Pharmaceutical and Biotechnological Applications of Protein Crystals
A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomolecular Crystals".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 27 September 2024 | Viewed by 130
Special Issue Editors
Interests: protein crystallization; pharmaceutical crystallization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: protein crystallization: nucleation, growth and crystals quality; protein crystallography; protein crystals biocompostites and properties; enzymatic crystals (CLEC)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The development of new and better protein-based therapeutics often relies on protein crystallisation, from the early stages of drug development to manufacturing.
Protein crystals represent the repository of structural information, which describes the three-dimensional arrangement of amino acids. This knowledge is essential to support structural biology and rational drug design. In addition, protein crystals have gained traction in various pharmaceutical applications, including drug development, formulation, and delivery. Crystals can exert a protective action on the precious protein material, by mitigating physical (temperature, pH, shear-induced) degradation and promoting the preservation of its biological activity. In this scenario, recent advancements in high-throughput crystallisation techniques, protein engineering, and computational modelling are paving the way for enhanced therapeutic applications. The synergy between protein crystals and machine learning has also emerged as a powerful tool for accelerating development of drugs with improved selectivity, binding affinity, and pharmacokinetic properties. Lastly, protein crystallisation holds promise for enhancing biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes. Downstream processes involving protein crystallisation offer an alternative to extensive and expensive purification steps, leading to high purity and stable therapeutics.
This Special Issue aims to explore the diverse facets of protein crystals in pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications, with particular emphasis on drug design, high-throughput strategies, and model-based approaches. Original papers and reviews focusing on experimental and computational approaches are welcome.
Dr. Fiora Artusio
Dr. José Gavira
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- protein crystallisation
- drug discovery
- drug design
- drug delivery
- crystallography
- machine learning
- biopharmaceutical manufacturing
- crystallisation techniques
- downstream processes
