Announcements

This year, World Down Syndrome Day will be celebrated on 21 March 2025. Each year, approximately 3,000 to 5,000 children are born with this chromosome disorder. In 2025, we call for people around the world to “end the stereotypes”.

Aiming at improving the quality of life of people with Down syndrome and propelling the scientific development in this field, we would like to recommend some related articles, Special Issues, and journals in MDPI as suitable communication platforms for you. We believe that sharing research like this can help raise awareness of Down syndrome.

“When Language Is Not Enough: How to Explain ToM Abilities of Individuals with Williams Syndrome and Down Syndrome”
by Claire Touchet, Régis Pochon and Laure Ibernon
Disabilities 2025, 5(1), 4; https://doi.org/10.3390/disabilities5010004

“Assessing Uveitis Risk following Pediatric Down Syndrome Diagnosis: A TriNetX Database Study”
by Alan Y. Hsu, Yu-Hsun Wang, Chun-Ju Lin, You-Ling Li, Ning-Yi Hsia, Chun-Ting Lai, Hou-Ting Kuo, Huan-Sheng Chen, Yi-Yu Tsai and James Cheng-Chung Wei
Medicina 2024, 60(5), 710; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina60050710

“Impact of Resistance Training on Body Composition and Physical Function in Individuals with Down Syndrome: A Meta-Analysis”
by Hou-Ting Kuo, Ting-Hsu Lee, Li-An Su, Li-Yun Wu, Ping-Yan Mao and Ciao-Ci Yang
Diagnostics 2024, 14(23), 2620; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics14232620

“The Role of Tau Pathology in Alzheimer’s Disease and Down Syndrome”
by Ann-Charlotte Granholm and Eric D. Hamlett
J. Clin. Med. 2024, 13(5), 1338; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm13051338

“Astrocytic Alterations and Dysfunction in Down Syndrome: Focus on Neurogenesis, Synaptogenesis, and Neural Circuits Formation”
by Beatrice Uguagliati and Mariagrazia Grilli
Cells 2024, 13(24), 2037; https://doi.org/10.3390/cells13242037

“Lipid Profile, Eating Habit, and Physical Activity in Children with Down Syndrome: A Prospective Study”
by Luca Pecoraro, Melissa Zadra, Francesco Cavallin, Silvana Lauriola, Giorgio Piacentini and Angelo Pietrobelli
Diseases 2024, 12(4), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/diseases12040068

“Impact of Physical Activity on Autonomy and Quality of Life in Individuals with Down Syndrome: A Systematic Review”
by Antonio Muñoz-Llerena, Laura Ladrón-de-Guevara, Daniel Medina-Rebollo and Virginia Alcaraz-Rodríguez
Healthcare 2024, 12(2), 181; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12020181

“Health Checks for People with Down Syndrome: A Pooled Analysis of Three Randomized Controlled Trials”
by Robert S. Ware, Catherine Franklin, Lyn McPherson and Nicholas G. Lennox
Disabilities 2024, 4(1), 101-110; https://doi.org/10.3390/disabilities4010007

“DNMT3B rs2424913 as a Risk Factor for Congenital Heart Defects in Down Syndrome”
by Dijana Majstorović, Anita Barišić, Ivana Babić Božović, Iva Bilić Čače, Neven Čače, Mauro Štifanić and Jadranka Vraneković
Genes 2023, 14(3), 576; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14030576

“Stress Responses in Down Syndrome Neurodegeneration: State of the Art and Therapeutic Molecules”
by Lanzillotta, Chiara, and Fabio Di Domenico
Biomolecules 2021, 11(2), 266; https://doi.org/10.3390/biom11020266

“Role of 3-Mercaptopyruvate Sulfurtransferase in the Regulation of Proliferation and Cellular Bioenergetics in Human Down Syndrome Fibroblasts”
by Panagaki, Theodora, Elisa B. Randi, and Csaba Szabo
Biomolecules 2020, 10(4), 653; https://doi.org/10.3390/biom10040653

“The Care Economy and Disability Inclusion”	“Fragile X Syndrome and Fragile X Premutation Associated Conditions”
“Physical Activity, Exercise, and Sport in People with Disabilities: Strategies for Health Promotion”	“Cellular and Molecular Alterations in the Down Syndrome Brain: A Starting Point for the Design of Therapeutic Approaches”

MDPI journals will be attending the 44th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology (ASV 2025) as exhibitors. This meeting will be held in Montréal, Québec, Canada, from 14 to 17 July 2025.

The American Society for Virology’s annual meeting provides a forum with which to promote discussion and collaboration among scientists active in all aspects of virology. Attendees will have the chance to learn about virology, share their research, and network with other scientists.

