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PLOS BLOGS Speaking of Medicine and Health

PLOS Pathogens Continues Bridging Communities through Polymicrobial Research

The PLOS Pathogens staff  reflects on successful Co- and Polymicrobial Infections Collection and reaffirms its commitment to the publication of novel multidisciplinary work. 

Last September, PLOS Pathogens issued a Call for Papers, inviting authors to submit their co- and polymicrobial infection and disease research. In doing so, we sought to further engage the multidisciplinary community and to promote explorative research that includes the co- and polymicrobial fields. Editors Laura J. Knoll and Glenn Rall further expanded on this Call for Papers in their Editorial, Development of Complex Models to Study Co-and Polymicrobial Infections and Diseases.

In their article, Drs. Knoll and Rall discussed the importance of focusing on co- and polymicrobial infections, explaining that “research on polymicrobial infections and disease will bridge scientific communities, break down walls that preclude truly free exchanges of ideas and reagents, and expedite discovery of new principles.”

Along with the Call for Papers, PLOS Pathogens launched a new collection: Bridging Communities: Co- and Polymicrobial Infections. Our Bridging Communities collection strives to do just that; to bridge together the numerous sub-fields of the pathogens community to highlight the diverse work being done across different disciplines.

Since the Call for Papers was issued six months ago, PLOS Pathogens has already seen increased interest from the community in the form of addressing co- and polymicrobial infection and disease. These papers have shown the range of intersection between the different pathogenic fields and have demonstrated important novel discoveries.

For example, an article published last December, Microbial Community Composition Impacts Pathogen Iron Availability during Polymicrobial Infection, analyzed iron restriction for opportunistic pathogens upon co-infection with the commensal microbes. Another paper, Replication of CMV in the gut of HIV-infected individuals and epithelial barrier dysfunction 9, studied the effects of CMV in HIV-infected individuals.

These two outstanding research articles, in addition to their interesting topics, also demonstrate the need and value of working across disciplines. As PLOS Pathogens progresses, we want to reaffirm our commitment to the publication of co- and polymicrobial infection manuscripts and continue to encourage researchers to submit their work to PLOS Pathogens.

We want to thank the community for all their submissions so far, and we look forward continued submissions and interest in this emerging scientific area.

 

If interested in submission, please submit a full manuscript or presubmission inquiry directly to the journal office via the online submission system. You can mention your interest in the initiative via “Previous Interactions” filed in the online submission form. There is no deadline for submission. We are looking forward to receiving your work. 

 

Image credit: Matar et al. (2015)

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