We are grateful for the opportunity to respond to the comments of Toker and Pavlidis (1) regarding our recent publication, in which hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha (HNF4A) and polypyrimidine tract binding protein 1 (PTBP1) mRNAs are identified as potential blood biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease (PD) (2). Early diagnosis of PD remains challenging. Contrary to what the authors suggest, we are...

Aim Community ecologists often compare assemblages. Alternatively, one may compare species distributions among assemblages for macroecological comparisons of species niche traits and dispersal abilities, which are consistent with metacommunity theory and a regional community concept. The aim of this metaanalysis is to use regressions of ranked species occupancy curves (RSOCs) among diverse meta...

The M3 workshop has, as its primary focus, the rapidly growing area of metagenomics, including the metadata standards and the meta-analysis approaches needed to organize, process and interpret metagenomics data. The PSB Workshop builds on the first M3 meeting, a Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting at ISMB 2009, organized by the Genomics Standards Consortium.