Julia Thom Oxford

Effective evaluation and assessment of research‐focused programs, including centers, core facilities, and institutes, is crucial but inherently challenging. Faculty members are often departmentalized, yet their research necessitates campus‐wide access to infrastructure, specialized equipment, students, and interdisciplinary collaborators, thus creating assessment and reporting challenges. Additionally, it can be challenging to demonstrate return on investment for new and emerging programs as well as those at institutions without an extensive history of research. Social network analysis (SNA) tools may be used to address these challenges. SNA provides a data‐driven understanding of collaboration dynamics in programs designed to build research community and provides a method to quantify program impact and demonstrate the effectiveness of capacity‐building investments in fostering collaborative research and scientific output. Additionally, SNA is useful in pinpointing influential researchers who act as central nodes or bridges, and may guide future efforts in mentorship, grant development, and recruitment, by highlighting areas of productive collaboration, or alternatively, potential fragmentation in the network. The results may be used to guide future resource allocation, inform new initiatives within the program, or alternatively, target interventions if needed to strengthen a specific research area. Initial analysis can help a program assess collaborative health of a research community by providing a baseline for tracking changes in network structure and collaboration patterns over time, setting the stage for longitudinal evaluation. This article outlines the steps required to carry out SNA of bibliometric data from a biomedical research community. The article describes the acquisition of data through PubMed, application of VOSviewer and Gephi, data visualization, statistical analysis, and generation of figures suitable for publication, including examples of results designed for specific audiences and stakeholders. The article also covers creating an author thesaurus for disambiguation of authors who publish under multiple names. © 2026 The Author(s). Current Protocols published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. Basic Protocol 1 : Obtaining data Basic Protocol 2 : Initial bibliometric data processing and co‐authorship network construction using VOSviewer Basic Protocol 3 : Interfacing VOSviewer data with Gephi Basic Protocol 4 : Advanced network visualization and statistical analysis in Gephi Basic Protocol 5 : Creating impactful figures Basic Protocol 6 : Identifying key individuals or groups of individuals within the network Support Protocol 1 : VOSviewer author thesaurus file generation Support Protocol 2 : Quick‐start protocol: SNA for program evaluation

This editorial accompanies the protocol paper entitled How to apply social network analysis to evaluate professional development programs in biomedical research. © 2026 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

The amino-terminal domain of collagen α1(XI) plays a key role in controlling fibrillogenesis. However, the specific mechanisms through which various isoforms of collagen α1(XI) regulate this process are not fully understood. We measured the kinetics of collagen type I self-assembly in the presence of specific collagen α1(XI) isoforms. Molecular dynamics simulations, protein-protein docking studies, and molecular mechanics Poisson-Boltzmann surface area were utilized to understand the molecular mechanisms. In vitro, in silico, and thermodynamic studies demonstrated an isoform-specific effect on self-assembly kinetics. Our results indicate isoform-specific differences in the rate constants, activation energy, and free energy of binding. These differences may result from isoform-specific interaction dynamics and modulation of steric hindrance due to the chemically distinct variable regions. We show that isoform A interacts with collagen type I due in part to the acidic variable region, increasing the activation energy of fibril growth while decreasing the rate constant during the growth phase. In contrast, the basic variable region of isoform B may result in less steric hindrance than isoform A. Isoform 0 demonstrated the highest activation energy and the lowest rate constant during the growth phase. Although the presence of isoforms reduced the rate constants for fibril growth, an increase in total turbidity during the plateau phase was observed compared to controls. Overall, these results are consistent with collagen α1(XI) NTD isoforms facilitating fibrillogenesis by increasing the final yield by reducing the rate of the lag and/or growth phases, while extending the duration of the growth phase.

This study uses a novel combination of instruments to describe students’ intrinsic motivation in response to teaching practices. Findings demonstrate that active learning methods may support higher student motivation. Recommendations drawn from the study include using a variety of active learning methods, using evidence-based instructional methods with fidelity, and monitoring the students’ affective response to those methods. Alignment of active learning practices to the components of self-determination may result in higher quality student motivation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a major concern in the United States and worldwide. Development and validation of robust decellularization techniques is critical in generating suitable bioscaffolds for future OA treatment options. In the present study, proteins from porcine auricular cartilage before and after decellularization were extracted, digested, and identified using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The data represents protein profiles of both non-decellularized and decellularized porcine auricular cartilage. This data is intended to be useful to scientists who are interesting in generating biomaterials for potential relevant clinical applications using decellularized cartilage tissue.

