The Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team comprises fifteen highly skilled and motivated editors, who combined have >100 years of editorial experience within the Nature journals. Established in 2016, the team works across the Nature Reviews portfolio, as the need arises, handling content in the life, clinical, physical and social sciences. They also handle all of the Research Briefing articles for Nature-branded research journals, having pioneered the launch of this article type in 2022, with 1,000+ Research Briefings published over 33 research journals by the end of 2023.
Head of | Katharine Wrighton, PhD, Springer Nature, UK, ORCiD
Katharine Wrighton gained her PhD from King's College London, UK, for research on the p53 tumour suppressor protein. She carried out her postdoctoral research with Dr Xin-Hua Feng at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, USA, where she was an American Heart Association Fellow researching the regulation of TGFβ signalling by post-translational modifications. Katharine joined Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology as an Associate Editor in 2009, becoming Senior Editor in 2010 and Chief Editor in 2013. At the end of 2016 Katharine established the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team and has personally supported at least 19 Reviews journals in this role, from the level of writing research highlights to acting as the Chief Editor of Nature Reviews Disease Primers. During 2021 Katharine was the editorial lead on the project team that developed the Research Briefing article, which the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team now handles for Nature-branded research journals alongside their Nature Reviews work.
Team Manager | Claire Ashworth, PhD, Springer Nature, UK, ORCiD
Claire received her MSci in chemistry from Imperial College London, UK. She subsequently completed her PhD studies at Imperial, focusing on the application of computational methods for understanding molecular-level interactions and structuring within ionic liquids and related systems. Claire joined Nature Reviews in 2016 as a copy editor for Nature Reviews Chemistry. In 2017, she joined Nature Reviews Materials for a year as a Locum Associate Editor, before joining the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team to provide editorial support across the physical sciences. Claire became a Senior Editor on the team in January 2020 and was promoted to Team Manager in April 2022.
Team Manager | Grant Otto, PhD, Springer Nature, UK, ORCiD
Grant gained his BSc and MSc at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, before completing his PhD in the USA at Columbia University in New York. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Cancer Research UK, the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, UK and Royal Holloway University of London, UK. He has performed research in various model systems, including Dictyostelium discoideum, plants, mammalian cells and mice. Grant joined Nature Reviews in September 2016 as the copy editor for Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology and moved to the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team in July 2017. He has provided support to life sciences, physical sciences and clinical journals, including extended support for Nature Reviews Disease Primers. Grant was promoted to Team Manager in April 2022.
Senior Editor | Mike Attwaters, PhD, Springer Nature, UK, ORCiD
Mike Attwaters received his MSc in Human & Applied Physiology from King’s College London. He then stayed at King’s College London to complete his PhD studies at the Randall Centre for Cell & Molecular Biophysics under the supervision of Professor Simon Hughes. His PhD studies investigated the molecular mechanisms of skeletal muscle growth in response to exercise, using zebrafish as a model system. Mike joined the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team in January 2022 as an Associate Editor and was promoted to Senior Editor in January 2024.
Senior Editor | Caroline Barranco, MSc, Springer Nature, UK, ORCiD
After obtaining her BSc Hons in Microbiology at the University of Bristol, UK, and conducting epidemiological research on influenza virus in Ken Shortridge’s lab at Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, Caroline expanded her horizons with a MSc in Management of Intellectual Property and worked in patent and trademark law firms in Hong Kong and Australia. In 2004, Caroline joined Nature Reviews (known then as Nature Clinical Practice) as a copy editor and (in 2009) was promoted to Editorial Support Manager for the Nature Reviews Clinical Science journals. In 2014 Caroline became a part-time Senior Editor on Nature Reviews Rheumatology before joining the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial team in 2016. After leaving Springer Nature for a short spell to further her yoga studies in India, we were delighted to welcome Caroline back to the team in March 2017.
Senior Editor | Lucia Brunello, PhD, Springer Nature, UK, ORCiD
Lucia completed her PhD in Biosciences at the University of Padova, Italy, where she studied the mechanisms of calcium dysregulation in familial Alzheimer disease. She then spent five years as postdoctoral researcher at the Ohio State University, where she specialized in confocal live imaging of myocardial tissue, researching the role of calcium in cardiac arrhythmias. She joined the Nature Reviews Disease Primers team in July 2016, where she primarily handled papers on cardiology, infectious diseases, haematology and dermatology. In 2022 Lucia joined the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial team, bringing with her a wealth of editorial knowledge from inside Nature Reviews and, given the comprehensive nature of Primer articles, a broad background in both clinical and basic science.
Senior Editor | Hannah Hatcher, PhD, Springer Nature, UK, ORCiD
Hannah Hatcher received her integrated Master’s degree (MPhys) in Physics from the University of Warwick. Hannah remained at Warwick to study for a PhD in Medical Physics under the supervision of Professor Emma MacPherson. During her PhD she investigated the biomedical applications of terahertz technology with a focus on the ability of terahertz measurements of the skin to quantify changes in hydration. Hannah joined the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team in January 2022 as an Associate Editor and was promoted to Senior Editor in January 2024.
