Oncology Discoveries and Teamwork: Building a successful Special Collection

Interview with Dr. Miao Liu (Harvard Medical School, Department of Pathology)

New tumor therapies like Car-T, PROTAC, bispecific antibodies, and checkpoint inhibitors have rapidly progressed. And so, Dr. Miao Liu (Harvard Medical School, Department of Pathology) decided to launch a Special Collection with Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment that collated the novel and breakthrough cancer therapies of recent years to enable more researchers around the world to know about such important progressions in oncology.

The collection, entitled “A New Generation of Cancer Therapy” was co-guest edited by Dr. Meng-Yuan Dai (Wuhan University), Dr. Chao Yang (Harvard Medical School), Dr. Ruirong Tan (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center), and Dr. Liyuan Tao (Peking University).

We spoke to Dr. Liu to hear more about why he decided to launch the collection and how he found the experience.

What was most important to you when inviting research to the collection?
The most important thing was whether the studies have enough novelty to bring real clinical benefits for cancer patients and future therapy.

The co-editors were responsible for paper selection, recruiting reviewers, checking and correcting the MS, and so on. Their work guaranteed the quality of publication in our collection, and so they made powerful contributions towards the success of it.

I would especially like to highlight the work of Dr. Meng-Yuan Dai, our Vice-Chief Editor, who did impressive work. She is a famous expert in the field of oncology, and her experience on experimental and clinical research ensured the success of our collection..

Are there any specific findings from papers in the collection that surprised you or inspired you to conduct more research of your own?
I was impressed by many papers in the collection which demonstrated the impact of multidisciplinary teams coming together to work collaboratively.

Working on the collection has inspired me to co-operate with the contributing researchers in related subjects, which will improve the quality of my future research.

Who does this Collection appeal to? Who should read it?
Our collection was created with tumor-related researchers or oncology clinicians in mind. But the papers in it will appeal to anyone who is looking to discover new progressions in cancer treatment.

What did you enjoy about running a Collection? How has it benefitted you?
From submissions to our collection, I discovered new scientific findings and saw the development of cancer treatment research trends, which will greatly contribute to my future research.

Were there any challenges in running the Collection? If so, how did you overcome them?
Some submissions to our collection presented very new ideas and so the choice of reviewers was limited at times. To overcome this, we spent time looking for similar papers and asked authors to review these new submissions, so the reviewers could then give pertinent and accurate comments.

What advice would you give to anyone considering running a Collection?
I think it is important to have a good team with you to run a special collection. You can’t finish all the work of collection on your own, so team cooperation with your co-editors is essential.

All papers in the collection are free to access here.
If you’re interested in running your own Special Collection, you can find out more, or submit a proposal here.

About Dr. Miao Liu

Miao Liu got his M.D from Shandong University in China and Ph.D degree from University of Tokyo in Japan. Then he completed his postdoctoral training at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. Now he is a Senior Research Associate at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Currently, he works on ubiquitin mediated proteasomal degradation of cancer-causing proteins using proteolysis-targeting chimaera (PROTAC) technology. More precisely, he is involved in PROTAC drug development that induce the degradation of certain “undruggable” transcription factors/proteins, especially proteins expressed inside the nucleus of cells, which are difficult to target by conventional drugs. PROTACs and Degradation Drugs represent an exciting new strategy to treat tumors. Dr. Liu is pursuing this exciting but challenging area with great insight, coupled with a strong desire to provide solutions for some of the key, fundamental issues underlying this kind of drug development.