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Advancing Methods in Molecular Biology and Genetics

Guest Editors:
Vaibhav Chand:
 University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
Diego A. Forero: Fundación Universitaria del Área Andina, Colombia


BMC Research Notes has published this Collection focused on advancements and additions to research techniques used in molecular biology and genetics. Small changes to a method can produce huge improvements in research efficiency and reproducibility, while new, innovative techniques have the potential to reshape an entire research field.  

Meet the Guest Editors

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Vaibhav Chand: University of Illinois at Chicago, USA

Dr. Chand is an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research is centred on the role of FoxM1 in hepatocellular carcinoma and breast cancer. He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Delhi University in India and his post-doctoral training at the University of Illinois at Chicago. 


Diego A. Forero: Fundación Universitaria del Área Andina, Colombia

Dr. Diego A. Forero, MD, PhD is currently Professor and Research Leader at the School of Health and Sport Sciences, Fundación Universitaria del Área Andina (Bogotá, Colombia). He is a Medical Doctor (Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia) and has a PhD in Biomedical Sciences (University of Antwerp, Belgium). He is member of editorial boards of several journals and has been a peer reviewer for numerous international publications, as well as academic and scientific institutions.

About the collection

The techniques we use to investigate the universe around us are essential for the advancement of science. Novel, methods can open whole new fields of study, while refinements to a protocol can dramatically improve its efficiency, accuracy and reliability of results. Such advancements have the greatest impact when shared and incorporated across research communities.

This collection, the first of a series at BMC Research Notes, showcased the myriad of improvements and additions to research techniques used across Molecular Biology and Genetics. We welcomed Research Note articles addressing:

  • Methods to improve sample or data quality 
  • Methods that improve reliability and accuracy
  • Faster methods
  • More powerful methods
  • Method comparisons and Commentaries discussing:
  • The history and future of significant techniques or methods in molecular biology and genetics
  • New or scientifically challenging techniques and their potential
  • Controversial methods or models and their impact


Image credit: jossdim / stock.adobe.com

  1. Two-sample MR is an increasingly popular method for strengthening causal inference in epidemiological studies. For the effect estimates to be meaningful, variant-exposure and variant-outcome associations must ...

    Authors: Benjamin Woolf, Amy Mason, Loukas Zagkos, Hannah Sallis, Marcus R. Munafò and Dipender Gill
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2024 17:27
  2. Mitochondrial dysfunction and nuclear epigenetic alterations, two hallmarks of aging, are associated with aberrant development and complex disease risk. Here, we report a method for the simultaneous assessment...

    Authors: Phyo W. Win, Julia Nyugen, Amanda L. Morin, Charles E. Newcomb, Shiva M. Singh, Noha Gomaa and Christina A. Castellani
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2024 17:21
  3. The Speed-Gene study aims to identify genetic variants influencing athletic performance and human locomotion using motion capture technology. Currently, 60 female participants have completed the testing protoc...

    Authors: Swam Htet, Miftahul Zannah, Thet Hnin Moe, Pongpanot Wongveerakul, Nongnapas Charoenpanich, Vitoon Saengsirisuwan and Ioannis Papadimitriou
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:345
  4. The hypermucoviscous-like phenotype has been described in Klebsiella pneumoniae species complex (KpSC) and was described as a contributor of increased virulence. This study described the characterization and whol...

    Authors: Alejandro Alvarado-Delgado, Nadia Rodríguez-Medina, Alejandro Sánchez-Pérez, Elsa María Tamayo-Legorreta, Jackeline Cerón-Lopez, Rayo Morfin-Otero and Ulises Garza-Ramos
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:334
  5. A SNV is a single nucleotide change that can occur at any point in the genome. SNVs are the most common genetic variants that occur in the human genome, and a number of SNVs have been found to be associated wi...

    Authors: P. J. Wijekumar, N. D.K. Ranadeva, A. R. Jayamaha, H. M.N.D.M. Herath, N. Noorden and S. S.N. Fernando
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:333
  6. Lung cancer is the second most frequent cancer type and the most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Alteration of gene copy numbers are associated with lung cancer and the determination of copy n...

    Authors: Alexander Brik, Katharina Wichert, Daniel G. Weber, Katja Szafranski, Peter Rozynek, Swetlana Meier, Yon-Dschun Ko, Reinhard Büttner, Klaus Gerwert, Thomas Behrens, Thomas Brüning and Georg Johnen
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:279
  7. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a progressing neurodegenerative disease marked by chronic central nervous system inflammation and degeneration.This study investigates gene expression profiles of T-box transcription...

    Authors: Rozhin Dabbaghi, Reza Safaralizadeh, Shima Rahmani, Nesa Barpour, Mohammadali Hosseinpourfeizi, Ali Rajabi and Behzad Baradaran
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:273
  8. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a synthetic biopolymer has unique physicochemical properties to achieve an efficient drug carrier. In this study phenol-substituted polyvinyl alcohol (PVAPh) microparticle was made t...

    Authors: Melika Abdi Majareh, Seyed Mohammad Davachi, Yasaman Tavakoli Moghaddam and Mehdi Khanmohammadi
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:268
  9. The aim of this data paper is to describe a collection of 33 genomic, transcriptomic and epigenomic sequencing datasets of the B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cell line REH. REH is one of the most fr...

