editorial

welcome to the first issue of microbiology today of 2013, which will be a year of great change for sgm.

i will be finishing my tenure as editor of microbiology today in september. the excellent laura bowater, a senior lecturer in the medical school from the university of east anglia will succeed me in the post. i hope laura will find the post as enjoyable, stimulating and fun as i have – good luck!

this issue of microbiology today is a ‘virology special’; this is in part to recognise the contribution of this year’s sgm prize medal winner, harald zur hausen, and his ground-breaking contributions to understanding the link between viruses and cancer. the issue owes a huge debt to david blackbourn, whose knowledge and expertise in this area was invaluable in identifying and inviting authors – in fact david did most of the author identification and arm-twisting! we have relied heavily on the viral oncology group at the university of birmingham, who have done a great job. it has been a fascinating issue to edit and i have learned a huge amount in this area.

we begin with an overview of viruses and cancer by laura hindle & david blackbourn, followed by several articles covering more specific areas of interest. these cover a range of viruses and diseases such as viral hepatitis and hepatocarcinoma by jane mckeating & colin howard, epstein–barr virus by james turner & graham taylor and human papillomaviruses by jo parish & sally roberts. robert newton also provides us with an excellent overview of the epidemiological burden of virus-associated cancers.

we have also included an interview with professor zur hausen, where he gives us a great insight into his work and career in virology. in all, it really is a tour de force of the area.

the comment in this issue is provided by leighton chipperfield, head of publications at sgm, where he outlines the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead for sgm in the changing landscape that is academic publishing.

i hope you enjoy this issue of microbiology today.

paul a. hoskisson, editor
email [email protected]