This interview is with Cell Communication Insights editorial board member Dr John S Torday. Cell Communication Insights is a new open access journal recently launched by Libertas Academica.

Editor in Chief Dr Tobias Schmid has recently issued a call for papers.

What is the primary focus of your research?

I am primarily interested in optimizing human fetal-neonatal physiology. This is the most 'plastic' phase of human biology, and it can be profoundly impacted by the fetal-neonatal environment, both negatively and positively. My passion is to minimize the negative effectors and maximize the positive effectors.

What are the most exciting developments arising from current research in your area?

After 40 years of studying normal lung development and how it is altered by preterm birth, we have identified the specific biologic mechanism that determines alveolarization. In the process of these investigations, I have also devised an evolutionary perspective on the fundamental physiologic principles involved in lung development, which will pave the way to similar understanding of the evolutionary-developmental origins of other tissues and organs. This conceptual breakthrough will lead to predictive and preventive medicine in the future.

Who are your main collaborators? Please describe your work with them.

I work closely with Virender K. Rehan, MD at UCLA. He is a clinician scientist working in the field of Neonatology. We have developed a biologic approach to the chronic lung disease of prematurity, Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD). I also collaborate with Wei Shi,MD,PhD, at the University of Southern California. We have developed a transgenic mouse model of BPD which we will exploit to devise safe, effective treatment for this disease.

How did you come to be working in your research area?

Clinician-scientists serendipitously discovered that the hormone cortisol accelerates lung development in the womb. Because of my formal MSc/PhD training as a fetal endocrinologist, I began collaborating with the discoverers of this principle, doing basic research on this phenomenon. Over the course of the last 40+ years we have made significant inroads to the treatment and prevention of lung immaturity, and we are on the verge of curing BPD.In the course of these studies I was always puzzled by the physiologic interrelationship between the endocrine and pulmonary systems. We have been able to provide a rationale for this and other such counterintuitive physiologic processes using an evolutionary-developmental-comparative biologic approach which will form the basis for predictive medicine in the future.

What do you think about the development of open access publishing? Have you published in an open access journal? What motivated you to do so?

On the one hand, open access publishing creates more opportunity for exchange of information and creation of new knowledge in the scientific community. On the other, there is more opportunity for the introduction of questionable science into the system, so the individual has to take more personal responsibility for scrutinizing the literature.

What articles and/or books have you published recently?

• Torday JS, VK Rehan. Deconvoluting lung evolution using functional/comparative genomics. Am J Resp Cell Mol Biol. 2004 Jul 31(1):8-12.

• Torday JS. A Periodic Table for Biology. The Scientist 2004 Jun 18(12): 32-33.

• Rehan VK, Wang Y, Sugano S, Romero S, Chen X, Santos J, Khazanchi A, Torday JS.

• Mechanism of nicotine-induced pulmonary fibroblast transdifferentiation. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2005 Oct;289(4):L667-L676.

• Torday, JS. The Physiologic Significance of 11$-hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase Type 1 in Fetal Lung Development Redux. Horm Metab Res 2005; 37:1-2.

• Effros RM, Peterson B, Casaburi R, Su J, Dunning M, Torday J, Biller J, Shakir R. Epithelial Lining Fluid Solute Concentrations in Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease Patients and Normal Subjects. J Appl Physiol 2005 Oct;99(4):1286-92.

• Effros RM, Casaburi R, Su J, Dunning M, Torday J, Biller J, Shaker R. The effects of volatile salivary acids and bases on exhaled breath condensate pH. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2006 Feb 15;173(4):386-92.

• Rehan VK, Wang Y, Patel S, Santos J, Torday JS. Rosiglitazone, a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma agonist, prevents hyperoxia-induced neonatal rat lung injury in vivo. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2006 Jun;41(6):558-69.

• Rehan VK, Torday JS. Lower parathyroid hormone-related protein content of tracheal aspirates in very low birth weight infants who develop bronchopulmonary dysplasia.

• Pediatr Res. 2006 Aug;60(2):216-20.

• Torday JS , Rehan VK. Up-regulation of Fetal Lung Parathyroid Hormone-related Protein Gene Regulatory Network Down-Regulates the Sonic Hedgehog/Wnt/catenin Gene Regulatory Network. Pediatr Res. 2006 Oct;60(4):382-8.

• Rehan VK, Sharon Sugano, Ying Wang, Jamie Santos, Sonia Romero, Chiranjib Dasgupta, Michael P. Keane, Mildred T. Stahlman, J.S. Torday. Evidence for the presence of lipofibroblasts in human lung. Exp Lung Res 2006 Sep;32(8):379-393.

• Rehan VK, Wang Y, Sugano S, Santos J, Patel S, Sakurai R, Boros LG, Lee WP, Torday JS. In Utero Nicotine Exposure Alters Fetal Rat Lung Alveolar Type II cell Proliferation, Differentiation, And Metabolism. AJP LCMP 2007 292:323-333.

