Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has been selected to serve as the home of the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) for its next five-year term, and Elizabeth McNally, MD, PhD, the Elizabeth J. Ward Professor of Genetic Medicine and director of the Center for Genetic Medicine, has been elected as the journal’s next editor-in-chief. She will be the first woman to hold the title of editor-in-chief in JCI’s nearly 100-year history.
JCI is the pre-eminent journal for research aimed at defining disease mechanisms, publishing across a wide variety of medical specialties, including immunology, neuroscience, oncology, and many more. It is owned and published by the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), one of the nation’s oldest and most respected associations for physician-scientists.
“The JCI publishes a broad range of molecular medicine, including new therapeutic mechanisms. We have a tremendous depth of expertise here at Feinberg, and we will be drawing on our outstanding scientists to guide the Journal over these next 5 years. It’s really an honor for us at Northwestern and speaks to the growth we’ve had as a medical school.” said McNally, who is also a professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics.
McNally will succeed Rexford Ahima, MD, PhD, professor and director of the Division of Endocrinology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who has served as the journal’s editor-in-chief since July 2018.
A physician-scientist and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, McNally’s clinical and research interests are defining the genetic mechanisms that cause inherited cardiovascular and neuromuscular disorders. As director of the Center for Genetic Medicine, McNally leads the center in advancing the understanding of the genetic basis of human disease and how this information can be used to improve patient decision-making and therapies.
Previous locations for JCI and its editor-in-chief have included Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, University of Michigan, University of California San Diego and San Francisco, and Harvard University. This will be the first time that Northwestern has served as the home of JCI.
“This is a perfect match: The Journal of Clinical Investigation is the premier destination for influential medical research, and Northwestern is a world-class academic medical center with a reputation for innovative scientific investigation,” said Eric G. Neilson, MD, vice-president for medical affairs and the Lewis Landsberg Dean. “I congratulate Beth on the well-deserved honor of being named editor-in-chief, and I can’t wait to see what she and her talented team of editors can do at the helm of JCI.”
With the transition to Northwestern, JCI’s Editorial Board will also be composed of Feinberg faculty who have a broad range of expertise and are active investigators in their respective fields. The Board will meet weekly to discuss and review manuscripts submitted to the journal.
The incoming JCI Editorial Board follows:
Deputy Editors and Areas of Expertise
Hossein Ardehali, MD, PhD, mitochondria, metabolism, iron, cardiovascular
Daniel Brat, MD, PhD, molecular and experimental pathology, oncology, neuro-oncology
Alfred George, Jr., MD, human genetics, ion channels, neurological, cardiovascular
Maha Hussain, MD, models of cancer therapy, mechanisms of cancer, genitourinary cancers
Susan Quaggin, MD, vascular biology and development, nephrology
Board Members and Areas of Expertise
Sarki Abdulkadir, MD, PhD, oncology, organoids, gene expression
Marisa-Luisa Alegre, MD, PhD, (Univ. of Chicago), T cells, transplant, microbiome, autoimmunity
Rishi Arora, MD, gene therapy, atrial fibrillation, large animal models
Joe Bass, MD, PhD, molecular clocks, metabolism, diabetes, obesity
Ankit Bharat, MBBS, transplant, T cells, exosomes, immunology
GR Scott Budinger, MD, fibrosis, lung injury, gene expression
Serdar Bulun, MD, reproduction, endocrinology, aromatase
Navdeep Chandel, PhD, metabolism, hypoxia, mitochondria
Eugene Chang, MD, (Univ. of Chicago), microbiome, inflammatory bowel disease, metagenomics
Jaehyuk Choi, MD, PhD, lymphomas, genomics, dermatology
Richard D’Aquila, MD, HIV, virology, RNA, immunodeficiency
Stephanie Eisenbarth, MD, PhD, human basic and experimental immunology, allergy
Amy Heimberger, MD, PhD, tumor immunology, immunotherapy, and brain tumors
Luisa Iruela-Arispe, PhD, vascular, extracellular matrix, organoids
Peng Ji, PhD, erythropoiesis, chromatin, formins, histones
Igor Koralnik, MD, neuroimmunology, lymphocytes
Maciej Lesniak, MD, brain tumors, gene therapy, stem cells
Hidayatullah Munshi, MD, neoplasm, EMT, extracellular matrix
Marcelo Nobrega, MD, PhD, (Univ. of Chicago), genomics, non-coding gene regulation, chromatin
Guillermo Oliver, PhD, lymphatics, development, homeobox
Puneet Opal, MD, PhD, neurodegeneration, intermediate filaments, cytoskeleton
John Pandolfino, MD, gastric motility, tissue biomechanics
Sachin Patel, MD, PhD, psychiatric neuroscience, molecular biology, pharmacology
Harris Perlman, PhD, macrophages, autoimmunity, fibrosis
Laura Rasmussen-Torvik, PhD, epidemiology, GWAS, Mendelian randomization, electronic health records
Patrick Seed, MD, PhD, sepsis, bacteria, infections, pediatrics
Ali Shilatifard, PhD, histones, RNA polymerase, methylation, chromatin
“I was honored to serve as Chair of the Editor Selection Committee, which devoted itself to selecting the best candidate to succeed Dr. Ahima and a long list of esteemed editors-in-chief,” said Sohail Tavazoie, MD, PhD, the 2021-2022 President-Elect of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and Leon Hess Professor at Rockefeller University. “I was particularly proud to be a part of the outstanding group who selected Dr. McNally, who will become the first woman to serve as the editor-in-chief of JCI.”
The JCI, founded in 1924, is a monthly peer-reviewed biomedical research journal widely recognized for its broad readership and impact aimed at defining disease pathways and treatments.
