FEBS Journal

Aims & Scope

FEBS Journal is an international journal devoted to the rapid publication of full-length papers describing original research in all areas of the molecular life sciences. Preference is given to papers that bring new molecular or mechanistic insight to biomedical and biological problems.

Papers should be clearly written for a general audience in a way that draws attention to their novelty and significance; work that is incomplete, inconclusive or merely confirmatory will not be published. Papers that describe the cloning and expression of genes will not be published unless the work throws some important new light on the gene or its expression product.

FEBS Journal also publishes reviews and minireviews on a wide range of topics, which may be solicited or submitted.

The scope of the journal is broad and inclusive.  We are particularly interested in papers in which state-of-the-art approaches to modern life sciences are applied to bring novel insight into molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie the functions of molecules, cells and organisms. These include: bioinformatics and computational biology; biological chemistry; biophysics; chemical biology; dynamics and kinetics; genomics, metabolomics and proteomics; imaging science; mathematical and theoretical biology; molecular and cell biology; molecular engineering and evolution; molecular therapeutics and biologics; structural biology; systems and synthetic biology.

The journal welcomes manuscripts of an interdisciplinary and integrative nature which provide novel insight into the molecular and cellular life sciences, including systems approaches. The journal also welcomes submissions describing the exploitation of new biological systems (e.g. synthetic biology; engineered organisms; artificial molecular assemblies) as well as studies of natural cells and organisms, with a focus on their molecular and cellular properties. 

The thematic interests of the journal are broad and include (but are not limited to):      

Aging and senescence

Cell dynamics and organelle biology (cell cytoskeleton, cell migration/motility, secretory pathways, organelle biogenesis) 

Cellular and molecular microbiology (intracellular pathogens)

Enzymes and catalysis (biocatalysis, catalytic properties, engineering, evolution, multi-enzyme complexes, regulation, structure and dynamics)

Epigenetics (chromatin and microRNAs)

Gene expression, transcription and translation (transcription factor complexes, chromatin structure and regulation,  DNA/protein interactions, ribosome regulation)

Immunology (inflammation, innate and adaptive immunity, and the links between them)

Membranes and membrane proteins (channel structure and function, membrane excitability, trafficking, lipids, receptors)

Metabolism and metabolic regulation (mitochondrial function, bioenergetics, metabolic/catabolic pathways, hormonal regulation, proteasome and proteolysis, autophagy)

Methods/technology (mass spectrometry, microfluidics, high throughput, etc.)

Molecular evolution

Molecular mechanisms of human disease (cancer, cardiovascular disease, immune disorders, metabolic diseases, microbial pathogens, neurological disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, cellular and animal models of disease)

Molecular medicine/therapies (novel molecular therapeutics, small molecule intervention, biologics)

Molecular neurobiology

Organism growth and developmental biology (cell cycle and growth, embryogenesis, cellular differentiation, stem cells, tissue regeneration)

Signaling mechanisms and signal transduction (molecular dissection, re-wiring, small molecule targeting, protein/protein interactions, ligand receptors)

Stem cell functions and tissue regeneration