• Torday JS, Rehan VK. The evolutionary continuum from lung development to homeostasis and repair. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2007 Mar;292(3):L608-11.

• Torday JS, Rehan VK. Developmental Cell/Molecular Biologic Approach to the Etiology and Treatment of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia. Pediatr Res 2007 Jul;62(1):2-7.

• Rehan VK, Sakurai R,Wang Y,Santos J,Huynh K, Torday JS. Reversal of Nicotine-Induced Alveolar Lipofibroblast-to-Myofibroblast Transdifferentiation by Stimulants of Parathyroid Hormone-related Protein Signaling. Lung. 2007 May-Jun;185(3):151-9.

• Ross MG, Desai M, Khorram O, McKnight RA, Lane RH, Torday J. Gestational Programming of Offspring Obesity: A Potential Contributor to Alzheimer's Disease. Curr Alzheimer Res. 2007 Apr;4(2):213-217.

• Rehan VK, Dargan-Batra SK, Wang Y, Cerny L, Sakurai R, Santos J, Beloosesky R, Gayle D, Torday JS.A Paradoxical Temporal Response of PTHrP/PPAR{gamma} Signaling Pathway to Lipopolysaccharide in an In Vitro Model of the Developing Rat Lung. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2007 Jul;293(1):L182-90.

• Rehan VK, Torday JS. Exploiting PTHrP Signaling Pathway to Treat Chronic Lung Disease. Drugs of Today. 2007 43: 317-331.

• Torday JS, Rehan VK, Perry SF, Hicks JW, Wang T, Maina JN, Weibel ER, Hsia CCW, Sommer RJ. Deconvoluting Lung Evolution: from phenotypes to gene regulatory networks. Integrative and Comparative Biology 2007 47(4): 601-609.

• Cserny L, Torday J.S., V.K.Rehan. Prevention and Treatment of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia: Contemporary Status and Future Outlook. Lung. 2008 Mar-Apr;186(2):75-89.

• Abdel-Hakeem AK, Henry TQ, Magee TR, Desai M, Ross MG, Mansano RZ, Torday JS, Nast CC. Mechanisms of impaired nephrogenesis with fetal growth restriction: altered renal transcription and growth factor expression. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2008 199(3):252.e1-7.

• J.S.Torday,V.K.Rehan. Exploiting Cellular-Developmental Evolution as the Scientific Basis for Preventive Medicine. Medical Hypotheses January 13, 2009.

• J.S.Torday, K. Ihida-Stansbury, V.K. Rehan. Leptin Stimulates Xenopus Lung Development: evolution in a dish. Evolution and Development 11: 219-224, 2009.

• Wang Y, Sakurai R, Cerny L, Torday JS, Rehan VK. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) γ agonist enhances lung maturation in a neonatal rat model. Pediatr Res 65:150-5, 2009.

• R. Sakurai, E. Shin, S. Fonseca, T. Sakurai, AA Litonjua,ST Weiss, H Fehrenbach, JS Torday, VK Rehan. 1,25(OH)2D3 and its 3-Epimer Promote Rat Lung Alveolar Epithelial-Mesenchymal Interactions and Inhibit Lipofibroblast Apoptosis. AJP:LCMP (in press).

• J.S. Torday, S.W. Glasser, V.K. Rehan. SP-C KO paper (AJP: LCMP) submitted

• Torday JS, Rehan VK. Lung Evolution as a Cipher for Physiology. Physiological Genomics. 2009 Jun 10;38(1):1-6.

• Torday JS, Rehan VK. Cell-cell signaling drives the evolution of complex physiologic traits: Introduction- lung evo-devo. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 2009 May 11.

• Karadag A, Sakurai R, Wang Y, Cerny LM, Desai M, Ross MG, Torday JS, Rehan VK. Intrauterine growth restriction alters fetal lung programming by affecting essential epithelial-mesenchymal signaling pathways. Pediatr Pulmonology. 2009 Jul;44(7):635-44.

• Dasgupta C, Wang Y, Sakurai R, Torday JS, Rehan VK. Hyperoxia-Induced Neonatal Rat Lung Injury Involves Activation of TGF-β and Wnt Signaling: Protection by Rosiglitazone. AJP Mar 20, 2009.

• Dargan-Batra S, Cerny L, Bassiri D, Patel S, Romero S, Sakurai R, Torday J, Rehan V. Prevention of hyperoxia-induced lung injury using PPARγ agonists. (submitted to Exp Lung Res)

• Rehan VK, Asotra K, Torday JS. The Effects of Smoking on the Developing Lung: Insights From A Biologic Model for Lung Development, Homeostasis and Repair. Lung (in press)

• Torday JS, Rehan VK. The Evolution of Cell Communication: the road not taken. Cell Signaling Insights. In Press

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