STM publisher Springer has published Vascular Proteomics, the 1,000th volume of Methods in Molecular Biology (MIMB), both part of the SpringerProtocols database. Making this accomplishment even more noteworthy is the fact that the series has had the same editorial direction for its entire 30 years through John Walker, whose name is synonymous with MIMB.
As one of the first series to introduce the step-by-step protocols approach for reproducing laboratory techniques, MIMB was groundbreaking when it was created, and is a mainstay in labs and colleges across the world. In addition to detailed directions, MIMB was the first to provide a notes section including tips, tricks, shortcuts and troubleshooting advice. So rather than just presenting techniques, guidance from the users themselves is also offered. Finally, each volume focuses on specific sub-disciplines, not just a spattering of general protocols. This makes the series unique due to the depth and focus of each volume.
MIMB was also the impetus behind the creation of the SpringerProtocols product. Making up 90 percent of SpringerProtocols content, MIMB spawned many of the other primary series in the protocols family. The chapter lay out and format from MIMB also served as the template for all other protocols series, which offer up reproducible, tested and trusted laboratory guides for scientists everywhere.
