Top reviewers at ASBMB journals

Reviewers play an essential role in scientific publishing by upholding the standards of scholarly journals. They invest significant time and expertise to carefully evaluate manuscripts, offering authors timely, thoughtful feedback and constructive criticism. Their efforts are often hidden behind the scenes, given the anonymity of the peer review process. Reviewers are the pillars of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology journals, and we would like to recognize their contributions across the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the Journal of Lipid Research and Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.

ASBMB journals are deeply committed to building a strong, engaged community of reviewers and place the highest value on the irreplaceable contributions they make. We aim to cultivate the next generation of leaders in the scientific community by investing in young investigators and guiding them through the peer review process through the Early Career Reviewers program at JBC, and Junior Associate Editor Program at JLR.

During this Peer Review Week, the chief editors of the journals published by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology have set out to give these hardworking scientists the recognition they deserve.

Alex Toker, associate director of the Cancer Research Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, has served as editor-in-chief of JBC since 2021.

“On behalf of the entire JBC editorial team, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to our reviewers,” Toker said. “Your generosity, expertise, and thoughtful feedback are the foundation of rigorous peer review and make it possible for us to publish science of the highest quality. We are deeply grateful for your commitment to the scientific community and to advancing discovery.”

JLR Co–Editors-in-Chief Kerry–Anne Rye, a research professor at the University of New South Wales, and Nicholas O. Davidson, professor at Washington University in St. Louis, collectively emphasize the importance of maintaining rigorous and timely evaluations as well as the breadth of expertise brought in by various reviewers. 

“We are deeply grateful to our exceptional reviewers for their commitment to timely, thorough and fair-minded reviews,” Rye said.

Davidson added: “Submissions to the Journal of Lipid Research for 2025 are on track for an all-time high, in large part because of the breadth of expertise across our reviewers.”

Below, we highlight a selection of reviewers who have consistently demonstrated their dedication to the scholarly community and significantly enhanced the quality of published research. While these individuals are singled out for their exemplary efforts, the editors extend their sincere appreciation to all reviewers who help ensure that our journals uphold the highest standards of scientific excellence.

Journal of Biological Chemistry

Gaetano Santulli is a physician–scientist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. His main interests include metabolism and cardiovascular medicine with a particular emphasis on translational discoveries. Research in his lab spans from noncoding RNAs to intracellular calcium, from mitochondrial dysfunction to oxidative stress, with applications to human health and clinical practice in fields including diabetes, cardiac disorders and aging. He is honored to be a part of a rigorous peer-review process that is both constructive and fair. He has been a JBC editorial board member since 2019.

Susan L. Bellis is a professor and the chair of cell, developmental and integrative biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her laboratory studies the role of cell surface glycans in regulating the behavior of cancer cells, with a particular focus on the negatively charged sugar, sialic acid. She has been a member of the JBC Editorial Board since 2021.
 

Birte Svensson is a professor at the Technical University of Denmark. Her main research interests are structures and mechanisms of carbohydrate active enzymes, carbohydrate-binding domains and proteinaceous inhibitors interacting with starch, alginate and other biomass or dietary polysaccharides. Her interests include plant proteins, hydrocolloids and their applications in food and biotechnology. Svensson has been a member of the JBC Editorial Board since 2014.

Journal of Lipid Research

William “Bill” Griffiths is the chair of mass spectrometry at Swansea University Medical School. His research interests are in cholesterol biosynthesis and metabolism, particularly pathways of bile acid biosynthesis. He works closely with long-term collaborator Yuqin Wang, and the focus of their group’s work is on the involvement of oxysterols in biology, particularly in rare diseases, neurodegenerative disease and the immune system. When living in the Caribbean, Bill played international rugby for Jamaica. He has been a member of the Editorial Board of JLR since 2011.

John S. Parks is a professor of internal medicine in the section on molecular medicine and department of biochemistry at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He is a basic scientist who has spent more than four decades investigating the role of plasma lipoprotein, and lipid metabolism in the pathogenesis of chronic diseases, including atherosclerosis, fatty liver disease and obesity and Type 2 diabetes. He has been a member of the JLR Editorial Board since 2007.

Robert “Nate” Helsley is an assistant professor in internal medicine at the University of Kentucky. His laboratory studies lipid-signaling mechanisms that drive a variety of disorders, including hepatocellular carcinoma, obesity, and atherosclerosis. Dr. Helsley was awarded the Walter A. Shaw Young Investigator Award in Lipid Research in 2025 and has served on the JLR Editorial Board as a Junior Associate Editor since 2024. He has really enjoyed working with a great team of editors to provide a fair and thorough peer review for all manuscripts submitted to JLR.

Molecular & Cellular Proteomics

Benjamin Garcia is currently a professor and the head of the department of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The Garcia lab has been developing and applying novel proteomic approaches for interrogating protein post-translational modifications, especially those involved in epigenetic mechanisms such as histones, publishing more than 450 publications. He has been on the MCP board since 2013.