Announcements

MDPI will be attending the Allied Genetics Conference (TAGC 2020) in Washington, DC, USA, 22–26 April 2020.
TAGC is a unique conference organized by the Genetics Society of America that gives you both topic-driven and community-specific sessions to foster collaboration and inspire fresh thinking.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Genes
• Life
• Brain Sciences
• Cancers
• IJMS
• Cells
• Healthcare
• Viruses
• Microorganisms

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth 723). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: https://genetics-gsa.org/tagc-2020/.

The 2019 Highly Cited Researchers list has been announced by Web of Science athttps://recognition.webofsciencegroup.com/awards/highly-cited/2019/.

We are very glad to see that 16 of the IJMS Editorial Board members are listed as Highly Cited Researchers. They are the following:

Dr. José L. Quiles (Editor-in-Chief of Section "Molecular Role of Xenobiotics")
Department of Physiology, Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology “Jose Mataix”, Biomedical Research Center, University of Granada, Avda. Conocimiento s/n, 18100 Armilla, Granada, Spain

Dr. Maurizio Battino (Editor-in-Chief of Section "Bioactives and Nutraceuticals")
Department of Clinical Sciences, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy.

Dr. Rosa M. Lamuela-Raventos (Section "Bioactives and Nutraceuticals")
Department of Nutrition, Food Science and Gastronomy-XARTA-INSA-UB, School of Pharmacy and Food Science, University of Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Spain

Dr. Jianbo Xiao (Section "Bioactives and Nutraceuticals")
Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau, China

Dr. Francesca Giampieri (Section "Bioactives and Nutraceuticals")
Department of Odontostomatologic and Specialized Clinical Sciences, Sez-Biochimica, Faculty of Medicine, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Ranieri 65, 60100 Ancona, Italy

Dr. Vladimir Uversky (Editor-in-Chief of Section "Molecular Biophysics")
Department of Molecular Medicine, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA

Dr. Russel J. Reiter (Section "Biochemistry")
University of Texas Health San Antonio, United States

Dr. Roberto Fernandez-Lafuente (Section "Biochemistry")
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Spain

Dr. Avelino Corma (Section "Materials Science")
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Spain

Dr. Hermenegildo García (Section "Materials Science")
Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain

Dr. Vincent Rotello (Section "Materials Science")
Department of Chemistry, 710 North Pleasant St., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 USA

Dr. H. Eugene Stanley (Section "Materials Science")
Boston University, United States

Dr. Rajender S. Varma (Section "Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics")
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ORD National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA"

Dr. Ondřej Novák (Section "Molecular Plant Science")
Laboratory of Growth Regulators, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Experimental Botany & Palacký University, Faculty of Science, Olomouc, Czech Republic

Dr. Sergey Shabala (Section "Molecular Plant Science”)
School of Land and Food, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia

Dr. Lam-Son Phan Tran (Section "Molecular Plant Science")
Unit Leader, Signaling Pathway Research Unit, RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, 1-7-22 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, 230-0045, Japan

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Best Poster and Oral Communication Awards, sponsored by the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS) at the 8th workshop of the European Calcium Society (ECS) “Calcium Signaling in Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases” in Coimbra, Portugal, on 18–20 September 2019.

The editorial team of IJMS would like to congratulate the winner of the Best Poster Award at the 8th ECS Workshop “Calcium Signaling in Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases”, Dr. Riccardo Filadi (University of Padova, Italy).

The title and introduction of Dr. Riccardo Filadi’s work are presented below:

Metabolic Consequences of Altered ER to Mitochondria Ca²⁺ Transfer in FAD-Presenilin 2 Models

The Riccardo Filadi group has previously demonstrated that different Presenilin 2 (PS2)-mutants, linked to familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD), affect ER Ca²⁺ content and ER-mitochondria Ca²⁺ shuttling. In this work, the effects of these Ca²⁺-signalling alterations on mitochondrial and cell metabolism were investigated. In different FAD-PS2 models, including primary cortical neurons from FAD-PS2-N141I transgenic (tg) mice, mitochondrial ATP synthesis was found to be impaired. The defect depends on reduced mitochondrial pyruvate oxidation, due to both lower Ca²⁺-mediated stimulation of the Krebs cycle and dampened mitochondrial pyruvate uptake. We correlated this latter event to glycogen-synthase-kinase‑3β (GSK-3β hyper-activation, leading, in turn, to impaired recruitment of Hexokinase 1 (HK1) to mitochondria and destabilization of the mitochondrial-pyruvate-carrier (MPC)-complexes. Importantly, the defective mitochondrial bioenergetics influences glutamate-induced neuronal excitotoxicity.

