Recent Advances in Protein Science and Engineering: Innovations for Biotechnological Applications in Biorefinery, Agri-Food, Cosmetics, and Medicine

Topic Information

Dear Colleagues,

Protein science is essential for a plethora of applications and is undergoing rapid progress in protein engineering, peptide-based technologies and alternative protein-based foods. 

In biorefinery, engineered enzymes with enhanced stability, catalytic efficiency, and substrate versatility enable more effective biomass conversion into bioactives, biofuels, bioplastics, and platform chemicals, strengthening the role of green chemistry in industrial production.

Within the agri‑food sector, protein and peptide engineering is used to develop improved crop varieties, whereas protein hydrolates acting as biostimulants are used as alternative methods to enhance crop resilience, nutrient bioavailability and food quality. The development of functional future foods, based on alternative protein sources, is heavily supported by advances in synthetic functional proteins. Various proteins such as mannoproteins and bioactive peptides are proposed as natural additives in functional foods.

In medicine, protein engineering, AI‑assisted modeling, and sequence optimization drives the development of novel therapeutics, diagnostic enzymes, CRISPR‑associated proteins, and biocatalysts for drug synthesis. Additionally, various peptide extracts, synthesis, and formulations are shown to be effective for use in medical devices and cosmetics.

Given these aspects, the proposed Topic invites researchers to disseminate their latest discoveries in protein science and engineering or review the most recent advances in various fields related to proteins.

Research areas include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Characterization of novel proteins;
• Computationally designed proteins and peptides;
• Protein engineering for basic research of cell mechanisms;
• Protein structures, interactions, and structure–activity relationships;
• Engineered enzymes for improved biocatalysis;
• Applications of non-catalytic proteins and peptides;
• Protein and peptide cloning, synthesis, extraction, purification, functionalization, and formulations;
• Bioactive peptides;
• AI-driven optimization of protein-based applications;
• Advances in alternative proteins and protein-based food products;
• Techno-economical analysis and safety issues of protein-based biotechnologies.

Dr. Diana Constantinescu-Aruxandei
Dr. Florin Oancea
Dr. Oana Crăciunescu
Topic Editors

Keywords

Participating Journals

Journal Name	Impact Factor	CiteScore	Launched Year	First Decision (median)	APC
Agriculture agriculture	4.5	7.8	2011	17.4 Days	CHF 2600	Submit
Agronomy agronomy	4.1	7.6	2011	17.7 Days	CHF 2600	Submit
Antioxidants antioxidants	8.2	14.7	2012	18.7 Days	CHF 2900	Submit
Biomolecules biomolecules	5.6	9.3	2011	16.6 Days	CHF 2700	Submit
International Journal of Molecular Sciences ijms	5.6	10.0	2000	17.5 Days	CHF 2900	Submit
Molecules molecules	5.1	10.3	1996	15.6 Days	CHF 2700	Submit
Pharmaceutics pharmaceutics	6.9	12.5	2009	16.3 Days	CHF 2900	Submit
Proteomes proteomes	4.3	6.4	2013	27.9 Days	CHF 1800	Submit

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Published Papers (1 paper)