Although the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic on major metropolitan areas is broadly reported and readily available, regions with lower populations and more remote areas in the United States are understudied. The objective of this study is to determine the progression of SARS-CoV-2 sequence variants in a frontier and remote intermountain west state among university-associated communities. This study was conducted at two intermountain west universities from 2020 to 2022. Positive SARS-CoV-2 samples were confirmed by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and variants were identified by the next-generation sequencing of viral genomes. Positive results were obtained for 5355 samples, representing a positivity rate of 3.5% overall. The median age was 22 years. Viral genomic sequence data were analyzed for 1717 samples and phylogeny was presented. Associations between viral variants, age, sex, and reported symptoms among 1522 samples indicated a significant association between age and the Delta variant (B 1.167.2), consistent with the findings for other regions. An outbreak event of AY122 was detected August–October 2021. A 2-month delay was observed with respect to the timing of the first documented viral infection within this region compared to major metropolitan regions of the US.

Grant writing is an important skill to develop, allowing students to envision solutions to issues that impact their local, regional, and global communities. Additionally, grant writing, like other research‐associated activities, can improve student success in and out of the classroom. Grant writing can help students understand the alignment between research activities and a “big picture” understanding of the common good and societal impact of the research. Grant writing can improve students’ ability to articulate the significance and broader impacts of research. Faculty mentors can play a major role in grant writing activities by helping to guide undergraduate students through the process. A course‐based approach can help instructors who mentor students in research by providing scaffolding and scheduling tools. This article provides an overview of a grant writing course used as an efficient and effective way for undergraduate students to be guided through the grant proposal writing process with a greater potential for positive outcomes. We discuss why undergraduate students should learn how to write grant proposals, the advantages of teaching grant writing in a course‐based format, time management, learning outcomes, and ways to assess student learning. © 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Osteoarthritis, a chronic, debilitating, and painful disease, is one of the leading causes of disability and socioeconomic burden, with an estimated 250 million people affected worldwide. Currently, there is no cure for osteoarthritis and treatments for joint disease require improvements. To address the challenge of improving cartilage repair and regeneration, three-dimensional (3D) printing for tissue engineering purposes has been developed. In this review, emerging technologies are presented with an overview of bioprinting, cartilage structure, current treatment options, decellularization, bioinks, and recent progress in the field of decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM)–bioink composites is discussed. The optimization of tissue engineering approaches using 3D-bioprinted biological scaffolds with dECM incorporated to create novel bioinks is an innovative strategy to promote cartilage repair and regeneration. Challenges and future directions that may lead to innovative improvements to currently available treatments for cartilage regeneration are presented.

We analyzed co-authorship patterns within the National Institutes of Health Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Matrix Biology program from 2014 to 2022. In this study, we analyzed junior investigators, senior researchers, and research scientists within a shared core facility. Social network analysis techniques were applied to evaluate the co-authorship network based on journal publications from members of the center. The results indicated that co-authorship network visualization and analysis is a useful tool for understanding the relationship between a shared core facility and young investigators within a research center. Young investigators collaborated with and relied upon the individual research scientists of the shared core facility to serve as contributing members of their extended research team. This reliance on the shared core facility effectively increases the size and productivity of the research team led by the young investigator. Our results indicate that shared core facility staff may serve as hubs within the network of biomedical researchers, particularly at institutions with a growing research emphasis.

Cartilage development is a tightly regulated process that involves multiple molecules and signaling pathways. The loss of expression of a single gene can alter cell behavior and disrupt the development of the cartilage. Col11a1 encodes the alpha one chain of the minor fibrillar collagen type XI that is essential in skeletal development. We used an RNAi mediated knockdown approach to investigate the role of Col11a1 expression during chondrogenesis in ATDC5 cells. Col11a1 expression promotes the transition of mesenchymal cells to the chondrogenic phenotype, and reduction of Col11a1 expression interferes with cellular differentiation. Our results indicate that collagen α1(XI) protein is required for chondrocyte cell shape, matrix production, mineralization and gene expression through a mechanism that involves AKT/GSK3β/β-catenin and TCF/LEF activity in ATDC5 cells.