After quite possibly the worst set of peer review problems in recent memory, beginning last July, including rejection from 3 separate journals (in one case after 4 months and 2 rounds of review), our “paper from hell” is finally out in PeerJ.

It’s a neat story in which we show that the cardioprotective drugs NS1619 and NS11021, which were always thought to work via a Slo1 BK channel inside cardiac myocyte mitochondria, are instead protecting via activation of a Slo1 channel in intrinsic cardiac neurons.  This opens up a whole new area for cardioprotection – namely the idea that saving the cardiac neurons can protect the myocytes against ischemic injury.

The PeerJ thing is pretty cool too – for those who don’t know, it’s a brand-new open acces journal, founded along the same lines as PLoS, but instead of a ridiculous $1500 fee, you join as a lifetime member for $100 and just publish away. All-told, my lab’ has spent ~$8000 on publication fees in the past year, so this new approach is VERY welcome!