About the Editors
Like the other Nature titles, Nature Medicine has no external editorial board. Instead, all editorial decisions are made by a dedicated team of professional editors, with relevant research and editorial backgrounds.
Chief Editor: João Monteiro, MD PhD, Springer Nature, New York, United States of America
João received his medical training at the Federal University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he also earned a PhD degree, studying mechanisms of tolerance to self-antigens in autoimmune diseases. In 2009, he was named a Pew Latin American Fellow in the Biomedical Sciences, moving to the United States to pursue studies on T cell antigen recognition and in vivo dynamics of the immune responses with Ron Germain, at the National Institutes of Health. João was the senior editor for immunology and translational medicine at Cell from 2013-2017 and in December, 2017, he was appointed Chief Editor of Nature Medicine, where he leads a team of editors and journalists covering news, opinion and research across the entire landscape of translational and clinical research. He has given talks about medicine, science and publishing in many international conferences, and has championed efforts to raise ethical standards and transparency in the reporting of translational and clinical research. João cares about supporting young investigators, creating opportunities to make scientific publishing more inclusive, and harnessing the potential of scientific research to reduce health inequalities globally. Since 2021, he has served as a member of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). João is based in New York.
Deputy Editor: Saheli Sadanand, PhD, Springer Nature, New York, United States of America
Saheli received her undergraduate degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale College. She then joined the Yale Department of Immunobiology, where she studied flu-specific memory B cells. After obtaining her Ph.D., she investigated the programming and maintenance of isotype-specific B cells in HIV-infected patients as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Galit Alter at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard. Saheli began her editorial career as Locum Associate Editor at Nature Biotechnology in 2018, joined Nature Medicine in 2019 and was appointed Deputy Editor in 2022. Saheli handles papers related to immunology, rheumatologic diseases and immunotherapies, including cancer immunotherapies. She is based in the New York office.
Deputy Editor: Liam Messin, PhD, Springer Nature, London, United Kingdom
Liam received his undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Warwick. He then completed his Masters and PhD in interdisciplinary biomedical research at Warwick Medical School. For his PhD he studied the control of microtubule shrinkage under the supervision of Jonathan Millar and Robert Cross. Before starting his editorial career Liam worked for the Naked Scientists radio show, based at the University of Cambridge. He then worked as Senior Editor for eBioMedicine and The Lancet Infectious Diseases before being made Deputy Editor for The Lancet Global Health in 2022. He joined Nature Medicine as Deputy Editor in 2024 where he handles papers related to global health, public health, and non-communicable diseases. He is based in the London office.
Senior Editor, Magazine: Sarah Tomlin, PhD, Springer Nature, London, United Kingdom
Sarah began her editorial career on the News and Views section of the flagship journal Nature in 1998, after completing her PhD on the mechanisms of general anaesthesia at Imperial College, London. Her career at Springer Nature has been dedicated to news and opinion content ever since. In 2001, Sarah relocated to the New York office and in 2002 helped to launch a new monthly title, Nature Materials, as its sole US editor. In 2004, Sarah returned to Nature as a News Features and Commentary Editor. She was responsible for coordinating multi-section content for several high-impact special issues of Nature. She also edited the letters page and handled obituaries. In 2010, Sarah returned to the London office as sole editor of Nature’s opinion column with weekly contributions from policymakers and scientists. After a period as a freelance writer and editor, Sarah returned to Springer Nature in 2023 as a consultant on the daily Nature Briefing newsletter. And in 2024 she was the launch editor of the weekly newsletter Nature Briefing: Microbiology. She joined the Nature Medicine team in 2025 as their News & Opinion editor.
Senior Editor, Research Analysis: Karen O'Leary, PhD, Springer Nature, London, United Kingdom
Karen received her undergraduate degree in microbiology from University College Cork, followed by an MSc in biomedical science from Edinburgh Napier University. She then joined the University of Cambridge Department of Haematology as a research assistant, before moving to the University of Sussex to pursue her doctoral studies on lung cancer epigenetics with Peter Schmid. Karen then worked as a postdoc with Sharon Glynn at the National University of Ireland, Galway, studying the interaction of prostate cancer cells and stromal cells, before going on to expand her knowledge of translational and clinical science while working as a writer at a medical communications agency. Karen joined Nature Reviews Cancer as a Locum Associate Editor in 2020, and joined Nature Medicine in 2021, where she oversees research analysis content, including Reviews, Perspectives, News & Views and Research Highlights. She is based in the London office.
Senior Editor, Research: Michael Basson, PhD, Springer Nature, New York, United States of America
As a graduate student in Jasper Rine's laboratory at University of California at Berkeley, Michael studied the sterol biosynthetic pathway and its rate-limiting enzyme HMG-CoA reductase in baker's yeast. His postdoctoral work was on developmental genetics and microRNAs with Robert Horvitz at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then worked in the biotech industry, first on the use of model organisms for drug discovery and then on tumor angiogenesis. Michael currently handles research manuscripts in the fields of cardiovascular diseases, precision medicine & big data, and bioengineering & biotechnology. He joined Nature Medicine in 2003 and is based in the New York office.
