Announcements

The 2023 American Society for Microbiology Annual Meeting (ASM Microbe 2023) will be held in Houston, USA, from 15 to 19 June 2023. This annual meeting is the largest gathering of microbiologists in the world, and it is expected that nearly 8,000 professionals from all over the world will attend the meeting. Founded in 1899, the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is the oldest and largest single life science society in the world, consisting of more than 50,000 scientists and health professionals, of which more than one-third of the members are from countries and regions outside the United States. The mission of the American Society for Microbiology is to promote and advance the science of microbiology.

Topics include:

• Disaster Microbiology;
• Emerging Infections – What is the next pandemic? (Focus on Nipah and Marburg);
• Natural Product Discovery and Synthesis;
• Combating the Climate Crisis with Critters: Microbial Carbon Capture;
• Powering the Future: Applied Microbiology in the Energy Industry;
• Equity and Access in Laboratory Diagnostics;
• Microbiome Management in a Changing World.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Microorganisms;
• Journal of Fungi;
• Viruses;
• Applied Biosciences;
• MPs;
• IJMS;
• Vaccines;
• Fermentation;
• Diversity;
• Metabolites;
• Biomolecules;
• Antibiotics;
• Pathogens;
• Life.

If you are attending this conference, please feel free to start an online conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you at booth number #2504 in person and answering any questions you may have. For more information about the conference and our virtual booth, please visit the following link: https://asm.org/Events/ASM-Microbe/Home.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Juan Carlos de la Torre has been appointed Associate Editor of the Section “Viral Immunology, Vaccines, and Antivirals” in Viruses (ISSN 1999-4915).

Name: Prof. Dr. Juan Carlos de la Torre  

Affiliation: Department of Immunology and Microbiology IMM-6, Scripps Research, 10466 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA

Interests: molecular, cell biology and pathogenesis of mammarenaviruses; virus-host cell interactions; antivirals; live attenuated vaccines

Homepage: https://www.scripps.edu/delatorre/research.html

Prof. Dr. Juan Carlos de la Torre is a Professor at the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research, Las Jolla, CA, USA. He obtained his Ph.D. in molecular biology and virology from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain, in 1985. After conducting a postdoctoral research training with Dr. John Holland (UCSD) on evolution of RNA viruses, and subsequently with Dr. Michael Oldstone (Scripps Research) on viral pathogenesis, he joined the Scripps Research faculty in 1996. His research focuses on the molecular, cell biology and pathogenesis of mammarenaviruses, as well as the development of strategies, antivirals, and vaccines, to combat human pathogenic mammarenaviruses. Several mammarenaviruses cause hemorrhagic fever (HF) disease in humans and pose important public health problems in their endemic regions. In addition, the worldwide-distributed prototypic mammarenavirus LCMV is a neglected human pathogen. There are no FDA-licensed mammarenavirus vaccines and current anti-mammarenaviral therapy is limited to an off-label use of ribavirin whose efficacy remains controversial. His laboratory pioneered the development of mammarenavirus reverse genetics that has provided investigators with a novel and powerful approach for the investigation of mammarenavirus replication, gene expression, assembly and budding, as well as virus-host cell factor interactions that determine the infection outcome. These advances in mammarenavirus genetics also allow investigators to identify and characterize novel antiviral drugs, as well as implement novel vaccine platforms to combat human pathogenic mammrenaviruses.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Juan Carlos de la Torre, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the research area and Open Access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take the role as its Associate Editor?

I have been serving as a reviewer for Viruses for some time and the scope of the journal, the overall quality of the papers being submitted there, as well as their review process, fit very well with my scientific interests and views about scientific publication.

2. What is your vision for the journal?

Viruses should focus on providing a publishing space for high-quality publications covering diverse areas of virology, while ensuring reasonable publication expenses for the authors and that the review process is timely.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?

I think the future of virology will involve multidisciplinary collaborations, including large scale collaborative efforts. The combined expertise of different laboratories coordinated into effective collaborations can address complex problems in a timely manner that are beyond the capabilities of any single laboratory. This will pose new challenges for publication in terms of the mechanisms that will be implemented to appropriately recognize the contributions of each group and individuals.

