Last year, the Journal of Human Genetics (JHG) underwent many significant changes. As part of the journal's new publishing agreement with the Nature Publishing Group, JHG revised its aims and scope, made changes to article types, introduced a new manuscript submission system and improved the format of the journal. Although the transition to a new publisher was challenging, I am very pleased that the journal continues to run smoothly, with increasing submissions, publishing interesting and informative articles in the field of human genetics.

There were also considerable changes to the Editorial Board in 2009. Having recognized the growing importance of human genetics studies in East and Southeast Asia, we have expanded the board of Associate Editors by appointing four new members from China, Korea and Thailand. I sincerely welcome our new colleagues, Dr Zhan, Dr Chan, Dr Shin and Dr Tongsima, and look forward to working with them to encourage more submissions from their countries. Of course, we continue to welcome papers from other countries as well, and will consider further expansions of the Editorial Board to develop and improve the editorial activities of JHG.

With respect to the Editorial Board, I thank Dr Masao Yamada, who recently completed his term, for his many efforts during his 8 years of service.

With this new team, together with reviewers, authors and our new publishing partner, Nature Publishing Group, we are committed to working hard to improve JHG. Through these developments, I sincerely believe that JHG can better serve readers as an important source of information and an exciting forum for scientific communication.

Best wishes for the New Year.

