Dear Colleagues:
Welcome to the first edition of Ocular Immunology and Inflammation in 2011. I would like to reflect on what we have achieved over the last 12 months with an outlook to 2011.
In 2009 we started a new concept, called Disease of the Year. Last year the disease of the year was ocular sarcoidosis. After surveying experts in the area by questionnaire to set the scene, we had expert reviews covering epidemiology, clinical findings, differential diagnostics, pathophysiology, and, finally, in this edition, therapy. I would like to thank Om Sharma, Manabu Mochizuki, and Narsing Rao for their great help and support in producing this series.
We now continue this theme with ocular toxoplasmosis as the disease of the year for 2011. Again we will begin with a “controversy,” analyzing the problems we have with this worldwide clinical problem. Editors for this edition will be Gary Holland, Carlos Pavesio, and Aize Kijstra. In addition to this “classical” parasitosis, we will add four more reviews, covering the immunology of parasites, parasitoses of the external eye, intraocular parasitic infections, and orbital parasitoses. We will have editorial help from Rathinam Sivakumar and Jyotirmay Biswas from India.
Last year Ocular Immunology published a series of six reviews on immune privilege of the eye. The aim of these manuscripts was to analyze the influence of this basic concept on our understanding of important clinical disorders, such as corneal transplantation, uveitis, ocular tumors, and corneal infections. I hope you have enjoyed this series and I would like to thank Joan Stein-Streilein, Hank Kaplan, and Jerry Niederkorn for their editorial support.
In 2011 and 2012 we plan to publish a series of papers on the genetics of ocular inflammatory disorders. Expert editorial assistance will be provided by Jim Rosenbaum, Tammy Martin, and Bob Nussenblatt in 2011. Articles will include basic principles (see this edition), followed by articles on the genetics of various uveitis entities, including HLA-B27-associated uveitis (2-2011), HLA-A29- and HLA-B51-associated uveitis (3-2011), uveitis beyond HLA (4-2011), the CAS syndromes (5-2011), and, finally, epigenetics (6-2011).
In 2012 we will continue our reviews of key clinical disorders, including atopy, age-related macular degeneration, ocular tumors, experimental murine uveitis, and gene therapy and pharmacogenetics for ocular inflammation.
With these reviews we want to continue the new direction of the journal, which combines clinical and basic science from the field of ocular inflammation.
Since 2010 this journal has been the official journal of the International Uveitis Study Group. I would like to welcome all members of the IUSG. I am confident that having this group of experts as regular readers and contributors will improve the quality of this journal.
Manfred Zierhut
Editor-in-Chief of Ocular Immunology and Inflammation