This conference is hosted by McGill University at the Palais des congrès de Montréal. The annual meeting usually attracts 1500–1800 national and international scientists for a program crafted from over 1000 participant-submitted abstracts, 20 invited symposium speakers, and 6 distinctive state-of-the-art speakers.  

The following MDPI journals will be represented at the conference:

• Viruses;
• Vaccines;
• Pathogens;
• CIMB;
• COVID;
• Life;
• J;
• Biomolecules;
• Aerobiology.

If you are planning to attend this conference, please feel free to start a 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 and our booth, please visit https://asv.org/asv2025/.

The editorial team of Biomolecules (ISSN: 2218-273X) is doing its best to provide scholars with the best practices and services. With the support of our two Editors-in-Chief, Biomolecules has restructured its Sections, which may allow authors and readers to navigate with more ease, while also optimizing editorial workflow.

After carefully checking the scope and focus of each Section in Biomolecules, we have decided to close four Sections: “Synthetic Biology and Bioengineering”, “Biomacromolecules: Carbohydrates”, “Biomacromolecules: Nucleic Acids”, and “Molecular Biophysics”. All published papers and closed Special Issues will remain unchanged. All papers that are currently under processing in these Sections will be moved to other Sections or be taken as regular papers of the journal.

We want to express our gratitude towards authors, reviewers, and editors who have contributed to these Sections over the years. Your efforts and support have made the Sections valuable parts of the journal; moreover, the dedication that you have shown is much appreciated. These Section areas have been integrated into other Sections; we would be more than happy to continue our collaboration.

Further questions can be addressed to the Editorial Team via email at biomolecules@mdpi.com or jr-biomolecules@mdpi.com.

Thank you for your contributions, continued support, and understanding.

Biomolecules Editorial Office

Conference: The 13th Chinese National Conference on Chemical Biology
Date: 11–15 April 2025
Location: Changsha, China

MDPI will be attending the 13th Chinese National Conference on Chemical Biology as an exhibitor. The conference will be held from 11 to 15 April 2025. We welcome researchers from different backgrounds to visit and share their latest ideas with us.

The 13th Chinese National Conference on Chemical Biology (CNCCB 2025) is the largest and highest-caliber academic event in the field of chemical biology research in China, and an important gathering of scientific and technological workers who are engaged in research relating to chemical biology. The conference will focus on the recent achievements and progress made by Chinese chemical biology research and related disciplines, promote interdisciplinary exchange and innovation, and serve the national strategy of healthy China. The conference will invite recognized scholars from home and abroad to give presentations and is organized into eleven thematic sessions and four special forums to build a platform for academic exchange and the introduction of new talents in the field.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• IJMS;
• Proteomes;
• BioChem;
• CIMB;
• Biomolecules;
• Chemistry;
• Biomedicines;
• SynBio.

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 the following website: https://www.chemsoc.org.cn/meeting/CNCCB2025/.

MDPI is pleased to share a significant milestone in its mission to advance scholarly research and promote the dissemination of knowledge—300+ MDPI journals are now indexed in Web of Science (WoS). This milestone highlights the global recognition, interdisciplinary impact and enhanced visibility of our journals. It also reflects our adherence to rigorous editorial standards, scientific integrity, and our mission to foster open scientific exchange in all forms, across all disciplines. 

To explore the full list of our journals indexed in WoS, please visit https://www.mdpi.com/about/journals/wos. Beyond expanding the coverage of our publications in the leading academic databases, we are dedicated to ensuring that our journals are included in as many scope-specific databases as possible. This increases the visibility of our authors’ work and extends the reach of their significant data. 

This milestone would not have been possible without the efforts and expertise of our academic editors, reviewers and authors. Their commitment and collaboration have been instrumental in creating an inclusive, accessible, and impactful publishing platform. We also extend our gratitude to the global research community for their trust as we continue to break new ground in academic publishing. This milestone is not just a celebration of MDPI’s progress but also recognition of the collective strides made by researchers worldwide. 

As we celebrate this remarkable accomplishment, MDPI remains steadfast in its commitment to open access publishing and ensuring that high-quality research reaches and inspires a global audience.

MDPI, a pioneer in scholarly open access publishing, and the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine), Singapore, proudly announce the successful conclusion of the first edition the MDPI Early Career Researcher Awards. The awards, which recognize outstanding contributions to medical and biomedical research, were presented to six exceptional researchers during an awards ceremony held at LKCMedicine HQ Building on 28 November 2024.

