Broader resource for stem cell research community
StemBook, HSCI’s online review of stem cell biology, has recently launched its newly redesigned site.
StemBook is an invited, original, open-access, peer-reviewed “book” created in collaboration with the MIND Informatics group at Massachusetts General Hospital, with chapters covering a range of topics related to stem cell biology as well as timely commentaries and news. Written by top researchers in the field worldwide and geared toward stem cell and non-specialist researchers, but also appropriate for use in an undergraduate or graduate developmental biology curriculum, StemBook is divided into sections that span the gamut from the basic to the translational. It represents a one-of-a-kind background resource for the stem cell research community, with an online infrastructure equipped to continue evolving along with the field it covers.
StemBook’s new site includes online journal clubs, news feeds and editor-moderated discussion forums. There are also user interfaces to support text mining and annotation of articles with stem cell vocabulary and resources, such as cell-lines, using a central web service. Currently there are over 80 commissioned chapters and over 60 pub- lished chapters in StemBook. Each chapter represents a citable reference and is indexed in PubMed by the National Library of Medicine and appears on the NCBI Bookshelf. Since StemBook’s original launch in September 2008, readership continues to grow dramatically.
In collaboration with the NIH Center for Regenerative Medicine, StemBook has recently launched a methods and protocols section, over- seen by StemBook but involving the coordination of over ten major stem cell core facilities around the country, providing readers with high quality, validated protocols for a wide range of stem cell research tech- niques. The section allows users to directly submit protocols, which will then be validated by the core facilities and potentially published as a vetted protocol for general use.