The editorial team of IJMS would like to congratulate the winner of the Best Oral Communication Award at the 8th ECS Workshop “Calcium Signaling in Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases”, Dr. Tito Cali (University of Padova, Italy).

The title and introduction of Dr. Tito Cali’s work are presented below:

Shedding Light on Intracellular Organelle Contacts with Novel Modular Genetically Encoded Sensors

Tito Cali and colleagues have designed modular, split-GFP based contact site sensors (SPLICS) engineered to fluoresce when narrow (10 nm) and wide (50 nm) juxtapositions between organelles are present. SPLICS enable the exploration of the dynamic nature of the ER-mitochondria interface in the axon of zebrafish sensory neurons and in dendrites and soma of rat primary hippocampal neurons. Thanks to these new-generation sensors the mechanisms and the dynamic nature of organelle contact sites can be explored in health and disease.

MDPI will be attending the 20th Biennial Meeting for the Society for Free Radical Research International (SFRRI 2020), Taoyuan, Taiwan, 17-20 March 2020.

The Society for Free Radical Research, founded in the United Kingdom in 1982, is an International Society and operates as a charitable voluntary, non-profit institution. The aims and objectives of the International Society are to advance education in free radical processes with particular reference to their industrial and medical importance, informing education for the benefit of the public. The Society promotes interest in all aspects of research into the reactions and properties of free radicals and into their physical, chemical, biological, medical, and industrial roles. Founded in 1982, and now with over 2500 members worldwide, the Society consists of five autonomous regional groups: SFRR Asia, SFRR Europe, SFRR Australasia, Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine (SFRR Americas), and SFRR Africa. A number of regional groups have also been established within these areas.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Antioxidants
• Molecules
• Biology
• International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS)
• Medicines
• Biomolecules
• Life
• Metabolites
• Biomedicines

The Signal Transduction Society (STS) was established in 1998 in Germany as a non-profit organization dedicated to providing an interdisciplinary forum for scientists interested in signal transduction processes in cells and organisms.

Since 2010, the STS has acknowledged outstanding scientists for their ground-breaking contributions to deciphering cellular signaling pathways and concepts by awarding them the STS Honorary Medal. In 2017 the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS) became a co-sponsor of this award. In addition, the STS also supports the work of young investigators by providing travel stipends and poster prizes at the society’s annual meeting, thereby awarding the achievements of young post docs or principal investigators with the “STS Science Award”.

The STS Honorary Medal 2019 of the Signal Transduction Society (STS), supported by MDPI’s International Journal of Molecular Sciences, is being awarded to Professor Alfred Wittinghofer for his lifetime contributions to the elucidation of the structure–function relationship of GTP-binding proteins.

Professor Wittinghofer received his PhD from the German Wool Research Institute and pursued his postdoctoral work at the University of North Carolina with a focus on protein modification. He later returned to Germany where he joined the Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg and continued his studies on the structure and function of proteins involved in protein biosynthesis. While leading a group working on small G proteins, such as Ras, Ran and Rap, he taught at the University of Heidelberg. Wittinghofer then moved to the Max-Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology (MPI) in Dortmund and became Director of the Department of Structural Biology from 1993 until 2009. During this time he was also an honorary professor in Biochemistry at the University of Bochum. Until 2016 he continued his scientific investigation of the structure, function, and mechanisms of GTP-binding proteins and their regulators as an Emeritus Group Leader at the MPI.

A milestone in Professor Wittinghofer’s career was the resolution of the 3D structure of Ras and the characterization of its interaction with effector and regulator proteins on the molecular and structural level, which eventually led to the understanding of why oncogenic Ras proteins are constantly active. His ideas and innovative experimental approaches dramatically influenced our current understanding of oncogenic Ras signaling and the characteristics of small GTPases.

