By Ian Le Guillou (University of Cambridge, UK) Awarded joint 2nd prize for Access to Understanding 2013 A mutation that allows cells to grow out of control could also provide a new way to target and destroy cancer cells. This potential Achilles’ heel comes from a mutation in a gene called PTEN, which is found in […]

by Nina Rzechorzek (University of Edinburgh, UK) Short-listed for Access to Understanding 2013 How do nerve cells die? Many human diseases involve degeneration of the nervous system – a system of interconnecting nerve cells, allowing us to sense and respond to our environment. All of these disorders are incurable and fatal. Most of them share […]

by Gráinne Long (MRC Epidemiology Unit, Cambridge, UK) Short-listed for Access to Understanding 2013 Cardiovascular disease (CVD) describes any disease that affects the heart or blood vessels, and is currently the leading cause of death in women world-wide. Now complications during pregnancy can be used as an early indicator to identify women at high risk […]

by Robert Hoskin (University of Sheffield, UK) Short-listed for Access to Understanding 2013 To what extent do biological and environmental factors influence how an organism develops? This question, often framed as the ‘nature-nurture debate’, is one of the most fundamental problems that science has to address. Within this debate it is of particular importance to […]

By Katarzyna Makowska (University of Leeds, UK) Short-listed for Access to Understanding 2013 Brian J. McHugh and colleagues from University of Edinburgh and King’s College London have discovered a one-protein switch that makes normal lung cells behave like metastatic cancer cells. This exciting finding, published in PLOS One in July 2012, brings us closer to […]

By David Daversa (Institute of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK) Short-listed for Access to Understanding 2013 Most people may not think very much about reasons explaining the shape of our feet. For evolutionary biologists and designers of prosthetic legs however, this topic is of major interest. A recent study, led by Dr James Usherwood from […]

By Luisa Robbez-Masson (Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University, London, UK) Short-listed for Access to Understanding 2013 Oestrogen is a female hormone, produced in the ovaries, that stimulates the formation of the female sexual characteristics at puberty. It also triggers the growth of the breast tissues during the reproductive cycle and during pregnancy. However, oestrogen […]

This post is by our guest, Dr Stephen Pinfield, a Senior Lecturer in the Information School at the University of Sheffield. In this post he introduces us to his recent paper ‘Medical research charities and open access’ where he reports on a survey he carried out to assess the Open Access (OA) policies and activities of […]

To start, I should say that all at Europe PMC support Open Access. This is just a short list of some issues that can be frustrating… 1.    The often incorrect definition of green and gold routes to Open Access I am a relative newcomer to Open Access having only been working in this area for a […]

We’re delighted that 4 new funders have joined Europe PMC, bringing the total to 24! The new funders are: Worldwide Cancer Research (formerly AICR), who fund research into the causes of cancer. The AICR is UK-based, but funds projects all around the world, supporting the best scientists wherever they are. Breast Cancer Campaign, who fund research into […]

I was at the EMBO meeting in Amsterdam earlier this week, with a poster about Europe PMC. Before I get onto that, three brief observations from the conference: 1. The plenary lecture was by Kai Simons, of lipid raft fame. Professor Simons gave a fascinating history of the development of this area of research. Having […]

Europe PMC is delighted to be involved with “I’ve got nothing to lose by trying it” – a guide by charity Sense about Science and partners that enables non-specialists to evaluate claims about treatments for medical conditions. Online adverts and chat-room conversations testify to the ‘incredible’ benefits of new medicines and treatments selling the empty […]

Science Engagement Intern – Europe PubMed Central Salary is £16,049 per annum, pro rata for the duration of the internship Full Time (36 hours per week over normal business hours) Temporary Internship for up to 6 months St Pancras, London   This is an exciting opportunity to help deliver a successful international science-writing competition.   […]

Europe PMC is pleased to offer researchers the ability to link articles to an ORCID. The tool can also be found under the ‘Resources’ menu on the Europe PMC home page. In this interface you can link any of the 28 million works available in Europe PMC to your ORCID. Adding articles to your ORCID […]

We are pleased to announce a new feature in Europe PMC that allows you to track data citations in the scientific literature. It is now possible to search for papers that cite database records for several core life science databases, such as the European Nucleotide Archive, ArrayExpress, and PDBe, as well as dataset DOIs used […]

In an exciting new development, Europe PMC now provides direct links from articles to relevant externally held information, and enables third parties to suggest relevant resources that enrich our existing content. The External Links Service is a mechanism for people to publish links from articles in Europe PMC to related information or tools. It could be […]

I have just been to the BioBricks Fondation SB6.0 conference, an international Synthetic Biology conference, this year hosted in the UK at Imperial College London. Synthetic Biology is one of the most recent scientific disciplines, and draws on the themes of nature, science and engineering ‘to connect fields in new ways by improving the process […]

Imagine, if you will, open access as a train, running up and down the length of the country, travelling anywhere track is laid, delivering papers, books, ideas to all and sundry. Research funders have the opportunity to man the signal boxes and set the open access movement’s direction of travel. That is what the Wellcome […]

I attended the UCL Neuroscience Symposium on Friday, an event showcasing work being carried out by scientists at UCL and its partners in to all areas of Neuroscience – from Developmental Neuroscience to Disorders of the Nervous System, and a lot in between! Europe PMC had a stand, manned by me (Europe PMC engagement manager) […]

Europe PMC has released a new GRant Information SysTem (GRIST) that is loaded with grant data from the 20 Europe PMC funders. It includes all of the data provided by the Funders from the beginning of the UKPMC service (which was rebranded to Europe PMC during 2012). This equates to 44,000 grant records relating to […]

There is a new prototype tool available for browsing on Europe PMC labs: Acromine. Developed and hosted by the National Centre for Textmining, University of Manchester, Acromine suggests expansions of acronyms and presents articles specific to those expansions. The new tool is presented on an interface similar to the look and feel of Europe PMC. […]

The Wellcome Trust has joined with the Public Library of Science and Google to launch the Accelerating Science Award Program (ASAP) to recognise the use of scientific research, published through open access, that has led to innovations in any field that benefit society.This new, innovative programme recognises individuals who have used, applied or remixed scientific […]

On May 1st 2013 Yorkshire Cancer Research (YCR) became the newest member of the Europe PMC Funders’ Group, and we’re delighted to have them on board. YCR fund cancer research that is carried out by world-class scientists and clinicians across Yorkshire, and provide information to help local people beat cancer. Closing the gap between the […]

by Ian Le Guillou, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge Although contradictory to the hopes of the Access to Understanding competition, writing about the work described in ‘NLK is a Novel Therapeutic Target for PTEN Deficient Tumour Cells‘ made me realise the importance of scientific jargon. Yes, it makes research very difficult to understand for […]

By Claire Sand, Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, King’s College London The Access to Understanding competition had instant appeal for me because it seemed to combine my two greatest interests – science and writing. I have always been fascinated with the human body (particularly in disease), and am currently working on my PhD in cardiovascular research, […]