Dear Colleagues,
We are currently facing one of the most incredible events in the history of humanity. The evolution of one microorganism, a virus called SARS-CoV-2, has not only challenged health policies and global economy, but also science. However, science has risen to the occasion. Thanks to the knowledge available and to the scientific resources, the crystalline structure of the capsid proteins and the genetic information (DNA/RNA) of the virus were very rapidly obtained (in just a few months), enabling scientists to develop several types of vaccines. Modern technologies like the use of synchrotron facilities displayed the effectiveness of crystallographic methods to make these investigations true and expedite them as a worldwide health issue. Some countries with the strongest gross product, among others, invested a great deal of money in these structural investigations. The development of vaccines in coordination with pharmaceutical companies showed the plausible cooperation in basic science approaches (developed at universities or research centers). Additionally, applied science (performed by different pharmaceuticals and clinical assays) worked in tandem. The research centers of many universities focused their efforts on investigating the behavior of these kinds of viruses and their variants in detail. This is just to mention one of the most representative examples of the use of biomolecular crystals. The main objective was to investigate the biological and chemical mechanisms based on the three-dimensional structure of different types of biological macromolecules, not forgetting that these crystals also have a wide variety of scientific applications. This Topical Collection aims to collect review papers of top scientific leaders that have used biomolecular crystals for their investigations in chemistry, biology, physics, materials science and medicine. However, I would like to point out that biomolecular crystals can also be applied to archeology, paleontology (as biomineralization processes) and other human diseases.
We would like to launch a collection to collect comprehensive review articles from well-recognized scholars and open to others prestigious scientists that would like to contribute manuscripts sponsored by their institutions of affiliations. I hope you will be inspired to contribute to this Topical Collection. There is a great chance to make this Topical Collection a highly cited collection of review papers, where the use of biomolecular crystals will help the scientific community to improve their research based on biological structural investigations.
Prof. Dr. Abel Moreno
Collection Editor
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 collection 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.