Honoring Excellence in Research

The awards recognize exceptional postdoctoral researchers and Ph.D. students who have demonstrated outstanding originality, innovation, and impact in their respective fields. We are honored to announce the winners of the 2024 edition:

Early Career Researcher (Postdoc) Award:

• Dr. Theresia Handayani Mina, “Adiposity and Metabolic Health in Asian Populations: An Epidemiological Study Using Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry in Singapore”;
• Dr. Erfan Rezvani Ghomi, “Wound Healing Improvement by Novel Aligned Antimicrobial Nanofibrous 3D Scaffolds”;
• Dr. Yadollah Ranjbar Slamloo, “Functional Alterations of The Prefrontal Circuit Underlying Cognitive Aging in Mice”.

Early Career Researcher (Ph.D.) Award:

• Pritisha Rozario, “Mechanistic Basis for Potassium Efflux-Driven Activation of the Human NLRP1 Inflammasome”;

• Michelle Law Cheok Yien, “Chikungunya Virus Nonstructural Protein 1 is a Versatile RNA Capping and Decapping Enzyme”;
• Yin Ruoyu, “The Use of Digital Mental Health and Wellbeing Tools in Older Adults: A Mixed Method Study”.

Our collaboration highlights a shared commitment to recognizing exceptional talent and research within the academic community, addressing today’s healthcare challenges, and inspiring continued innovation.

Looking Ahead to 2025

Building on the success of the first edition, MDPI and LKCMedicine are excited to announce that the 2025 MDPI Early Researcher Awards will continue to celebrate excellence and innovation in medical research. The next edition promises to expand its scope, introducing new categories and providing even greater recognition for impactful research.

Further details on the 2025 awards, including nomination criteria and timelines, will be shared in the coming months. We remain committed to fostering a culture of research excellence and collaboration within the global scientific community.

MDPI is excited to collaborate with the University of Manchester, UK, to host an exclusive author workshop aimed at empowering researchers with the knowledge and tools needed for successful academic publishing. This workshop will delve into the key aspects of MDPI’s open access publishing framework, offering an in-depth exploration of journal selection, the editorial workflow, and the essentials of publication ethics. Participants will also gain practical advice on improving scientific writing and effectively addressing reviewer comments, with guidance from experienced professionals in the field. This session promises to equip attendees with valuable skills to elevate their publishing journey.

Date: 20 February 2025

Time: 11:00–13:00

Venue: 1st Floor Common Room, Stopford Building, University of Manchester, UK

Registration link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZQBVLG5

Schedule:

Chair:

Name: Dr. Martin Baron

Affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Michael Smith Building, Oxford Rd. Manchester M13 9PY, UK

Speakers:

	Mr. Norbert Eduard Kiss obtained his B.Eng. in biotechnologies in 2019 and, shortly afterwards, joined MDPI as an Assistant Editor for Biomolecules. Later, he became a Section Managing Editor and a Group Leader. He is currently based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and works as a Journal Relations Specialist for Biomolecules and Geriatrics, primarily focusing on journal relations and publication ethics.
	Ms. Mary O'Sullivan obtained her B.Sc. in genetics in 2019 and her M.Sc. in molecular cell biology with bio-innovation in 2020 from the University College Cork in Ireland. She started her career at MDPI in January 2023, working in the Editorial Department for the journal Cancers as an Assistant Editor and, following this, a Section Managing Editor. Currently, Ms. O'Sullivan is a Journal Relations Specialist based in the UK office in Manchester.
	Ms. Rebekah Paget graduated from Newcastle University with an MChem in chemistry in 2020 and joined MDPI Manchester as an Assistant Editor for Materials in September 2021. She is currently a Journal Relations Specialist for the journals Materials, Alloys, and Optics.

Cancer impacts millions of lives worldwide, yet each person’s journey with the disease is uniquely their own. World Cancer Day reminds us that while the disease impacts individuals differently, our shared strength, innovation, and focus on holistic care bring us closer to a future where cancer no longer dictates lives. Every experience, challenge, and success story contribute to the broader fight against cancer, demonstrating the resilience and hope that unite us all. As we continue to make strides through innovative research, treatment advancements, and global collaboration, it is essential to recognize both the diversity of stories and our common goal of overcoming cancer together.

In observance of this day, we invite you to explore the following resources that delve into the field of cancer and the cutting-edge advancements shaping its care. By prioritizing people-centered treatment where patients’ voices and needs guide care, we can ensure personalized attention for all. It is our hope to foster a deeper understanding of the impact of cancer and encourage meaningful action to support patients, caregivers, and researchers in their pursuit of a world free from cancer’s hold. Together, we can inspire action and work toward a cancer-free future.

