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Editorial: A closer look 

 

David Alcántara 

All Res. J. Biol., 2012, 3, i 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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EDITORIAL 



	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  Issue 1, Vol. 3, 2012, i  

Editorial: A closer look 

David Alcántara1,2 

 1) Instituto de Nanociencia de Aragón,Zaragoza University, Mariano Esquillor s/n, I+D+I Building (Rio Ebro 
Campus), 50018 Zaragoza (Spain); 2) Andalusian Center for Nanomedicine and Biotechnology (BIONAND), 
Severo Ochoa 35, 29590 Campanillas (Spain).  

 

As Editor-in-Chief of The All Res. J. Biol. I would like first 
to thanks all the authors who have submitted their 
manuscripts to our journal. This has been a positive and 
encouraging sign for us to continue working and publishing 
good quality work focused on negative results.  

During the first semester of 2012 we have received almost 
twice as many submissions as during the same period of 
2011, while at the same time, increased the number of 
rejections. Our policy of only publishing peer-reviewed work 
ensures a good quality control standard for the journal. For 
publication, experiments have to be rigorously conducted and 
repeatable. Works that showed significant flaws in scientific 
methodology or inconsistent presentation of results were not 
even submitted for peer-review. Manuscripts that carefully 
review the possible reasons for negative results in the 
discussion section have generally been positively evaluated 
and submitted to external peer-review. Here, the work of our 
expert reviewers (volunteers) has been essential and, for that, 
I would also like to thanks them for their dedication and 
valuable insights they have brought to this journal and for the 
improvements to the articles that we publish.  

This issue contains two articles which take a closer look at 
the important areas of 1) medical device testing and 2) 
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).  The first article focuses 
on biocompatibility testing for lipophilic leachates. The Food 
and Drug Administration (FDA) requires medical devices 
and materials be tested for safety. Biocompatibility testing is 
necessary for all devices requesting FDA clearance1,2.  In 
their work, Dr. Lucas et al. developed a system of indirect 
exposure of cells to oil, a system that may be useful in 
looking at surface contamination of devices. By placing cells 
in dialysis tubing and then putting these cells directly in oil, it 
was expected that exposure to lipophilic compounds would 
be increased; however, they found this was not the case. 

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) has secured its place in 
biochemical history as a revolutionary method. In the second 
article, Dr. Nema reports on experiments where the initial 
amplification of the 16SrRNA gene from purified DNA 
isolated from a stool sample generated spurious sequences 

when amplified utilizing a routine Taq polymerase enzyme. 
As the author stated “care must be taken at every step to 
ensure the quality of data being generated and made available 
as standards for future analysis in the databases”. 

Our immediate goal at The All Res. J. Biol is to provide 
scientists with responsible and balanced information in order 
to advance faster, improve experimental designs and clinical 
decisions. Publishing negative results ensures that finite 
research resources are better used, avoiding replication of 
previous experiments and leading to a more efficient use of 
resources. We encourage new submissions from researchers 
from all Biology disciplines and look forward to publishing 
good quality work within the scope of our journal.  

References   

1. FDA Guidance document. Use of International 
Standard ISO-10993, 'Biological Evaluation of 
Medical Devices Part 1: Evaluation and Testing'. 
http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/DeviceRegulati
onandGuidance/GuidanceDocuments/ucm080735.ht
m.. 

2. ASTM F 748 – 98, 1998. Standard Practice for 
Selecting Generic Biological Test Methods for 
Materials and Devices. In:  the Annual Book of 
ASTM Standards, ASTM West Conshohocken, PA, 
USA. 1998