Crystallography of Enzymes (2nd Edition)
A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Biomolecular Crystals".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2026 | Viewed by 4
Special Issue Editors
Interests: biochemistry; structural biology; RNA biology; virology; neurobiology; cancer biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: protein biochemistry; structural biology; collagen; post-translational modifications; cancer biology; matrix biology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Following the success of the first Edition, we are pleased to announce the launch of the second Edition of the Special Issue of Crystals, entitled “Crystallography of Enzymes (2nd Edition).”
Enzymes—whether naturally evolved or human-designed—are remarkable biological catalysts that enable and regulate life’s chemical reactions. They accelerate diverse biochemical processes by lowering activation barriers, most of which exhibit extraordinary specificity, precision and efficiency. Despite decades of biochemical and structural investigation, our understanding of how enzymes achieve such remarkable selectivity and reactivity remains incomplete.
Crystallography remains a cornerstone for revealing the atomic details underlying enzyme catalysis, substrate recognition, conformational dynamics and inhibitor interactions. Advances in X-ray crystallography, serial femtosecond crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy and complementary computational approaches have opened unprecedented opportunities to visualize enzymes in action and to explore their mechanistic landscapes.
In this second Edition, we particularly encourage contributions that expand the frontier of enzyme discovery and design. This includes studies on:
- Novel or uncharacterized natural enzymes, revealing new catalytic strategies;
- De novo designed enzymes and artificial biocatalysts, showcasing how structural insights guide structural or AI-assisted design;
- Ancestrally reconstructed enzymes, providing evolutionary perspectives on catalysis and stability;
- Engineered enzymes with improved selectivity, altered substrate scope, or novel functionality;
- Mechanistic and structural studies coupling crystallography with kinetics, spectroscopy or computation;
- Crystallization innovations enabling previously intractable enzyme targets.
We welcome original research articles, reviews and perspectives from structural biologists, biochemists, enzymologists and computational modelers. Together, these contributions will deepen our understanding of how structure encodes catalytic power and continue Francis Crick’s timeless insight: “If you want to understand function, study structure.”
Dr. Bo Liang
Dr. Houfu Guo
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- enzyme structure and function
- X-ray and serial crystallography
- de novo enzyme design
- ancestral reconstruction
- protein engineering
- catalytic mechanism
- structural dynamics
- substrate and inhibitor interactions
- computational modeling
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Related Special Issue
- Crystallography of Enzymes in Crystals (9 articles)