Senior Editor, Research: Ashley Castellanos-Jankiewicz, PhD, Springer Nature, New York, United States of America
Ashley completed her undergraduate studies in human nutrition at the Universidad Anahuac Mayab, MX, and then pursued postgraduate studies in neuroscience at the University of Maastricht, NL. She continued to study the neurobiology of feeding behavior during her PhD at the Bordeaux Neurocampus, FR. Her research focused on the effects of bile acids within hypothalamic neurons that control appetite and satiety. Ashley became an editor for Nature Metabolism in 2021 before joining Nature Medicine in 2025. Ashley handles papers related to metabolism, as well as women’s health. She is based in the New York office.
ashley.castellanos@us.nature.com
Senior Editor, Research: Jerome Staal, PhD, Springer Nature, New York, United States of America
Jerome completed his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at the University of Tasmania, Australia, and continued to study the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neuronal degeneration after traumatic brain injury for his doctoral work. After obtaining his PhD, he went on to study neuron–glia interactions during development and in disease at the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and, subsequently, at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne, Australia. Jerome joined Nature Communications as an Associate Editor in 2018 before joining Nature Medicine in 2020. Jerome handles papers in the areas of neurology, psychiatry and regenerative medicine, including stem cells. He is based in the New York office.
Senior Editor, Research: Ulrike Harjes, PhD, Springer Nature, Berlin, Germany
Ulrike completed her undergraduate degree in molecular medicine at the University of Göttingen, GER, before focusing her postgraduate studies on cancer biology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, NL. Her doctoral work was on Notch signalling in endothelial cell metabolism and tumour angiogenesis, with Adrian Harris and Barbara Fielding at the University of Oxford, UK. After her postdoctoral work with Adrian Harris and then in Peter Carmeliet’s laboratory at KU Leuven, BE, researching vascular metabolism in the context of cancer and diabetes, she joined Nature Reviews Cancer as an Associate Editor in 2017. As a Senior Editor, Ulrike moved to Nature Medicine in 2022. She handles papers in cancer and immunology and is based in the Berlin office.
Senior Editor, Research: Anna Ranzoni, PhD, Springer Nature, London, United Kingdom
Anna completed her undergraduate studies in biology at the University of Milan, followed by a master’s degree in genetics at the University of Pavia in Italy. She then pursued her PhD at University College London, where she studied human amniotic fluid stem cells and their therapeutic potential for brittle bone disease. Anna continued her research as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Ana Cvejic at the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, working on the characterization of human blood stem cells during prenatal development by single-cell genomics methods. Anna joined Nature Medicine in 2020, and she handles papers on genetics, genomics, cell therapy and gene therapy. She is based in the London office.
Senior Editor, Research: Lorenzo Righetto, PhD, Springer Nature, London, United Kingdom
Lor
enzo studied Environmental Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, but was then involved in research in infectious diseases modelling during his PhD at EPFL, in Andrea Rinaldo’s group. He was also a postdoc at Politecnico di Milano (with Marino Gatto and Renato Casagrandi) and Human Technopole (with Fabio Pammolli), where he also worked more broadly in areas related to data science and healthcare, with a focus on pharmaceutical R&D. He joined Nature Communications as their digital medicine editor in January 2020 and has taken the same role at Nature Medicine, starting in December 2022. He is based in the London office.
Senior Editor, Research: Ming Yang, PhD, Springer Nature, London, United Kingdom
Ming completed his Undergraduate degree in Physiology at King’s College London, followed by a Master’s degree in Pharmacology at University of Bristol. He completed his PhD and Postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge where he investigated the effects of metformin in the gastrointestinal tract and the functions of enteroendocrine cells in the context of metabolic diseases. During his PhD, he did a secondment at Science magazine and Science Translational Medicine. Ming was an editor in BMC Medicine in 2020 before joining Nature Medicine in March 2022, handling papers in the areas of non-communicable diseases and public health. He is based in the London office.
Associate Editor, Research: Lia Parkin, PhD, Springer Nature, New York, United States of America
Lia completed her undergraduate degree in Cell & Molecular Biology at Barnard College, Columbia University. She then completed her PhD at Stony Brook University in the Jessica Seeliger Lab, where she investigated mycobacterial cell envelope processes. Lia joined Nature Medicine in 2024 and handles infectious disease and microbiome papers. She is based in the New York office.
The Research Cross-Journal Editorial Team supports the Nature-branded research journals, with a focus on handling primary research manuscripts.
The Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team handles Research Briefing articles for the Nature-branded research journals.