The 2019 STS Honorary Award Ceremony was held on Tuesday, 5 November at the 23^rd Meeting on Signal Transduction, organized by the STS. Prof. Gudula Schmidt (Freiburg), one of the first of Wittinghofer’s PhD students at the MPI in Dortmund, gave a moving speech praising Fred Wittinghofer’s scientific merits and personality. In his honorary lecture, Professor Wittinghofer delivered a fascinating, enthusiastic, and passionate insight into the GTPase world, and highlighted his research on the role of GTPases in ciliopathies. The award lecture was completed by a lively discussion appreciating Fred Wittinghofer’s scientific work.

Professor Wittinghofer giving his honorary lecture at the 23^rd Meeting on Signal Transduction, entitled “Trends in Cancer and Infection".

The Honorary Medal 2019 of the Signal Transduction Society (STS) and MDPI’s International Journal of Molecular Sciences being awarded to Prof. Wittinghofer. From left to right: Prof. Ingo Schmitz, Prof. Detlef Neumann, Prof. Klaudia Giehl (STS council), Prof. Gudula Schmidt (laudator), Prof. Alfred Wittinghofer, and Prof. Katharina Kubatzky (Chair of the society).

MDPI will be attending the 7th International Conference on Food Factors and the 12th International Conference and Exhibition on Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods (ICoFF2019 / ISNFF2019) in Kobe, Japan, 1–5 December 2019.

With the mission of promoting research into all aspects of basic and applied Food and Nutritional Science, ICoFF held its first conference in 1995 and has continued to hold every four years. ICoFF is one of the largest international conferences for researchers, scientists, professors and students in the field of food factors and their health-promoting effects. ISNFF, founded in 2007, has been focusing on the research and development on materials that can be used as functional foods.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Foods
• Nutrients
• Antioxidants
• Biomolecules
• IJMS
• Molecules

If you are also attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth (Booth #34). Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person to answer any questions you may have. For more information about the conference, please visit: http://icoff2019.umin.jp/index.html.

IJMS is recruiting Editorial Board members who would like to become involved in one of the sections listed below:

• Molecular Toxicology
• Bioactives and Nutraceuticals
• Biochemistry
• Materials Science
• Molecular Plant Sciences
• Molecular Biology
• Molecular Pathology, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics
• Molecular Biophysics
• Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics
• Molecular Microbiology
• Molecular Oncology
• Molecular Genetics and Genomics
• Molecular Neurobiology
• Macromolecules
• Molecular Immunology
• Molecular Pharmacology
• Molecular Informatics
• Molecular Endocrinology and Metabolism
• Molecular Role of Xenobiotics

These sections will expand the Editorial Board and cover areas that are less represented by the current team. If you are interested in this position or know of potential candidates to recommend, please contact us.

IJMS provides an advanced forum for biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, molecular biophysics, molecular medicine, and all aspects of molecular research in chemistry. It was awarded a 2018 Journal Impact Factor of 4.183. The website of IJMS can be accessed here.

As an Editorial Board member, you have the following responsibilities:

• Supervise at least one Special Issue related to your research field (you can publish an extra paper for free) within every two years;
• Invite at least three authors to contribute to regular issues with 200 CHF reduction per year;
• Pre-screen submissions and make decisions on whether they should be rejected or accepted for processing (about 10 papers per year);
• Provide suggestions in specific cases (e.g., comment on submissions with two or more different review opinions; respond to requests or questions from the external experts);
• Promote IJMS at conferences that you attend or organize (materials, like flyers or business cards, can be designed and shipped to your office; conference attendees would enjoy special discounts).

To apply or request further information, please contact the IJMS Editorial Office (ijms@mdpi.com). We look forward to hearing from you soon.

MDPI is pleased to announce the release of SciProfiles, its social network platform for researchers and scholars.

The purpose of SciProfiles is aligned with MDPI’s broad mission to accelerate discovery and innovation by facilitating immediate access to research results and to serve scholars and communities by providing opportunities for academic networking.

