Meet our Associate Editor Jefferso C.Frisbee

Jefferson C. Frisbee
Chair and Professor
Department of Medical Biophysics, Western University

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself?

My current position is Professor and Chair of the Department of Medical Biophysics in the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University. I have been very fortunate to learn and work in multiple different environments, each with exceptional mentors and colleagues, and this has been true of my current position as well.

While my professional interests continue to evolve, I enjoy time with my family, golf, hiking, traveling and a few other small hobbies.

2. You and your team work to identify how vascular/microvascular symptoms are impacted by states of elevated risk such as metabolic disease and chronic stress leading to poor health outcomes overall. How did you become interested in this field?

Gradually, as this was a transition from studying basic mechanisms of vascular/microvascular function. It became utterly fascinating to see how and why a system changes its behavior under imposed stresses across levels of resolution, to be able to understand why it was happening and, ultimately, to learn how we could alter system deterioration to improve outcomes. I find the general questions and the myriad ways you can conceptualize and consider what is actually happening to the vasculature under different conditions to be captivating.

3. Keeping in mind your previous experience in editorial roles, what attracted you to the position of Associate Editor of the Journal of Vascular Research (JVR)?

When I started my position here, I reduced my roles on journals, including stepping down as an Editor, in order to focus on learning the details of the position, institution, people and culture of a completely new environment. I am now 5+ years into my position and wanted to build back some journal editorial activity. I have always liked JVR and found that working with Eva (Editorial Office) was always very efficient and professional. After some discussion with Brant, I offered my experiences and assistance in any way that would benefit JVR. I very much like the Editorial Office group.

4. Which articles would you like to see submitted to the journal?

One of our challenges is balancing fundamental understanding of vascular science with opportunities for using that strong foundation to jump into newer, unknown areas. I like to see everything across the translational research spectrum, from basic discovery to clinical application to how our understanding of vascular science can start to impact society on a population health and policy level. As much as I enjoy articles on fundamental insight into “how do things work?” I would like to see more articles on personalized medicine, epidemiology, machine learning for novel insight, applications of our basic understanding to health policy.

5. What advice would you give to a junior medical researcher looking into taking their first editorial role?

Help people, especially new people trying to start their career.

As I was struggling to get going, David Shepro, the Editor of Microvascular Research, took the time to call me and explain why he rejected one of my first papers. He had no reason to help me like that but, after some patient discussions, he told me to re-submit after considerable additional work (it was ultimately accepted). That was extremely beneficial for me and I never forgot his mentorship. Personally, I think that is the most important part of the job.