“Rare Variants of Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans: Clinical, Histologic, and Molecular Features and Diagnostic Pitfalls”
by Celestine M. Trinidad, Sintawat Wangsiricharoen, Victor G. Prieto and Phyu P. Aung
Dermatopathology 2023, 10(1), 54–62; https://doi.org/10.3390/dermatopathology10010008

“Nitrogen Containing Heterocycles as Anticancer Agents: A Medicinal Chemistry Perspective”
by Adarsh Kumar, Ankit Kumar Singh, Harshwardhan Singh, Veena Vijayan, Deepak Kumar, Jashwanth Naik, Suresh Thareja, Jagat Pal Yadav, Prateek Pathak, Maria Grishina et al.
Pharmaceuticals 2023, 16(2), 299; https://doi.org/10.3390/ph16020299

“Artificial Intelligence in Brain Tumor Imaging: A Step toward Personalized Medicine”
by Maurizio Cè, Giovanni Irmici, Chiara Foschini, Giulia Maria Danesini, Lydia Viviana Falsitta, Maria Lina Serio, Andrea Fontana, Carlo Martinenghi, Giancarlo Oliva and Michaela Cellina
Curr. Oncol. 2023, 30(3), 2673–2701; https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol30030203

“Triple Negative Breast Cancer Treatment Options and Limitations: Future Outlook”
by Onyinyechi Obidiro, Gantumur Battogtokh and Emmanuel O. Akala
Pharmaceutics 2023, 15(7), 1796; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics15071796

“Biomarkers in Breast Cancer: An Old Story with a New End”
by Lyvia Neves Rebello Alves, Débora Dummer Meira, Luiza Poppe Merigueti, Matheus Correia Casotti, Diego do Prado Ventorim, Jucimara Ferreira Figueiredo Almeida, Valdemir Pereira de Sousa, Marllon Cindra Sant’Ana, Rahna Gonçalves Coutinho da Cruz, Luana Santos Louro et al.
Genes 2023, 14(7), 1364; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14071364

“Could Microbiome Be the Common Co-Denominator between Type 2 Diabetes and Pancreatic Cancer?”
by Marin Golčić and Andrej Belančić
Diabetology 2023, 4(4), 553–559; https://doi.org/10.3390/diabetology4040049

“Targeting Solute Carrier Transporters (SLCs) as a Therapeutic Target in Different Cancers”
by Ravi Bharadwaj, Swati Jaiswal, Erandi E. Velarde de la Cruz and Ritesh P. Thakare
Diseases 2024, 12(3), 63; https://doi.org/10.3390/diseases12030063

“Significance of TP53, CDKN2A, SMAD4 and KRAS in Pancreatic Cancer”
by Dimitrios Stefanoudakis, Maximos Frountzas, Dimitrios Schizas, Nikolaos V. Michalopoulos, Alexandra Drakaki and Konstantinos G. Toutouzas
Curr. Issues Mol. Biol. 2024, 46(4), 2827–2844; https://doi.org/10.3390/cimb46040177

“Metformin: From Diabetes to Cancer—Unveiling Molecular Mechanisms and Therapeutic Strategies”
by Emilia Amengual-Cladera, Pere Miquel Morla-Barcelo, Andrea Morán-Costoya, Jorge Sastre-Serra, Daniel Gabriel Pons, Adamo Valle, Pilar Roca and Mercedes Nadal-Serrano
Biology 2024, 13(5), 302; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology13050302

“Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: Fundamental Mechanisms, Current Status and Future Directions”
by Abdullah Younis and John Gribben
Immuno 2024, 4(3), 186–210; https://doi.org/10.3390/immuno4030013

“Breast Cancer Screening among African Immigrants in the United States: An Integrative Review of Barriers, Facilitators, and Interventions”
by Julian I. Rauch, Joseph Daniels, Alyssa Robillard and Rodney P. Joseph
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2024, 21(8), 1004; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph21081004

“Predicting Leukoplakia and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Using Interpretable Machine Learning: A Retrospective Analysis”
by Salem Shamsul Alam, Saif Ahmed, Taseef Hasan Farook and James Dudley
Oral 2024, 4(3), 386–404; https://doi.org/10.3390/oral4030032

The editorial team at Biomolecules extends our heartfelt thanks to the dedicated reviewers whose expertise and commitment have been key to the journal's success in 2024. Last year, Biomolecules received 7392 review reports from 4890 reviewers representing 86 countries and regions worldwide.

To recognize the invaluable time, effort, and attention to detail that each reviewer dedicates, Biomolecules expresses its sincere gratitude through an annual acknowledgment of reviewers. As a further token of appreciation, all reviewers are eligible for the Outstanding Reviewer Award, which honors their essential role in enhancing the quality of our publications.

We are honored to recognize the reviewers who allowed us to publish their names each year. The names of these reviewers are listed below in alphabetical order by first name: