hi Robert, thanks for agreeing to be a PeerJ Section Editor. Please can you tell us a little about yourself?

I’m a curious person who likes to tinker with technology and make it available to the community. After studying engineering degrees in biotechnology and biochemistry, I did my Ph.D. in natural products chemistry. Thus, the biological models I am working with are mainly microorganisms and plants. On the other side, I have a strong interest in analytical chemistry, especially mass spectrometry and software engineering.
For me, it is crucial to develop new analytical tools for understanding biological systems better and making them cost-efficient. The limited access to state-of-the-art instrumentation is not only a problem for Mexico’s researchers but most of the global scientists. Of course, my lab is also committed to accessibility knowledge, i.e., Open Science.

What research are you currently focusing on?

We are currently developing a modular mass analyzer for the real-time detection of volatile organic compounds in biological systems. The MoBiMS is semi-portable, and we evaluate its performance to study plant-microbe interactions and monitor bioreactors. In the future, it could also help diagnose respiratory diseases. In addition, we develop new applications for our Open LabBot platform, i.e., we mount different ambient ionization sources for multimodal imaging. In collaboration with Dr. Wishart, University of Canada, we now adapt our system for high-throughput analysis of dry blot spots for screening metabolic diseases.

What persuaded you to become a PeerJ Section Editor?

I have been attracted by the concept of PeerJ since its very beginning and have held an unlimited membership since 2015. The publication fees of PeerJ are fair compared to other open-access journals. And importantly, there is no evaluation of the novelty or impact of manuscripts. Thus, any technically and scientifically sound work has a good chance to get published. As much as I can see, there is no bias against certain countries, topics (as long as they fit into the PeerJ journal’s scope), etc., which makes PeerJ more diverse. As a Section Editor, I can contribute to a high academic quality of PeerJ in my areas and gain more insight into how editorial decisions are made.

Are there exciting areas of research you’d be particularly interested in seeing submitted to the journal?

I would like to see more manuscripts reporting novel research tools for plant science. Most of the methods used in our domain were developed for analytical chemistry. Thus, often the techniques are not suitable to study living organisms or biological systems. In addition, simple and affordable devices for monitoring environmental parameters and plant health would support science in low-income countries – by the way, inhabited by most people on this planet – and promote Citizen Science.

About PeerJ Sections
Sections are community led and exemplify a research community’s shared values, norms and interests. They provide topically curated content from PeerJ journals and are overseen by Section Editors, who oversee the articles published in their Section to ensure the journal maintains a fair peer review process and the highest standards of scientific practice in their fields.

You can sign up for alerts for content alerts for the latest research featured in the Plant Biology Section here and explore other PeerJ Sections here.

Interested in becoming a PeerJ Editorial Board Member? You can apply by getting in touch with our Editorial Community Manager, Lindsay Howell (lindsay@peerj.com)