Origin of Cellular Life

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, we set up two Special Issues, which will incorporate related papers that reflect a sequence of events leading to the origin of life on Earth nearly four billion years ago. The present Special Issue, edited by Professor David Deamer and Dr. Bruce Damer, will focus on processes by which organic compounds and products of prebiotic polymerization reactions can undergo self-assembly into encapsulated systems. These systems are referred to as protocells, and are capable of energy-dependent polymerization processes, as well as growth of their membranous boundaries. Such systems are now at the cutting edge of current research, with a real potential to become the first form of artificial life to be demonstrated in the laboratory. Another Special Issue, “The Emergence of Life: From Chemical Origins to Synthetic Biology”, edited by Professor Pier Luigi Luisi, will be devoted to the origin of molecular order and will be organized into four different sections. For more information, please refer to http://www.mdpi.com/journal/life/special_issues/emergence_of_life.

The two Special Issues are now open for submissions. Prospective authors should first send a short abstract or tentative title to the Editorial Office. If the editors deem the topic to be appropriate for inclusion in one of the Special Issues, the author will be encouraged to submit a full manuscript.

Prof. Dr. David Deamer
Dr. Bruce Damer
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. Life is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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.