Open access research celebrated( The winners of BioMed Central's 3rd ...)

The winners of BioMed Central's 3rd Annual Research Awards were announced at an awards ceremony at London's Barbican Centre last week. The event was attended by shortlisted authors, eminent researchers from around the world, open access advocates and science journalists.

The Research Awards, now in their third year, recognize excellence in research that has been made universally accessible by open access publication. The Awards celebrate the best medical and biological research published in any of BioMed Central's open access journals in the last year.

The Medicine and Biology Prizes, sponsored by Microsoft Research, were won by the following research articles:

Biology Award Basil Honegger, University of Zrich
Imp-L2, a putative homolog of vertebrate IGF-binding protein 7, counteracts insulin signaling in Drosophila and is essential for starvation resistance
Honegger B, Galic M, Khler K, Wittwer F, Brogiolo W, Hafen E, Stocker H
Journal of Biology 2008, 7:10 (15 April 2008)
http://jbiol.com/content/7/3/10

This research describes the genetic identification of the first functional insulin-like growth factor binding protein ortholog in invertebrates.

Medicine Award Weiqi Yan and Guomin Xiao, Hangzhou Normal University
Improved outcomes from the administration of progesterone for patients with acute severe traumatic brain injury: a randomized controlled trial
Xiao G, Wei J, Yan W, Wang W, Lu Z
Critical Care 2008, 12:R61 (30 April 2008)
http://ccforum.com/content/12/2/R61

This study explains how a common component of the contraceptive pill (progesterone) could improve the neurologic outcome for patients with severe head injuries.

This year, three new awards were introduced:

Editor of the Year - Chris Arme, Parasites & V
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