    Authors: Mariya Lysenkova Wiklander, Elin Övernäs, Johanna Lagensjö, Amanda Raine, Anna Petri, Ann-Christin Wiman, Jon Ramsell, Yanara Marincevic-Zuniga, Henrik Gezelius, Tom Martin, Ignas Bunikis, Sara Ekberg, Rikard Erlandsson, Pontus Larsson, Mai-Britt Mosbech, Susana Häggqvist…
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:265
  10. Wild-type transthyretin (ATTRwt) amyloidosis is caused by the misfolding and deposition of the transthyretin protein (TTR) in the absence of mutations in the TTR gene. Studies regarding the variant form of ATTR a...

    Authors: Inmaculada Moreno-Gázquez, Raquel Pérez-Palacios, Lucia Abengochea-Quílez, Carmen Lahuerta Pueyo, Ana Roteta Unceta Barrenechea, Alejandro Andrés Gracia, Miguel Angel Aibar Arregui and Sebastián Menao Guillén
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:249
  11. Pollen is a useful tool for identifying the provenance and complex ecosystems surrounding honey production in Malaysian forests. As native key pollinators in Malaysia, Apis dorsata and Heterotrigona itama forage ...

    Authors: Nurul Huda, Saeed ullah, Roswanira Abdul Wahab, Mohd Nizam Lani, Nur Hardy Abu Daud, Amir Husni Mohd Shariff, Norjihada Izzah Ismail, Azzmer Azzar Abdul Hamid, Mohd Azrul Naim Mohamad and Fahrul Huyop
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:211
  12. To explore the use of multivariable instrumental variables to resolve the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” adjustment problem created for Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis using the smoking or lung ...

    Authors: Benjamin Woolf, Dipender Gill, Hannah Sallis and Marcus R. Munafò
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:157
  13. To investigate the performance of GeneXpert MTB/RIF Ultra to accurately detect rifampicin resistance for less common rpoB mutations that potentially confer phenotypic resistance, we tested 28 such Mycobacterium t...

    Authors: Leen Rigouts, Jelle Keysers, Reenaers Rabab, Kristina Fissette, Armand van Deun and Bouke Catherine de Jong
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:146
  14. RNA extraction from Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been a historically challenging task for researchers due to the thick lipids associated with the cell wall of this “notorious” pathogen that is responsible for T...

    Authors: NE Mvubu, A. Salig, K. Moopanar, ASG Nyide, D. Govender and E. Mankayi
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:145
  15. Metatranscriptomic analysis of RNA viromes on built-environment surfaces is hampered by low RNA yields and high abundance of rRNA. Therefore, we evaluated the quality of libraries, efficiency of rRNA depletion...

    Authors: Yuh Shiwa, Tomoya Baba, Maria A. Sierra, JangKeun Kim, Christopher E. Mason and Haruo Suzuki
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:142
  16. The discovery and characterization of tumor associated antigens is increasingly important to advance the field of immuno-oncology. In this regard, labyrinthin has been implicated as a neoantigen found on the c...

    Authors: Ankit Sharma, Michael Babich, Tianhong Li and James A. Radosevich
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:139
  17. This work presents the design of a new protein based on the adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette (ABC) transporter solute binding protein (SBP) derived from Agrobacterium vitis, a gram-negative plant pathogen....

    Authors: Shonit Nair Sharma, Ashkhan Hojati, Bhargavee Gnanasambandam, Rahul S. Yerrabelli and Joshua Brozek
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:129
  18. The microbiota of a seasoning sauce fermentation process is usually complex and includes multiple species and even various strains of one species. Moreover, composition and cell numbers of individual strains v...

    Authors: Tobias Link and Matthias A. Ehrmann
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:115
  19. Ganoderma extracts have the potential to be used as anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulator, and antimicrobial agents, as evaluated in numerous studies. This study was aimed to determine the lethal and in...

    Authors: Mohammad ahmadi, Mahboobeh Salimi, Mehrzad Saraei, Niloofar Salavati Nezhad, Amir Javadi, Faezeh Mohammadi, Peyman Heydarian, Ehsan Ali and Elham Hajialilo
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:82
  20. Comprehensive and reliable genome-wide variant analysis of a small number of cells has been challenging due to genome coverage bias, PCR over-cycling, and the requirement of expensive technologies. To comprehe...

    Authors: Zarko Manojlovic, Jordan Wlodarczyk, Cindy Okitsu, Yuxin Jin, David Van Den Berg, Michael R. Lieber and Chih-Lin Hsieh
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:66
  21. A centrifugation-assisted peptide-mediated gene transfer (CAPT) method was recently developed as an efficient system for gene delivery into plant cells. However, the gene transfer efficiency of CAPT into plant...

    Authors: Mitsuhiro Kimura, Akira Endo, Yozo Nagira and Takeshi Yoshizumi
    Citation: BMC Research Notes 2023 16:46

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of Research Articles. Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have read our submission guidelines. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Advancing Methods in Molecular Biology and Genetics" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Guest Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Guest Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.