Senior Editor | Rebecca Kelsey, BA, Springer Nature, UK, ORCiD
Rebecca Kelsey received her BA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, UK. She joined the Nature Clinical Practice (now Nature Reviews) journals as a Copy Editor in 2005, and from 2008 to 2018 worked in various positions as an Assistant Editor, Associate Editor, Senior Editor and Locum Chief Editor on Nature Reviews Nephrology and a Senior Editor on Nature Reviews Urology. She joined the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team as a Senior Editor in 2018. She mainly provides support to the clinical and life sciences reviews journals, but works across a wide range of titles and also handles Research Briefing articles for the Nature Research journals.
Senior Editor | Isobel Leake, BSc, Springer Nature, UK, ORCiD
Isobel Leake received her BSc in Biology from Durham University, UK. Isobel joined Nature Reviews in 2008 as a Copy Editor for Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology and Nature Reviews Cardiology before joining Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology as an Associate Editor in August 2009. She was promoted to Senior Editor in January 2013. Since joining the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team in 2016, Isobel has provided support to many journals across the department — from editing to writing Research Highlights to training new editors.
Senior Editor | Maria Papatriantafyllou, PhD, Springer Nature, Heidelberg, Germany, ORCiD
Maria Papatriantafyllou gained her PhD from the University of Heidelberg, Germany, for Tumor Immunology research conducted at the German Cancer Research Center. After two years of postdoctoral research on molecular mechanisms of CD8 T cell-mediated immune suppression, Maria entered the world of science publishing, joining Nature Reviews Immunology and Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology as a Locum Associate Editor from 2011 to 2013. In 2014, she moved to the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS), serving as an Editor and, later, Reviews Editor on FEBS Letters. From 2019 to 2023, Maria was the Managing Editor of Molecular Oncology. In April 2023, she returned to the Nature Reviews family as a Senior Editor of the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team. Maria is based in Heidelberg, Germany, and looks forward to editing interesting content from across life science and clinical journals.
Senior Editor | Jake Rogers, PhD, Springer Nature, UK, ORCiD
Jake Rogers obtained his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Melbourne, Australia, where he worked in the laboratory of Anthony Hannon investigating how serotonergic signalling mediates cognitive and affective behavioural changes resulting from interactions with the environment. He was then awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at Imperial College London, UK, to work with Simon Schultz and help establish a real-world behavioural paradigm that detects hippocampus place cells in head-fixed rodents in vivo using 2-photon Ca2+ imaging. He gained editorial experience at the open-access publisher Frontiers after completing his fellowship, then, in June 2021, Jake joined Nature Reviews Neuroscience as a Locum Senior Editor for 6 months, before assuming a permanent role at Nature Reviews as a member of the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team in January 2022 as a Senior Editor. Jake then became a part-time member in July 2022 to permanently rejoin Nature Reviews Neuroscience part-time.
Senior Editor | Shimona Starling, PhD, Springer Nature, UK, ORCiD
Shimona Starling gained her BSc in Microbiology and Virology from the University of Warwick, UK, before receiving an MSc in Clinical and Experimental Medicine from University College London, UK. She stayed on at the same university to complete her PhD studies, focusing on cell-to-cell spread of HIV. After a short post-doctoral position in the same laboratory, Shimona joined Nature Reviews in 2017 as an Associate Editor for the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team, providing support to the life sciences and clinical journals. She then joined Nature Reviews Disease Primers in 2018 for a 1-year position as Locum Associate Editor, before moving to Nature Reviews Endocrinology, where she worked for 5 years as a Senior Editor. In 2024, Shimona was delighted to return to work as a Senior Editor on the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team and she looks forward to supporting a broad range of titles and handling Research Briefing articles.
Senior Editor | Joseph Willson, PhD, Springer Nature, UK, ORCiD
After completing an Integrated Masters degree (MBiolSci) in Medical Biochemistry at the University of Sheffield, Joseph completed his PhD studies at the University of Edinburgh as part of the Optical Medical Imaging Centre for Doctoral Training (OPTIMA) under the supervision of Professor Sarah Walmsley. His PhD studies investigated the mechanisms by which neutrophils respond to hypoxic stress and the relevance of these mechanisms to lung disease. After working as a freelance editor, he joined the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team in 2019, first supporting Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, and since then has supported life sciences, physical sciences and clinical journals.
Senior Editor | Alison Wright, PhD, Springer Nature, UK, ORCiD
Alison studied physics at the University of Manchester, UK, then also for a PhD in high-energy particle physics, conducting the research at the DESY facility in Hamburg, Germany. She was a postdoctoral researcher at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK, and then a Fellow at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, working in the ALEPH and LHCb collaborations. Her interest in the communication of science brought her to Nature in 2001 as a News and Views editor, and in 2005 she became Chief Editor for the launch of Nature Physics. From 2014, she was Editorial Director for a portfolio of Nature journals across the physical, environmental and social sciences, and in March 2023 she joined the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team as a Senior Editor.
Senior Editorial Assistant | Luke Cornelius, BA, Springer Nature, UK
Luke Cornelius received his BA in English and American Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Kent. In December 2021, Luke joined Nature Reviews as an Editorial Assistant and provides administrative support to the Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team for their work on the Research Briefings. Having successfully supported the team as they scaled up the Research Briefings programme, he was promoted to the role of Senior Editorial Assistant in April 2023.
