We are pleased to announce that the following two research articles and two review papers were selected as the winners of the Marine Drugs Best Paper Awards 2019 from all the papers published between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2018:

Article: Chitosan Nanoparticles as a Mucoadhesive Drug Delivery System for Ocular Administration
Mariana M. Silva, Raquel Calado, Joana Marto, Ana Bettencourt, António J. Almeida, and Lídia M. D. Gonçalves
Marine Drugs 2017, 15, 370; doi:10.3390/md15120370
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/15/12/370

Article: Chemical Reactivity Properties, pKa Values, AGEs Inhibitor Abilities and Bioactivity Scores of the Mirabamides A–H Peptides of Marine Origin Studied by Means of Conceptual DFT
Juan Frau, Norma Flores-Holguín, and Daniel Glossman-Mitnik
Marine Drugs 2018, 16, 302; doi:10.3390/md16090302
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/16/9/302

Review: Marine Fish Proteins and Peptides for Cosmeceuticals: A Review
Jayachandran Venkatesan, Sukumaran Anil, Se-Kwon Kim and Min Suk Shim
Marine Drugs 2017, 15, 143; doi:10.3390/md15050143
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/15/5/143

Review: Marine Sponge Natural Products with Anticancer Potential: An Updated Review
Cinzia Calcabrini, Elena Catanzaro, Anupam Bishayee, Eleonora Turrini, and Carmela Fimognari
Marine Drugs 2017, 15, 310; doi:10.3390/md15100310
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/15/10/310

We considered the above papers to represent valuable contributions to Marine Drugs and the scientific literature. We congratulate and thank the authors for having chosen Marine Drugs to publish their work.

In recognition of their accomplishment, the authors will collectively receive the privilege of publishing an additional paper free of charge in open-access format in Marine Drugs after the standard peer-review procedure. A cash award of 500 CHF will also be awarded for each of the winning papers.

Dear Colleagues,

The Marine Drugs Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy given by reviewers in checking manuscripts submitted to the journal. It is thanks to their efforts that the high quality of the journal and quick submission-to-publication process are maintained. The median time to first decision is currently an impressive 15 days, and the median time to publication is 33 days, which is all because of you.

Please join us in congratulating the two referees below, who will receive the “Marine Drugs 2019 Outstanding Reviewer Awards” in recognition of the quantity, timeliness, and quality of their reviews in 2018–2019. Both winners will receive 500 CHF and a certificate for their outstanding review work.

Prof. Dr. Eva Zubia
Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Marine and Environmental Sciences, University of Cadiz, Spain

Dr. Naoki Morita
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan

Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397) is the leading peer-reviewed, open-access journal on the research, development, and production of biologically and therapeutically active compounds from the sea, published monthly online by MDPI. The journal is covered by leading indexing services, including Science Citation Index Expanded (Web of Science; its 2018 Impact Factor is 3.772 (ranked in Q1, in JCR category “Chemistry, Medicinal”)) and in Scopus (CiteScore (2018 Scopus data): 4.57, which equals rank 14/146 in “Drug Discovery”). For further details, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/journal/marinedrugs.

Dear Colleagues,

the Editor-in-Chief of Marine Drugs, I am pleased to announce that the co-winners of the 2019 Marine Drugs Award for Young Investigators are:

Dr. Sergey Dyshlovoy, Senior research scientist, Department of Oncology, Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation with Section Pneumology, Hubertus Wald-Tumorzentrum, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, 20251 Hamburg, Germany; Laboratory of Marine Natural Products Chemistry, G.B. Elyakov Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Far-East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 69002 Vladivostok, Russian Federation. Dr. Dyshlovoy’s research is focused on: (1) The anticancer activity of marine secondary metabolites; (2) biochemistry and cell biology to investigate the mechanisms of action of marine anticancer compounds.

Dr. Usama R. Abdelmosen, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacognosy, Minia University, Egypt. Dr. Abdelmosen’s research is focused on: (1) Antiinfective natural products from sponge-associated actinomycetes; (2) metabolomics and genomics tools in the identification of secondary metabolites;

The two co-winners will share 2000 Swiss Francs (each receive 1000 CHF) and both will receive a certificate and an offer to publish a paper free-of-charge in Marine Drugs, after peer review.

I want to thank all the excellent young scientists sending applications for this award: their brilliant CVs made the choice very difficult. These young colleagues are strongly encouraged to continue their research with enthusiasm; I am sure that they will guarantee a bright future for our research field!

Marine Drugs Editor-in-Chief,
Prof. Orazio Taglialatela-Scafati, Ph.D.

Dear Colleagues,

As the Editor-in-Chief of Marine Drugs, I am pleased to announce that the winner of 2016 Marine Drugs Award for Young Investigator is Dr. John MacMillan, Associate Professor, Chilton/Bell Scholar in Biochemistry, Martha Steiner, Professor in Medical Science, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.

Dr. MacMillan’s research is currently focused on four major areas: (1) Marine Microbiology and Generation of a Natural Product Fraction Library; (2) Probing the Mechanism of Action of Natural Products; (3) Integration of Natural Products and High-Content Phenotypic Screening; and (4) Development of New Methods for Structure Determination and Biocatalysis. More information is available at a dedicated website: www.utsouthwestern.edu/labs/macmillan/research

Marine Drugs Editor-in-Chief,
Alejandro M.S. Mayer, Ph.D., M.S. Ed.