Innovative In Vitro Model for Medical, Pharmaceutical and Diagnostic Applications

Dear Colleagues,

New in vitro systems that mimic the physiopathological complexity and dynamics of native organ/tissue are useful tools to provide more accurate information about the cell-to-cell interaction, cell–microenvironment interplay, tumor characteristics, drug discovery, drug and nutraceutical testing, metabolic profiling, infection mechanism, and to study various types of diseases. To date, conventional 2D and specifically 3D models (e.g., spheroids and patient-derived organoids), scaffold-based or scaffold-free systems, microfluidic systems, and tissue engineering represent the models of choice to improve our knowledge about human organ homeostasis and its possible disfunctions being in balance between the extreme homogeneity of conventional cell cultures on one side and the extreme complexity of real organs on the other. Moreover, 3D technology methods have made it possible to obtain human in vitro models, which have proved to be a viable alternative to in vivo animal models in preclinical diagnostic imaging, thus overcoming the issue of strict regulation of animal studies.

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences titled “Innovative Platforms for Medical, Pharmaceutical and Diagnostic Applications” will include a selection of scientific contributions aimed at presenting the development and the application of such innovative models or protocols in cell biology, toxicology, infection, diseases, and drug/nutraceuticals development and screening, as well as preclinical 3D imaging in order to study physiological or pathological conditions and to address personalized and regenerative medicine approaches.

Original research, review articles, preclinical studies, short communications, and letters on all topics in these research fields are invited.

This Special Issue is now open for submissions. If you are interested in contributing your work, please send a short abstract or tentative title to the Guest editor or Editorial Office.

Dr. Angelita Costantino (angelita.costantino@unict.it) is serving as co-guest editor and will assist managing this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Barbara Tomasello
Dr. Rosaria Acquaviva
Dr. Jean Viallet
Guest Editors

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. 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.