Announcements
4 December 2024
685 MDPI Editors Named Highly Cited Researchers in 2024
4 December 2024
Meet Us Online at the 2nd International Electronic Conference on Antioxidants, 7–9 April 2025
15 November 2024
Prof. Dr. A. Douglas Kinghorn Appointed Chair of the 2024 Tu Youyou Award Committee
We are honored to announce that Prof. Dr. A. Douglas Kinghorn will serve as the Chair of the 2024 Tu Youyou Award Committee.
Name: Prof. Dr. A. Douglas Kinghorn
Affiliation: College of Pharmacy, The Ohio State University, USA
Prof. Dr. Kinghorn is a leading expert in pharmacognosy and natural products research. He is recognized for his key contributions to discovering bioactive compounds from plants, especially in anticancer, cancer chemopreventive, and substances with a sweet taste and taste-modifying agents. His prolific contributions include over 590 peer-reviewed works and edited or co-edited 40 scientific volumes.
The 2024 Tu Youyou Award Committee, under Prof. Dr. Kinghorn's guidance, will focus on identifying innovative research in the fields of natural products chemistry and medicinal chemistry. The committee will aim to identify groundbreaking work with the potential to lead to significant advancements in these areas.
We are confident that, with Prof. Dr. Kinghorn at the helm, the 2024 Tu Youyou Award will continue to inspire excellence and innovation in the related fields.
About the Tu Youyou Award
Established in 2016, the Tu Youyou Award seeks to honor those who excel in the fields of natural products chemistry and medicinal chemistry. This award offers a total prize of CHF 100,000, which will be equally divided among the winners if there is more than one, with each recipient receiving an award medal.
The 2024 Tu Youyou Award remains open for nominations until 31 December 2024. We encourage all eligible candidates to participate in this prestigious recognition, as this award not only honors individual achievement but also encourages further scientific exchange, exploration and discovery in critical areas of medicine.
If you are interested in participating, please visit the Tu Youyou Award website for more information on the nomination requirements.
5 November 2024
MDPI INSIGHTS: The CEO's Letter #17 - OA Week, Basel Open Day, Beijing Graphene Forum
Welcome to the MDPI Insights: The CEO's Letter.
In these monthly letters, I will showcase two key aspects of our work at MDPI: our commitment to empowering researchers and our determination to facilitating open scientific exchange.
Opening Thoughts
Open Access Week: Forging the Future of Open Access through Global Reach and Collaboration
From 21 to 27 October, we celebrated International Open Access Week (OAW), highlighting the importance of making research accessible to everyone. This campaign reinforced our commitment to advancing open access (OA) and showcased how we are helping research communities worldwide adopt OA as their standard.
“OA publishing is now a cornerstone of global research”
Throughout the week, we featured MDPI’s efforts to support quality open research through blog posts on topics such as how Research Integrity Promotes OA Practices, our Preprints.org platform, and supporting societies with different OA models. These initiatives capture our commitment to making research more inclusive and accessible to all.
OA publishing is now a cornerstone of global research, with more researchers choosing OA over traditional paywalled models, and embracing new, community-driven models.
Benefits of Open Access and Open Research
- Accelerated Discoveries: OA speeds up scientific progress by allowing immediate access to findings, enabling researchers to build on each other’s work faster.
- Community-Led Innovation: Open research empowers communities to manage their own platforms, creating collaboration and shared knowledge.
- Increased Visibility: OA broadens the reach of your research, leading to greater recognition, collaboration, and impact.
- Cross-Disciplinary Connections: By removing financial and geographical barriers, OA unites diverse fields, sparking innovation across disciplines.
MDPI Singapore Celebrates Open Access Week
MDPI Singapore also hosted its first-ever OAW event at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, bringing together academics, researchers, and students to discuss the future of open scholarship. Conversations focused on the potential of new publishing models, alternative funding strategies, and the importance of communicating research to wider audiences.
As OA evolves, MDPI remains a committed partner in advancing open science and creating a transparent, inclusive research environment. For a full recap of the week’s highlights and resources, visit our campaign page.
Impactful Research
MDPI Connection to Nobel-Winning Protein Research
David Baker, an American biochemist, and Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper, two scientists from Google DeepMind, have been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their groundbreaking advancements in better understanding the structure of proteins, the molecular engines of life’s processes.
