Moving forward with cell migration

Life has been infinitely easier post-PubMed. Recently joined by Scopus and Google Scholar, these essential tools allow access to specific information from the ever-expanding literature (see

January editorial). They have limitations, however, when it comes to browsing, and reading around the field arguably provides the key to doing novel research. So how can you keep track of

the papers relevant to your field, short of trawling through innumerable contents pages each month? Following the success of the Signaling Gateway, we are keen to develop new web resources

to help researchers navigate through the literature jungle. Cell migration is one field that continues to grow. To help you keep abreast, we have now launched the Cell Migration Gateway

(http://www.cellmigration.org) — a collaboration between Nature Publishing Group (NPG) and the Cell Migration Consortium (CMC), which we hope will become the one-stop resource for

what's what in this field. Focusing on topics from the basic mechanisms of motility to the different developmental and pathological processes that migration impinges on, the aim is to

collate and discuss new advances in this broad field, providing a much required compass for the community. The CMC was established in September 2001 with funding from a National Institute of

General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) 'glue grant'. Its aim is to develop novel technologies, data and information that will help unravel the mechanisms of cell migration. Driven by

Rick Horwitz and Tom Parsons at the University of Virginia, the consortium is based on a collaboration of around 40 investigators from 20 institutions working together on six initiatives:

the cell migration proteome, structures, modelling, imaging, transgenics and expression screens. A primary aim of the CMC is to disseminate its fruits rapidly; to this end, results generated

from these initiatives will go online as soon as is feasible in the CMC Activity Center. Complementing these research initiatives is the Cell Migration Knowledgebase designed by Bill

Pearson, also at Virginia. The aim is to collate and organize data generated by CMC, and to incorporate this with published literature to provide a key fact file for each molecule relevant

to cell migration research; so far, more than 900 molecules are covered by the database. The Knowledgebase records will link to the CMC Activity Center and other databases such as UniProt,

OMIM and the AfCS/Nature Molecule Pages. The Cell Migration Gateway directs users to both the CMC Activity Center and the CM Knowledgebase. In addition, it also contains a third section

generated by NPG editors — Cell Migration Update. Through editorial summaries of papers and a research library, we will provide access to essential discoveries in cell migration research as

they are published each month. Keywording aids browsability and indeed a primary aim of this site is to aid reading across the increasingly diverse landscape of migration research. Because

papers from key journals across the board will be covered, it should provide a broad overview of the field. We hope this will ensure that users of the site do not miss vital papers, and are

kept informed about more divergent aspects of the field. We also aim to inform them of new additions to the CMC Activity Center periodically, so that opportunities waiting to be exploited

are not missed. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Moving forward with cell migration. _Nat Cell Biol_ 7, 639 (2005).

https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb0705-639a Download citation * Issue Date: July 2005 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb0705-639a SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be

able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Copy to clipboard Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing

initiative