Advances in Allergen Prediction, Characterization, and Immunoinformatics

Dear Colleagues,

Allergic diseases represent a growing global health challenge, impacting millions of individuals and posing significant risks in food safety, environmental exposure, and clinical practice. The identification and characterization of allergens, together with predictive modeling, are essential in advancing diagnostics, risk assessment, and therapeutic strategies. Recent progress in immunoinformatics, machine learning, and molecular modeling has opened up new avenues for predicting allergenicity, mapping IgE‑binding epitopes, and understanding allergen–immune system interactions. This Special Issue will bring together cutting‑edge research articles and reviews that highlight experimental and computational approaches to allergen science.

This Special Issue will provide a comprehensive platform for studies on allergen prediction, molecular characterization, and immunoinformatic tools. It is fully aligned with the scope of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, which emphasizes molecular mechanisms in biology, medicine, and biotechnology. By integrating computational and experimental perspectives, this Special Issue will foster interdisciplinary dialogue and accelerate the development of safer diagnostics, improved prevention and risk assessment, and novel therapeutic interventions.

For this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Computational prediction of allergenicity and IgE‑binding epitopes;
• Immunoinformatic databases and bioinformatics pipelines for allergen analysis;
• Structural and molecular characterization of allergens;
• Machine learning and AI approaches in allergen prediction;
• Molecular docking and simulation studies of allergen–antibody interactions;
• Food and environmental allergen assessment;
• Translational applications in diagnostics and therapeutics.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Katarina Smiljanić
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 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-anonymized 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.