4. What do you think of the development of Open Access in the publishing field?

In short, I am 100% in favor of Open Access in the publishing field.

As a leading open access publisher, MDPI provides scholars with a high-quality and rich academic exchange platform by continuously expanding into new and exciting research areas.

In December 2022, MDPI launched five new journals, covering multiple subjects such as life sciences, biology, medicine and pharmacology, social sciences and humanities. These new journals are being edited by established scholars across the world.

If you are interested in creating more open access journals with us to publish cutting-edge research, please send your journal proposal application to newjournal-committee@mdpi.com.

MDPI is pleased to announce that we now display the co-authors’ email addresses in addition to the corresponding author’s email address on the webpage of published papers, protected by Captcha. For more information about this change, please visit the journal’s instructions for authors page. 

We believe this change will facilitate academic discussions and advance our cause of open science and research. The corresponding authors are responsible for communicating with their co-authors and indicating in our system (https://susy.mdpi.com/) if co-authors would prefer for their email addresses not to be displayed.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Enzo Tramontano has been appointed as the Associate Editor of the Section “Viral Immunology, Vaccines, and Antivirals” in Viruses (ISSN: 1999-4915).

Name: Prof. Dr. Enzo Tramontano

Affiliation: Chair, Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria di Monserrato SS554, Monserrato, 09042 Cagliari, Italy

Interests: virology; antiviral drugs; drug development; endogenous retroviruses; viral escape of innate immunity

Homepage: https://unica.it/unica/page/it/enzo_tramontano

Prof. Dr. Enzo Tramontano is a Professor of microbiology and Chair of the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Cagliari (Italy), and is currently the Vice-President of the Italian Society for Virology (SIV-ISV). His research activities focus on the i) discovery and development of antiviral agents; ii) understanding the molecular mechanism of innate immunity viral evasion; iii) study of the expression of retroviral sequences stably integrated into human genomes to explore their physiological and pathological role.

The following is a short Q&A with Prof. Dr. Enzo Tramontano, who shared his vision for the journal with us, as well as his views of the research area and Open Access publishing:

1. What appealed to you about the journal that made you want to take the role as its Associate Editor?

It is a relatively new, well-respected international scientific journal with a dynamic Editor-in-Chief and a strong and diversified Editorial Board. I believe it will be an exciting task.

2. What is your vision for the journal?

The journal should be a platform of excellence for virology research, providing cutting-edge high-quality research papers and accurate review articles focused on prominent topics. In addition, I believe it must also contribute to inspiring a new generation of virologists with a passion for questions and discoveries, as well as the scientific rigor for investigating them.

3. What does the future of this field of research look like?

Viruses are an essential component of our planet. The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us how they may impact our daily life, but their role far exceeds their pathological effects. Virology is a rising field in which new basic knowledge may lead to many novel technological advances, as it has already been proven historically.

4. What do you think of the development of Open Access in the publishing field?

The Open Access policy addresses the need of improving the diffusion of scientific information, speeding up technological innovation and boosting the benefits of public investment in research. Open Access may also improve the impact of science outside the scientific community, reaching a wider audience on relevant topics.

We wish Prof. Dr. Enzo Tramontano every success in his new position, and we look forward to his contributions to the journal.

On 9 February 2023, Clarivate, a global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics, added the Preprint Citation Index to the Web of Science platform, streamlining the research process by allowing researchers to locate and link to preprints alongside other trusted content in the database.

The Preprint Citation Index will act as a bridge to connect cutting-edge preprints with peer-reviewed journal articles published within the Web of Science Core Collection. Alerts can be easily set to monitor new research across several repositories and authors will also be able to include preprints on their Web of Science Research Profile to more accurately display their various research outputs.

As of its launch, the Preprint Citation Index will provide nearly two million preprints from various repositories, including MDPI’s own Preprints.org.

MDPI's Preprints Platform – Preprints.org

To advance Open Science and the fast dissemination of research, MDPI offers researchers a free multidisciplinary preprint platform. Preprints.org accepts submissions from all research areas and offers authors high visibility, permanent archiving, article-level Metrics and immediately citable content by assigning a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to all preprints.