One half of the prize was awarded to Professor David Baker from the University of Washington for his development of revolutionary protein design software enabling the creation of novel proteins for vaccines, nanomaterials, and sensors. Prof. Baker co-authored a 2016 paper in MDPI’s Toxins journal on protein-based therapeutics.
Meanwhile, DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper received recognition for AlphaFold, the AI model that predicts protein structures from amino acid sequences, fulfilling a long-held scientific dream.
“We congratulate this year’s Nobel laureates for their groundbreaking contributions to the study of life”
Nobel Prize Laureates Entrust MDPI with Their Research
As at October 2024, 45 Nobel laureates had contributed to more than 115 articles across
35 MDPI journals. The privilege of hosting the research of such contributors, who significantly influence the open access movement, resonates deeply with our editorial teams.
We are proud to list the names of Pierre Agostini, Hiroshi Amano, Werner Arber, Aaron Ciechanover, Robert H. Grubbs, Oliver Hart, Gerard ‘t Hooft, Michael Houghton, Harald zur Hausen, Katalin Karikó, Jean-Marie Lehn, Gérard Mourou, Ferid Murad, Shuji Nakamura, William Nordhaus, Kostya S. Novoselov, Giorgio Parisi, Charles M. Rice, Alvin E. Roth, Donna Strickland, K. Barry Sharpless, George F. Smoot, Anne L’Huillier, Drew Weissman, Kurt Wüthrich, Ada Yonath, Tomas Lindahl, Thomas C. Südhof, Stanley B. Prusiner, Roger Kornberg, Robert F. Engle, Richard J. Roberts, Ōmura Satoshi, Kenneth J. Arrow, John B. Goodenough, Jennifer Doudna, Hamilton Othanel Smith, Eric R. Kandel, Carlo Rubbia, Bernard Feringa, Barry J. Marshall, Anthony J. Leggett, Andrew Victor Schally, and David Baker.
Notable MRNA Published in Cells
On 7 October 2024, the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.
MicroRNAs are proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function. Some interesting papers about microRNA research are published in the MDPI journal Cells. I invite you browse through the notable papers related to microRNA research in Cells.
Inside MDPI
Basel Open Day
On 21 October, we held the Basel Open Day at our headquarters, welcoming a group of journal Editors-in-Chief (EiC) and Editorial Board Members (EBMs) for a full-day workshop. The event featured presentations and discussions on MDPI’s latest editorial updates, data integrity policies, society collaborations, and local market insights.
The following MDPI journals were represented during the visit: Physics, Journal of Personalized Medicine (JPM), Sci, Remote Sensing, Animals, Cells, Buildings, Histories, Sensors, and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH).
This was a great opportunity to showcase our new office space while gathering feedback from leading journal stakeholders. To get everyone on the same page, we took 60 minutes for round-table introductions, which helped set a collaborative tone and ground us in MDPI’s mission of disseminating open science.
“This was a great opportunity to gather feedback from leading journal stakeholders”
The general feedback from the day highlighted positive developments around our editorial and ethics policies, as well as areas for improvement, including flexibility regarding reviewer deadlines. There was a genuine appreciation and push for our ongoing efforts to share more about MDPI, including company updates and promoting high-quality research through our blog, announcements, and social media channels, which we have been growing and expanding.
Our Basel Open Day was a positive experience, bringing together key journal stakeholders and gathering insights to guide MDPI’s continued engagement with the academic community. We look forward to hosting future events of this kind and welcoming more scholars to our headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.
Coming Together for Science
ncRNA 2024 Conference in Basel
I am pleased to share that we held Non-coding RNA World 2024: Exploring Mechanisms, Designing Medicines (ICM 2024) in Basel, Switzerland this past 7–9 October.
The three-day event attracted just over 100 attendees, including two Chairs, 10 invited speakers and two keynotes from Prof. Mauro Giacca and Prof. Ling-Ling Chen. Of the presentations on site, there were 35 posters and 44 oral presentations.
The overall feedback was positive, with people enjoying the intimate event and the unique activities offered, including a guided tour around Basel’s Old Town (a must-see for anyone visiting the city) and a memorable conference dinner.
It was cool to see the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine announced during the conference days. This was exciting for attendees, as the winners discovered a new class of RNA molecules (miRNAs). As one invited speaker put it, “It's exciting to be among fellows when something that important for the field is announced.”