SciProfiles also ambitions to serve as a sustainable, transparent and community-driven research evaluation system aligned with the DORA principles (https://sfdora.org/). Through their scientific profiles, academics can highlight their contribution to research communities, and measure their impact on their field, beyond publication numbers and impact factors. SciProfiles is currently a beta version and will enrich to give researchers the possibility to highlight all of their contributions to science and their scientific communities as authors, reviewers, editors, conference organizers, conference panelists, conference keynote speakers, or even as lecturers or student mentors at their University.

The classic components of popular community social networks, including follower/following, classical metrics, endorsements and recommendations (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1690), comments (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1397) are or will be very soon highlighted in SciProfiles as open science contributions.

To help increase the impact and visibility of articles and their authors to an appropriate audience, the platform offers a NewsFeed that includes recommendations of relevant content based on interests, publication history, saved searches or colleagues’ recommendations.

SciProfiles’ avatars are now being integrated on several MDPI platforms, meaning that you will directly access researchers’ profiles from any of the MDPI platforms:

MDPI's journal publishing website: www.mdpi.com
MDPI's conference hosting and management website: www.sciforum.net
MDPI's pre-print website : www.preprints.org
MDPI's knowledge sharing website : www.encyclopedia.pub
MDPI's books store: www.mdpi.com/books
MDPI's literature database : www.scilit.com

SciProfiles aims to serve scientific communities at large. It can be embedded into third-party websites and also welcomes integration of data from third-parties.

Dr. Shu-Kun Lin: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/2
Dr. Franck Vazquez: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/FranckVazquez
Dr. Martyn Rittman: https://sciprofiles.com/profile/martynrittman

We are delighted to announce the winners of the 2019 MDPI Writing Prize. Entrants were asked to write on the theme "Judging research: How should research and researchers be evaluated and rewarded?" We received a large number of excellent essays from PhD students and postdocs, and the process of shortlisting and choosing winners was not an easy one. The winners demonstrated excellent writing skills alongside interesting and thought-provoking ideas.

As last year, we will begin the process of collating all entries into a book that will be available in open access format. Alongside promoting good writing skills, we see the prize as a way to promote the voices of early career researchers within broader debates and policy discussions.

Congratulations to all of the participants and especially the winners. The winners are:

1st Prize (500 CHF):
Albin Nilsson (National Centre for Nuclear Research, Warsaw, Poland)
[Read here]

2nd Prize (250 CHF):
Qi Zhang (Shandong University, Jinan, China)
[Read here]
Igor Ogashawara (Indiana University, Indianapolis, US)
[Read here]

3rd Prize (100 CHF):
Margaret Sivapragasam (Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Perak, Malaysia)
[Read here]
Arvind Sharma (The University of Queensland, Gatton, Australia)
[Read here]
Jose Flores-Guerrero (University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands)
[Read here]

The MDPI Writing Prize is an annual award supported by MDPI Author Services, which provides services including language editing, reformatting, plagiarism checks, and image editing.

MDPI is pleased to announce the release of a new functionality giving the possibility for researchers and scholars to endorse, and formally recommend articles to their colleagues.

MDPI was an early signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (https://sfdora.org/read/) which calls for improvement in how quality and impact of scholarly research outputs are evaluated, especially in moving beyond journal-based citation metrics (journal Impact Factor, Scopus Citescore, etc.).

MDPI supports the establishment of article-level impact metrics, including citations, views, downloads, and Altmetric scores. These measures serve as an impact indicator for research articles on a case–by-case basis, assessing paper on its own merit. However, these metrics are also subjective and can give a biased picture of the article impact: they do not directly reflect the quality or the intrinsic scientific value of the article.

In our view, community engagement with publications based on community-driven metrics can help to overcome this limitation. We have therefore launched an option for scholars to endorse articles, indicating their own assessment of its content and making a recommendation to their community. This follows our implementation of the open source Hypothesis commenting tool, which has been available for all articles published by MDPI for over a year (https://www.mdpi.com/about/announcements/1397). Both endorsement and commenting are available for all previously published and forthcoming MDPI articles.

In addition to potentially serving as a sustainable solution to article assessment, endorsements will help scientific communities to identify the most relevant articles, independently of the journal in which it was published.

The code for the endorsing functionality, which relies on DOIs and ORCIDs, will be made available on GitHub with an open source license.

Dr. Shu-Kun Lin, President and Founder
Dr. Franck Vazquez, Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Martyn Rittman, Publishing Director