Biotechnology Journal is the new, international resource for both biotechnology researchers and professionals in related disciplines. Fully comprehensive in its scope, the journal publishes strictly peer-reviewed papers covering novel aspects and methods in all areas of biotechnology. Special attention is also paid to the public, legal, ethical and cultural aspects of biotechnological research in the Forum section. Most issues are devoted to a special topic, providing the latest comprehensive information on the most crucial areas of research and technological advances.

Alongside each highlighted topic, the journal contains original papers in the form of research articles, short communications and technical reports, illustrating the latest research results. BTJ welcomes submission of papers in areas including DNA/protein engineering, all -omics fields (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, systems biology etc.), bioinformatics (algorithms and modeling), imaging, analytical biotech (sensors/detectors for analytes/macromolecules), plant/agricultural, food or environmental biotechnology, health and therapeutical biotechnology (including antisense/siRNAs, enzymes, peptides ...), regenerative medicine (stem cells, tissue engineering and biomaterials), translational immunology (antibody engineering, xenotransplantation, T-cell therapies), and biosafety or biosecurity.

BTJ promotes a special emphasis on:

• Systems Biotechnology
• High-Throughput and Microarray Technologies
• Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering
• Nanobiotechnology
• Translational Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology
• Methods and Advances
• Biosafety, biotech ethics, science communication

In particular, BTJ welcomes submissions on

Systems Biology/ Bioinformatics: Overview and interplay between biological system components and their functional implications (for example enzymes and metabolites in a metabolic pathway). Computational analysis of all topics mentioned below (modeling, algorithms, data deconvolution).

Synthetic Biology: The design and construction of new biological parts, devices and systems; re-design of natural biological systems for useful purposes.

Nanobiotech/ Biomaterials: Nanomaterials for industrial (white) biotech, drug delivery therapeutics, biochips, micro- and nanofluidics, nanosensors, and nanosystems for imaging; engineering materials for biological application, molecular imprinting, and biomimetics.

Medicine/ Red Biotech/ Stem cells: Therapeutic cloning (somatic cell nuclear transfer), tissue engineering, xenotransplantation; DNA or RNA therapeutics (gene therapy, targeting, immunogenicity); vaccines and applied immunology (Ab engineering, T-cell therapies, therapies exploiting innate immunity, antigen delivery vectors and approaches; viral or non-viral strategies for drug delivery.

Mammalian Biotech/ Genetics: Manipulating gene structure and control of gene expression; transgenic animals, knockouts, reproductive cloning, biopharmaceutical and enzyme production, transgene targeting and expression strategies.

Metabolic Engineering: Genetic manipulation of species of interest to modify or allow the production of a commercially or therapeutically relevant compound.

Biocatalysis: Evolution and protein design (antibodies, enzymes, drugs ...).

White/Industrial Biotechnology: Chemical synthesis by bacteria, yeast or other organisms, use of enzymes as industrial catalysts, biopharmaceutics, biofuels.

Omics, Analytical Biotech, Biosensors: (Meta)genomics, structural genomics, gene function analysis (e.g., arrays, SAGE), pharmacogenomics (SNPs), gene structure analysis, chemogenomics, proteomics (e.g., mass spectrometry, yeast two hybrid, arrays and chips, NMR, SPR), metabolomics (chromatography, mass spectrometry). Analytical methods and systems for monitoring research, development and production of biotechnological products.

Methods: Technical aspects and practical protocols for all biotech applications; Expression systems in mammalian, insect, bacterial, fungal or plant cells; Screening methods; Novel organism/cell/molecular imaging techniques, high throughput imaging tools for drug screening, fluorescence microscopy, electron microscopy/tomography, confocal imaging ...

Biochemical Engineering/ Downstream Processing: Chemical engineering aspects of biological processes from primary material to product recovery; separation, purification, and packaging after fermentation or bioconversion.

Plant Biotechnology: Crop improvement (resistance to stress, disease, pests), nutraceuticals, forest biotech, plant vaccines or bioreactors, biosecurity and gene-containment strategies, bioenergy, microbial biodegradation, food biotech, environmental biotech: bioremediation, biomining, phytoremediation, monitoring.

Food Biotechnology: Application of microbiology and metabolic aspects to food and beverage systems; food safety and pathogens, food fermentation, food bioactive compounds.

Biosafety, Biotech Ethics, Science Communication

Out of scope

Biotechnology Journal will NOT consider submissions consisting of marginal advancements, for example cloning without functional relevance, characterizations without functional data or applications, fermentation optimizations without technical novelty, adsorption and chromatography studies without a deeper insight into the process, or separation studies without a modeling support.

For more information on manuscript preparation , see For authors.