The Role of Small Molecules in Biology
COVID-19 has shown us that some things, like journal clubs, can be effectively done on-line. This opens up the possibility to include participants from different universities or even companies, as we are constrained only by time-zone differences. Both trainees and PIs are encouraged to join, but the goal is to make this a trainee-based discussion with minimal PI input except to clarify and steer the discussions.
This virtual journal club will take place in the spring semester, 2021. If there is enough interest, we can continue it the following fall. We will meet for 1 hour each Wednesday at 3 pm (eastern time), beginning on January 27 and ending May 5.
Format: In order to accommodate as many presenters as possible, we will have two 30 min presentations each week (15 min presentation/15 min discussion). These can be independent or coordinated (e.g., a technique paper followed by an application paper using that technique). Preference will be given to trainees (students, postdocs), but anyone is welcome to present if slots are available. We will provide a signup sheet with the complete schedule shortly after the New Year. The schedule will show papers that have already been chosen.
Scope and choice of paper: All areas of metabolomics analytical technology (MS, NMR, other), bioinformatics/chemoinformatics/biostatistics, and applications are welcome. While the most recent literature (within ~2 years) is encouraged, highly impactful older papers are also appropriate. The overall goals are to get introduced to interesting papers in metabolomics and to learn something new from them. People should not present work from their own lab, but it is fine to present work from another group that participates in the journal club. We want to use this to build community, so we encourage presenters to reach out to authors of papers to ask questions in preparation and to invite them to join. Papers will be posted in advance for participants to read in preparation for the presentations.
Many papers will be too long to fit into these short timeslots. Therefore, presenters should not feel compelled to cover everything. In fact, just focusing on a key take-away, such as a method, analysis or result and explaining it in detail with a few figures or tables is better than trying to cover the whole paper.
If you are interested in participating in this virtual journal club, send an email with your name and position (student, postdoc, staff, faculty, other) to Karen Howard. She will add you to the list and will send you a schedule, signup list, and zoom link after January 4. This Virtual Journal Club is facilitated by the Metabolomics Association of North America