In 1980, Donald F.H. Wallach as editor and Maurits and Marcel Dekker as publishers founded the Journal of Receptor Research “to meet the expanding and diversified need of the field and to provide a medium for research papers dealing with all facets of receptor biology.” From 1984, Don Wallach and Vladimir Pliska jointly managed the journal, and in 1988, Ross Mikkelsen took over from Don and edited the journal together with Vladimir for the next 12 years. They expanded the scope of the journal and in the mid-1990s renamed it Journal of Receptor and Signal Transduction Research. In 2001, Alex N. Eberle took over the responsibility of editor from Ross and Vladimir; the journal’s name was slightly shortened to the Journal of Receptors and Signal Transduction (JRST). Two regional editors for the Americas, David R. Sibley, and for Asia, Akiyoshi Fukamizu, helped to shape the journal. In 2003, M. Dekker Inc. was bought by Taylor and Francis who later initiated the merger of the journal with Receptors and Channels, an equally prestigious journal edited by Terry P. Kenakin. Terry and Alex acted jointly as editors-in-chief of the journal, which, in the meantime, became part of Informa Healthcare.
The present issue (no. 6) completes volume 30 of JRST and is labeled as the 30th anniversary special issue of the journal. We have asked leading scientists in the field of receptor and signal transduction research, who were former editors, editorial board members, Receptor Prize laureates or who are currently associated with the journal, to write an original or review paper for this issue. Lutz Birnbaumer is the doyen of G protein research and has contributed several papers to JRST in the past; he opens the series with a brilliant retrospect on GPCR signaling, complemented by a personal view by Werner Schlegel ending the series in this issue. In between, the two former editors Vladimir Pliska and Ross Mikkelsen both contributed original articles; Don Wallach sadly died in 2008. Apart from Werner Schlegel, Susanna Cotecchia and Ed Palmer are also Receptor Prize laureates who prepared a review and original paper, respectively, for this issue. Alfred Maelicke who has been associated with JRST for a long time and younger scientists, Christoph Handschin and Jean-Christophe Peter, as well as current editors, Akiyoshi Fukamizu and Alex N. Eberle, contributed a paper.
In the era of systems biology, research on the signaling networks of biological systems will continue to play a central role and journals with a focus such as that of JRST will remain an important platform for highly specialized original and review papers. Thus, we believe that JRST will have an excellent future.
Alex N. Eberle
Terry P. Kenakin