EJN Call for Papers: Special Issue in Memory of Steven Brown – Dynamic interactions of biological clocks, sleep and metabolism

With the unexpected passing of Steven A. Brown in December 2022, the fields of chronobiology and sleep research suddenly lost a pioneering researcher who, over 25 years, published over 60 papers and numerous book chapters on circadian rhythms, metabolism and sleep. Steve made major contributions to the molecular understanding of biological clocks and the network, cellular, and synaptic processes organising sleep across the day. Particularly during the last decade, he focused on elucidating the dynamic crosstalk between light and circadian and sleep processes throughout the day, from the molecular to the circuit levels.

This special issue serves as a tribute and a celebration of Steve’s scientific input to chronobiology and sleep research, as well as a memory of a brilliant scientist and a dear friend to many in these fields. These aims will be achieved by submissions from his colleagues, co-authors and researchers who were inspired by his work. This commemorative issue of EJN will hopefully become a resource for students, experts and scientists, to help them navigate from the past to the future at the intersection between chronobiology and sleep research. Topics shall include the interactions of circadian rhythms and sleep with disorders and aging, computational modelling, the impact of light and metabolism, spanning from molecules to circuits. All types of contributions featured by EJN will be considered, focusing on, but not limited to, articles that address a wide range of methodologies and report results and directions, which can be traced to or were influenced by Steve’s work. In addition, we invite the submission of integrative, visionary reviews of actual topics and current challenges in our research fields. All submissions will be handled on a rolling basis, undergo a regular peer-review process, and need to meet the rigorous acceptance criteria of EJN to be published.