“It's exciting to be among fellows when something that important for the field is announced”
Every attendee receives a conference survey, and I’m always pleased to see a high percentage of ‘Very Satisfied’ responses when asked about ‘treatment from conference personnel’. Kudos to our conference team for meeting our attendees’ needs. These events are a great opportunity for us to reach new audiences, as 92% of the respondents had never been to an MDPI conference, so I am thrilled to see us connecting with a new demographic of your researchers in the RNA field.
A special thank-you to our partnering societies The Epigenetics Society, The French Society of Genetics, LS2 / USGEB (Union of Swiss Societies for Experimental Biology), and The RNA Biology Group, as well as to our sponsors New England Biolabs and Arraystar for their support of the ncRNA 2024 conference. I am also pleased to report that we presented two awards, including the Best Presentation Award and two Best Poster Award, recognizing the contributions of our participants.
Upcoming In-Person Event
27–29 November 2024
Pharmaceuticals 2024 – Recent Advances in Pharmaceutical Sciences Towards a Healthy Life
Location: Barcelona, Spain
The discovery of new molecules, their properties, and actions to enhance human health and quality of life.
Find more upcoming MDPI events here.
Closing Thoughts
Beijing Graphene Forum 2024
I am pleased to share that we had a successful time at the Beijing Graphene Forum 2024, which drew around 1,000 attendees, including Konstantin Novoselov (2015 Nobel Prize in Physics) and other high-profile scholars in materials science and chemistry. It was a great opportunity to present MDPI on the big stage, with university presidents from institutions such as Peking University also in attendance.
I had the honour of awarding Prof. Zhongfan Liu, Chairman of the Chemical Science Committee, with a medal and presenting certificates to the members of the Chemical Science Committee; this is an important initiative to help expand MDPI’s journals and influence in China. These are highly respected scholars, and we enjoyed connecting with them over lunch as well.
“This is an important initiative to help expand MDPI’s journals and influence in China”
I also had the chance to speak about MDPI and open access, giving a five-minute speech during the opening ceremony and a 20-minute presentation at the close. MDPI hosted a sub-forum where both academic scholars and MDPI members shared insights, and we engaged with attendees at our MDPI booth.
This was a great opportunity to spotlight MDPI as the main publishing partner for the event, and I was proud to represent us on stage. We also met with scholars to discuss topics such as their publishing needs and institutional policies, open access, impact journals, and IOAP.
Chief Executive Officer
MDPI AG
28 October 2024
Meet Us at Pharmacology 2024, 10–12 December 2024, Harrogate, UK
Conference: Pharmacology 2024
Date: 10–12 December 2024
Location: Harrogate, UK
MDPI will be attending Pharmacology 2024 as an exhibitor. We welcome researchers from different backgrounds to visit and share their latest ideas with us.
The British Pharmacological Society is a charity and global membership community whose mission is to promote and advance the whole spectrum of pharmacology. It leads the way in pharmacology research and application around the world, with around 4,000 members from more than 60 countries. Each year, the British Pharmacological Society hosts its annual Pharmacology conference, gathering individuals from academia, healthcare, industry, and the regulatory sector to share and celebrate the latest research and developments in this field and other related areas. This conference is a great opportunity for those studying and working in this field to attend lectures from experts and emerging researchers, network, socialize, and showcase their own work.
If you are planning to attend this conference, please do not hesitate to start an online conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit https://www.miceconciergeme.com/pharmacology-2024.
The following MDPI journals will be represented:
- Pharmaceuticals;
- Pharmacoepidemiology;
- Pharmacy;
- Antioxidants;
- Neurology International;
- Future Pharmacology;
- BioTech;
- Cancers;
- Sci. Pharm.;
- Sclerosis;
- Medicines;
- JPM;
- DDC.
The year 2024 marks the 20th anniversary of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN: 1424-8247), a peer-reviewed open access journal on medicinal chemistry and related drug sciences, published monthly online by MDPI. With an Impact Factor of 4.3 and a CiteScore of 6.1, the journal is covered in Scopus, SCIE (Web of Science), PubMed, PMC, Embase, CAPlus/SciFinder, and other databases. The journal has published more than 6000 papers from more than 37,000 authors. More than 10,000 reviewers have reviewed the journal at least once. We value the contributions made by our editors, authors, and reviewers.
17 October 2024
Meet Us at the 2024 China National Plant Biology Conference, 16–19 November 2024, Guangzhou, China
16 October 2024
MDPI's Newly Launched Journals in September 2024
Five new journals covering a diverse range of subjects launched their inaugural issue in September 2024. Like other journals in MDPI’s portfolio, these journals are dedicated to sharing the latest research through open access, reflecting our commitment to making knowledge accessible to all.
