Cynthia Dunbar, MD, senior investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has been selected as the next Editor-in-Chief of Blood, the world’s leading hematology journal. Working on the Blood team is nothing new to Dr. Dunbar. She has been an associate editor of the journal for nearly nine years, and has served on the editorial boards of other journals, including Molecular Therapy, Cancer Gene Therapy, and Stem Cells, making her an ideal choice for the position.
During the interview process, the New Editor Search Committee (which made recommendations to the ASH Executive Committee), chaired by myself and including Nancy Andrews, MD, PhD, Kenneth Kaushansky, MD, J. Evan Sadler, MD, PhD, and Bradford Schwartz, MD, was particularly impressed by Dr. Dunbar’s energy, enthusiasm, and practiced eye for scientific quality.
As Editor-in-Chief, she will succeed Sanford J. Shattil, MD, who considers his proudest accomplishments on the journal to be recruitment and retention of world-class associate editors, inaugurating an ongoing and popular review series in translational hematology, and expansion of the well-received “Inside Blood” section, which provides digests of the most cutting-edge articles in each issue.
In a word, Dr. Shattil’s goal for the journal was “balance” – balance between basic science and clinical hematology and balance among the many different subcategories in hematology. Dr. Dunbar agrees and says her foremost goal for the journal will be maintaining “the incredible quality of scientific and clinical research in Blood.”
She also feels that it is important to show the NIH and others involved the value of peer review in journal publishing. As chair of the NIH Assembly of Scientists, she actively participates in discussions regarding issues such as Public Access, conflicts of interest, and clinical research ethics — possible flashpoints in the current biomedical publishing world.
Even outside the realm of hematology, Dr. Dunbar feels that the research presented in Blood is of value, stating, “Hematology is at the crossroads of science and medicine. In hematology, you can study the biology of human disease and tissue. Hematology is a paradigm for other areas of medicine.”
“When I first started as Associate Editor, there were around 2,500 submissions to Blood. Now, each year, there are more than 5,000, which shows a huge increase in interest in hematology during the last 10 years.”
Dr. Dunbar graduated magna cum laude with a degree in History of Science from Harvard University and received her doctorate from Harvard Medical School. She currently heads the Molecular Hematopoiesis Section of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Dr. Dunbar will be the first female Editor-in-Chief of Blood, which was first published in 1946, and she feels that her appointment sends a positive message to the many other women active in hematology. Dr. Dunbar hopes to increase the diversity of the pool of associate editors during her tenure.
During the next year, Dr. Dunbar will assume increasing responsibilities under Dr. Shattil’s guidance, and her five-year term will officially begin with the January 1, 2008, issue of Blood. In Dr. Shattil’s words, “The journal will be in wonderful hands.”
