Caroline Hill

At the start of 2019, we highlighted that Journal of Cell Science (JCS) has been seeing increased submissions dealing with subjects such as nuclear architecture, chromatin dynamics and regulation, signalling to chromatin and epigenetics. We recognise the importance of this area to cell biology, and so appointed Asifa Aktar as an Editor. Asifa did a wonderful job of handling papers dealing with chromatin and epigenetics for the journal throughout the year, but has had to step down from her duties due to other commitments. We thank Asifa for the time and effort she has put into JCS, and are pleased that we will be able to continue to benefit from her expertise as she takes a place on our Editorial Advisory Board.

At the same time, we are delighted to announce that Caroline Hill will be taking over from Asifa as an Editor, handling papers on chromatin and epigenetics while also bringing additional developmental biology expertise to the journal. Caroline earned her PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK, where she worked on chromatin structure with Jean Thomas. She then did her postdoc with Richard Treisman at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, UK, working on the regulation of c-fos gene expression by growth factors. In 1995, she set up her own research lab at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, London, UK, to study signalling by TGF-β superfamily ligands. She moved to the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute in 1998 to head the Developmental Signalling Laboratory, and from there to The Francis Crick Institute in 2015, where she is now an Assistant Research Director. Caroline's work is focused on determining the mechanisms by which TGF-β superfamily ligands signal to the nucleus, their function in normal physiological conditions, in particular in early vertebrate development, and understanding how their deregulated signalling leads to human disease. Caroline was elected a member of EMBO in 2002 and a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2019.

Mahak Sharma

JCS has a worldwide reputation for publishing high quality cell biology. Given this, it is important that our Editors and Editorial Advisory Board should represent not only the topics we publish but also reflect countries from where our submissions come. Moreover, JCS has made a strong commitment to supporting early-career researchers, as evidenced by our recent appointment of seven early career researchers to our Editorial Advisory Board (see https://jcs.biologists.org/content/132/24/jcs242313). So it is a great pleasure to announce the appointment of Mahak Sharma as a new Editor on JCS. Mahak is an Associate Professor and Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance Intermediate Fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER), Mohali, India. Mahak obtained her PhD in the laboratory of Steve Caplan at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, USA, where she studied the role of EHD proteins in regulating receptor recycling. During her postdoc in the laboratory of Michael Brenner at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, she examined the trafficking of lipid antigen-presenting CD1 proteins in immune cells. In 2011, Mahak returned to India to establish her own independent research group. Her current research interests focus on the molecular mechanisms regulating membrane trafficking towards lysosomes, and how pathogens manipulate the endolysosomal pathway for their growth and survival. We extend a warm welcome to both Caroline and Mahak, and look forward to working with them.