Aarsand, AK

Abade, Augusto

Abdelghaffar, Tawhida

Abe, Koichiro

Abe, Satoko

Aburatani, Hiroyuki

Ackerman, Michael J

Ainsworth, Peter

Allescher, Hans-Dieter

Allingham, R Rand

Allison, David

Almasy, Laura

Anan, Ryuichiro

Ando, Yuichi

Antonarakis, Stylianos

Aoki, Masashi

Aoki, Yoko

Arai, Masami

Arimura, Kimiyoshi

Arinami, Tadao

Ariyoshi, N

Ashraf, Ewis

Aviv, Abraham

Awata, Takuya

Axenovich, Tatyana

Ayme, Segolene

Baptista, T

Bartke, Andrzej

Benita, Simon

Bergen, Arthur

Bhushan, Bharat

Boman, Helge

Bonilla, Carolina

Bulman, Dennis

Canter, Jeff

Capelli, Cristian

Cervera, Javier

Challa, Pratap

Chen, Chia-Hsiang

Chen, Zhao

Chiang, Pei-Wen

Chu, Jiayou

Concannon, Patrick

Cuckle, Howard

Destro-Bisol, Giovanni

Doi, Katsumi

Dragani, Alfredo

Ebisawa, Takashi

Ekhart, C

Endo, Fumio

Fabbrio, D

Francomano, Clair

Fucharoen, Suthat

Fujisawa, Hironori

Fujisawa, Tomomi

Fukami, Maki

Fukao, Toshiyuki

Fukuda, Tokiko

Fukudome, Kenji

Fukumaki, Yasuyuki

Fukushima, Yoshimitsu

Furuse, Mikio

Girodon, Emmanuelle

Goetting, Christian

Gomase, Virendra

Goswami, Prabhat

Goto, Yu-ichi

Gregory, Livshits

Grossfeld, Paul

Guerrini, Renzo

Hagiwara, Koichi

Haim, Tapiero

Hamajima, Nobuyuki

Hammer, Michael

Han, Dong Soo

Hanihara, Tsunehiko

Harley, Vincent

Harwood, C

Hasegawa, Tomonobu

Hassouna, Prof. Houria

Hata, Ken-ichirou

Hattori, Eiji

Hayasaka, Koyoshi

Hayashi, Shin

Hirose, Nobuyoshi

Hirose, Shinichi

Hong, Feng

Hosoi, Takayuki

Hotta, Kikuko

Hotta, Yoshihiro

Hovnanian, Alain

Hung, Nguyen

Igarashi, Shuichi

Igase, Michiya

Iida, Aritoshi

Iizuka, M

Ikeda, Katsuhisa

Ikegami, Hiroshi

Ikegawa, Shiro

Ikeuchi, Takeshi

Imoto, Issei

Inohara, Naihiro

Inoue, Ituro

Inoue, Ken

Ishiguro, Hiroki

Ishikawa, Kinya

Ishikawa, Shumpei

Ishikawa, Toshihisa

Isomura, Minoru

Itakura, Mitsuo

Ito, Shosuke

Itoh, Masayuki

Itokawa, Masanari

Iwai, Naoharu

Iwamoto, Kazuya

Iwamoto, Sadahiko

Iwasaki, Satoshi

Iwata, Nakao

Jang, In-Jin

Jin, Li

Johnson, Todd

Jorde, Lynn B

Julier, Cesile

Jupe, Eldon R

Kakiuchi, Chihiro

Kamatani, Kengo

Kamatani, Naoyuki

Kamatani, Yoichiro

Kamei, Chiaki

Kanai, Yoshiakira

Kaname, Tadashi

Kaneko, Yasuhiko

Katagiri, Toyomasa

Kato, Mitsuhiro

Katoh, Takahiko

Katsuya, Tomohiro

Katsuyama, Hironobu

Kawame, Hiroshi

Kawano, Yuji

Keicho, Naoto

Keinan, Alon

Ki, Chang-Seok

Kimura, Ikuo

Kimura, Ryosuke

Kira, Jun-ichi

Kishi, Taro

Kitsios, Georgios

Kjaer, KW

Kobayashi, Kazuhiro

Kochetov, Alex

Kochi, Yuta

Kodama, Hiroko

Koh, Eitetsu

Kohara, Katsuhiko

Kohno, Takashi

Kosaki, Rika

Kraemer, Kenneth

Kraus, Jan

Kubo, Michiaki

Kubota, Takeo

Kugo, Hiroyuki

Kumasaka, Natsuhiko

Kurahashi, Hiroki

Kure, Shigeo

Kuroki, Yoko

Kurosawa, Kenji

Kusuhara, Hiroyuki

Lau, Chris

Leandro, Paula

Lee, Heon-Jeong

Lenz, Heinz-Josef

Li, Jicheng

Li, T

Liggett, Stephen

Lillicrap, David

Liptrott, Neill

Mabuchi, Akihiko

Maeda, Shiro

Maeda, Toyoki

Maekawa, Motoko

Majamaa, Kari

Makita, Yoshio

Mannelli, Massimo

Manning, G

Mano, Shuhei

Margaglione, Maurizio

Marques, Joana

Masuda, Ryuichi

Masuno, Mitsuo

Matsubara, Yoichi

Matsuda, Fumihiko

Matsui, Eiko

Matsumoto, Naomichi

Matsunaga, Tatsuo

Matsuo, Masafumi

Matsuoka, Rumiko

Matsuura, Masaaki

Matsuura, Shinya

McGrath, E

McKinney, Brett

Miyake, Yasuko

Miyamoto, Toshinobu

Miyata, Satoshi

Mizuta, Ikuko

Mochizuki, Naoki

Mochtar, C

Moore, Jason

Morahan, Grant

Morisaki, Takayuki

Mundlos, Stefan

Muramatsu, Masaaki

Mushiroda, Taisei

Muto, Kaori

Nagai, Yoshinori

Nagai, Yoshitaka

Nagao, Kazuaki

Nagasaki, Koichi

Nakagawa, Masanori

Nakahori, Yutaka

Nakajima, Toshiaki

Nakamura, Kazuhiko

Nakamura, Takahiro

Nakane, Hironobu

Nakatani, Kaname

Nakayama, Tomohiro

Nakura, Jun

Nanba, Eiji

Narumi, Yoko

Nasidze, Ivan

Naviaux, Robert

Niikawa, Norio

Nishigaki, Yutaka

Nishigori, Chikako

Nishina, Hiroshi

Nishino, Seiji

Nobori, Tsutomu

Noguchi, Emiko

Noiri, Eisei

Nuchprayoon, Issarang

Numabe, Hironao

Numata, Shusuke

Offermanns, Stefan

Ogawa, Yoshihiro

Ogimoto, Akiyoshi

Ohashi, Jun

Ohashi, Toya

Ohishi, Mitsuru

Ohno, Kousaku

Ohtake, Akira

Ohura, Toshihiro

Okamoto, Nobuhiko

Okazaki, Yasushi

Okubo, Minoru

Okuyama, Torayuki

Onodera, Osamu

Onouchi, Yoshihiro

Oota, Hiroki

Osawa, Haruhiko

Otowa, Takeshi

Ozaki, Kouichi

Paschou, Peristera

Patterson, Nick

Pedersen, Rikke

Pereira, Luisa

Peyvandi, Flora

Pfendner, Ellen

Philippe, Froguel

Plowe, Christopher

Pociot, Flemming

Price, Alkes

Raben, Nina

Rana, Ajay

Ranjit, Manoranjan

Reitsma, P

Ritch, Robert

Ritchie, Marylyn

Rodriguez, Santiago

Sacco, N

Saito, Yoshiro

Saitou, Naruya

Sakai, Norio

Sakai, Toshiyuki

Sakamoto, Osamu

Sakurai, Akihiro

Salas, Antonio

Sam, Choon Kook

Sasaki, Hidenao

Sasaki, Tsukasa

Satake, Wataru

Sato, Fumiaki

Schouten, Jan

Schreiber, Stefan

Segura-Bruna, Nuria

Sekine, Akihiro

Seldin, Mechael

Sham, Pak

Shen, Yu-Chih

Shibata, Hiroki

Shibata, Katsushi

Shiina, Takashi

Shimada, Yutaka

Shimizu, Wataru

Shimokawa, Hiroaki

Shinoda, Kenichi

Shinohara, Takashi

Shriver, Mark

Shuin, Taro

Simmonds, Matthew

Sinclair, Andrew

Singer, J

Siomi, Haruhiko

Smigiel, Robert

Smith, Richard

Snapir, A

Soufir, N

Sousa, Mário

Spitsyn, Victor

Spritz, Richard

Stankiewicz, Pawel

Sugano, Kokichi

Sugano, Sumio

Sugie, Hideo

Sugimura, Haruhiko

Sugiyama, Y

Suzuki, Tamio

Suzuki, Yasuyuki

Suzuki, Yuko

SuzukiI, Yoichi

Swanton, Paul

Tabara, Yasuharu

Tachi, Nobutada

Tagariello, Giuseppe

Tajima, Atsushi

Takada, Fumio

Takahashi, Atsushi

Takamura, Noboru

Takano, Hiroki

Takasaki, Shigeru

Takashima, Hiroshi

Takayanagi, Masaki

Takenaka, Katsuya

Takeshita, Haruo

Tamai, Katsuto

Tamari, Mayumi

Tamiya, Gen

Tamura, Kazuo

Tanabe, Nobuhiro

Tanaka, Akemi

Tanaka, Masashi

Tanoue, Akito

Taschner, Peter

Tauchi, Hiroshi

Terasawa, K

Thangaraj, Kumarasamy

Tochigi, Mamoru

Todd, John

Tomita, Hiroaki

Trembath, Richard

Tsuchiya, Naoyuki

Tsuchiya, Soken

Tsujikawa, Motokazu

Tsujino, Seiichi

Tsukamoto, Yasuo

Tsunoda, Tatsuhiko

Ueda, Sintaro

Ueno, Shu-ichi

Ueta, Akihito

Ujike, Hiroshi

Underhill, Peter

Usami, Shinichi

Van Camp, Guy

Van Schaftinger, Emile

Vasulu, TS

Wada, Takahito

Wakai, Kenji

Wang, Bin

Watanabe, Yuichiro

Whatley, Sharon

Wilkinson, Robert

Wilner, Keith

Wolf, Peter

Yamada, Kazuo

Yamada, Masao

Yamada, Ryo

Yamada, Yoshiji

Yamagata, Hidehisa

Yamagishi, Masakazu

Yamaguchi, Seiji

Yamaguchi-Kabata, Yuri

Yamakawa, Kazuhiro

Yamamoto, Ken

Yamamoto, Toshiyuki

Yamazaki, Keiko

Yao, Yong-Gang

Yasunami, Michio

Yoneda, Hiroshi

Yoshida, Kiyotsugu

Yoshida, Kunihiro

Yoshida, Masayuki

Yoshida, Teruhiko

Yoshihashi, Hiroshi

Yoshikawa, Takeo

Yoshimura, Reiji

Yoshiura, Koh-ichiro

Young, Joanne

Zhang, Dai

Zhang, Dekai

Zhang, Xue

Zhang, Zuofeng

Zhong, Xiaobo