In celebration of its 25
th anniversary,
Neuron published the special issue and picked influential cover papers from each year. The research “Activity-induced rapid synaptic maturation mediated by presynaptic cdc42 signaling” from
professor Shumin Duan’s team was chosen. In “Behind the Covers” of this issue, Professor Shumin Duan shared the back story behind this cover art.
When our manuscript was accepted in 2006, I encouraged all my students who might have art talent to design a cover. Yefei Li, an undergraduate student in my lab, told me that she would like to have a try. Yefei’s idea was that the blue and red colors represent the sharp contrast of ice and fire. Neuronal activity (action potentials, firing) is just like fire (sparkles) that can turn synaptic vesicles from nonreleasable to releasable so that the silent synapse (blue) becomes functional (red). Yeifei became my PhD student in 2007. Since 2011, when I became Editor-in-Chief of the official journal of the Chinese Society for Neuroscience—Neuroscience Bulletin—she has designed all of its covers. In fact, Yefei just became an Assistant Editor of Neuroscience Bulletin several months ago after she finished her PhD. So, the end of the story is that a cover for Neuron changes one’s career! —Shumin Duan