During submission to any MDPI journal, authors have the option to share their research as a preprint. After an initial screening, the manuscript is available online in 48 hours or less. Once online, preprints can be downloaded, shared, commented on, and cited, providing authors maximum visibility.

We invite you to join the ranks of the over 100k researchers using Preprints.org and share your research.

For more information, please visit Preprints.org.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Shibo Jiang has been appointed Associate Editor of the “SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19” Section in Viruses (ISSN: 1999-4915). We wish Prof. Dr. Shibo Jiang every success in his new position and we look forward to his contributions to the journal.

Research on the following topics is welcome in this Section:

• COVID-19;
• SARS-CoV-2;
• Immunity;
• Diseases;
• Epidemiology and evolution;
• Pneumonia;
• Bat virus;
• Vaccine design;
• Antiviral drug design;
• Treatment;
• Diagnosis;
• Prevention, prognosis and therapeutics;
• Clinical, medical and medicina;
• Public health research;
• Reverse genetics;
• Innate immunity;
• Adaptive immunity;
• Virus-host interactions;
• Animal models.

For more information about the “SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19” Section, please visit the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses/sections/SARS-CoV-2_and_COVID-19.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Anthony V. Nicola has been appointed Associate Editor of the “Human Virology and Viral Diseases” Section in Viruses (ISSN: 1999-4915). We wish Prof. Dr. Anthony V. Nicola every success in his new position and we look forward to his contributions to the journal.

Viruses have caused some of the most dramatic and deadly disease pandemics and epidemics the world has known. Subsequently, most of these causing agents have become common viruses with different epidemiological trends. The most recent trend has focused on emerging and re-emerging viruses and our related preparedness and responses. However, human virology goes beyond (re)-emerging viral diseases. This Section aims at addressing all aspects of human viruses, medical virology, and virus-induced clinical diseases. All types of manuscripts addressing a broad range of topics including epidemiology, prevention, diagnostics, and treatment will be considered in this Section. Manuscripts must represent original and significant contributions.

Prof. Dr. Anthony V. Nicola has led a Special Issue for Viruses, “Viral Entry Pathways”, in which more than ten feature papers have been published.

For more information about the “Human Virology and Viral Diseases” Section, please visit the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses/sections/Human_Virology_Viral_Diseases.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Satya Parida has been appointed Associate Editor of the “Animal Viruses” Section in Viruses (ISSN: 1999-4915). We wish Prof. Dr. Satya Parida every success in his new position and we look forward to his contributions to the journal.

This Section concerns viruses infecting animals and mechanistic studies of viral structure, entry, gene expression, and genome replication, assembly, and exit. Studies on virus–host interactions, innate immune responses, viral transformation, viral transmission, population dynamics, and evolution are also considered in this Section.

Prof. Dr. Satya Parida is leading two Special Issues for Viruses, “Global Foot-and-Mouth Disease Control” and “Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) Eradication: Improved Understanding of Epidemiology, Diagnostics and Vaccine Efficacy, Volume II”, in which more than twenty feature papers have been published.

For more information about the “Animal Viruses” Section, please visit the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses/sections/animal_viruses.

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Akira Ono has been appointed Associate Editor of the “Animal Viruses” Section in Viruses (ISSN: 1999-4915). We wish Prof. Dr. Akira Ono every success in his new position and we look forward to his contributions to the journal.

This Section concerns viruses infecting animals and mechanistic studies of viral structure, entry, gene expression, and genome replication, assembly, and exit. Studies on virus–host interactions, innate immune responses, viral transformation, viral transmission, population dynamics, and evolution are also considered in this Section.

Prof. Dr. Akira Ono has led two Special Issues for Viruses, “Role of Lipids in Virus Replication” and “The 11th International Retroviral Nucleocapsid and Assembly Symposium”, in which more than ten feature papers have been published.

For more information about the “Animal Viruses” Section, please visit the following link: 
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/viruses/sections/animal_viruses.