Advances in Bacterial Cell Biophysics: Metabolic Engineering and Host Interactions
A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 212
Special Issue Editor
Interests: molecular biology; microbial pathogenies; bacteria; synthetic biology; intracellular hydrogelation
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The study of bacterial cell biophysics investigates the interplay between physical forces and biological processes within bacterial cells, offering insights into microbial behavior, adaptation, and pathogenesis. This interdisciplinary field bridges physics, biology, and chemistry to explore how bacteria sense, respond to, and interact with their environments at the molecular and cellular levels. By examining the mechanical properties of bacterial membranes, cell walls, and the cytoskeleton, as well as processes like cell shape regulation, motility, and division, researchers are uncovering novel pathways to target microbial behavior and infection mechanisms.
This Special Issue, "Advances in Bacterial Cell Biophysics: Metabolic Engineering and Host Interactions", will focus on recent breakthroughs in bacterial cell biophysics and highlight contributions in the following areas:
- Mechanical properties of bacterial cell walls and membranes: Investigating how these structures contribute to bacterial survival and response to environmental stress.
- Biophysical techniques for studying bacterial cell structure and dynamics: Using advanced microscopy, spectroscopy, and other tools to probe cellular components.
- Physical forces driving bacterial growth, division, and motility: Exploring the mechanics behind bacterial proliferation and movement, and their impact on pathogenesis.
- Bacterial interactions with surfaces and host cells from a biophysical perspective: Understanding how physical forces govern bacterial adherence, invasion, and immune evasion.
- Novel methods for manipulating and measuring bacterial physical properties: Innovations in quantifying and altering the biophysical parameters of bacterial cells for research and therapeutic purposes.
By highlighting advancements in these areas, this Special Issue aims to integrate interdisciplinary approaches, enhancing our understanding of bacterial life at the interface of biology and physics. We invite original research articles, reviews, and perspectives that address these topics and contribute to the growing field of bacterial cell biophysics, especially focusing on host–pathogen interactions and metabolic engineering of bacterial systems.
Dr. Shahid Khan
Guest 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 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. Cells is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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
- bacterial cell biophysics
- mechanical properties
- biophysical techniques
- host interactions
- metabolic engineering
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