We extend our sincere gratitude to the Editorial Board Members for their dedication to the launch and development of our new journals. Each journal will ensure its high-quality output via excellent editorial and rigorous peer-review processes so that the published articles achieve significant impact and broad visibility.
We invite you to explore and learn more about these new journals below.
| Journal | Founding Editor-in-Chief | Journal Topics (Selected) |
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Prof. Dr. Nejat Düzgüneş, University of the Pacific, USA | Editorial | view inaugural issue | biological therapy and stem-cell therapy; drug therapy; chemotherapy; radiation and other nonsurgical therapeutic strategies | view journal scope | submit an article |
 |
Prof. Dr. Magda Tsolaki, Greek Federation of Alzheimer’s Disease, Greece; Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece | Editorial | view inaugural issue | surgical/procedural complications; complications; perioperative adverse events; postoperative adverse events | view journal scope | submit an article |
 |
Prof. Dr. Steven R. Fassnacht, Colorado State University, USA; Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, USA | Editorial | view inaugural issue | ice as a mineral; atmospheric ice; sea ice; freshwater ice; ice sheets; ice caps and ice shelves | view journal scope | submit an article |
 |
Dr. Francisco Epelde, Hospital Universitari Parc Tauli, Spain; University Autonoma of Barcelona, Spain | Editorial | view inaugural issue | hospital management; hospital facilities; hospital services; hospital risk management; health law | view journal scope | submit an article |
 |
Prof. Dr. Nicola Ferri, University of Padova, Italy | Editorial | view inaugural issue | lipids in cells and whole organisms; lipid structure and function; lipid products and processes; dietary lipids and nutrition | view journal scope | submit an article |
We wish to thank everyone who has supported the development of open access publishing. You are welcome to send an application here or contact the New Journal Committee (newjournal-committee@mdpi.com) if you would like to create more new journals.
15 October 2024
MDPI Webinar | World Food Day Webinar 2024, 16 October 2024
In celebration of World Food Day 2024, MDPI is launching a special webinar to encourage researchers to unite, take action, and showcase how collective knowledge can address the pressing challenges of food security, sustainable agriculture, and resource management.
World Food Day, led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), aims to foster awareness about the importance of food security and the urgent need to eradicate hunger worldwide. In line with this mission, our upcoming webinar invites researchers and experts to discuss innovative solutions for achieving sustainable agriculture, improving resource management, and tackling food insecurity worldwide.
We are very much looking forward to seeing you at MDPI World Food Day Webinar 2024. Please find below an up-to-date outline of the presenters.
Date: 16 October 2024 at 01.30 p.m. CEST | 7:30 a.m. EDT | 7:30 p.m. CST Asia
Webinar ID: 835 7950 1147
Webinar Secretariat: journal.webinar@mdpi.com
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information on how to join the webinar. Registrations with academic institutional email addresses will be prioritized.
Unable to attend? Register anyway and we will inform you when the recording is available.
Register now for free!
| Speaker/Presentation | Time in CEST | Time in EDT |
| MDPI Introduction | 1:30 p.m.–1:40 p.m. | 7:30 a.m.–7:40 a.m. |
| Prof. Dr. Giorgia Spigno Valorisation of Food Residues for the Food Industry: Opportunities and Challenges |
1:40 p.m.–2:10 p.m. | 7:40 a.m.–8:10 a.m. |
| Prof. Dr. Ramakrishnan Ramanathan Technological Approaches for Reducing Food Waste |
2:10 p.m.–2:40 p.m. | 8:10 a.m.–8:40 a.m. |
| Q&A Session | 2:40 p.m.–2:55 p.m. | 8:40 a.m.–8:55 a.m. |
| Closing of Webinar | 2:55 p.m.–3:00 p.m. | 8:55 a.m.–9:00 a.m. |
Keynote Speakers:
- Prof. Dr. Giorgia Spigno, Department for Sustainable Food Process, Department for Sustainable Food Process, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza, Italy;
- Prof. Dr. Ramakrishnan Ramanathan, Department of Management, College of Business Administration, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
15 October 2024
Meet Us at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Molecular Biology Society of Japan, 26–29 November 2024, Fukuoka, Japan
11 October 2024
Meet Us at the 21st Annual Meeting of CIFST, 2–4 November 2024, Chongqing, China
