Peptide and Protein Modifications

The Peptide and Protein Metalation Congress (Naples, Italy, 10-12 June 2025) will be a valuable opportunity to bring together a community of researchers spanning various areas of chemistry and biology, working across numerous universities and research institutions. The conference, featuring oral presentations and a poster session, will provide a unique platform for students, post-docs, and scientists from both academia and the pharmaceutical industry to engage in stimulating and collaborative discussions. This conference underscores the global significance of coordination chemistry, with a portion of the event dedicated to advancing chemical biology and biomedical sciences.

This Research Topic solicits contributions from conference participants while also welcoming other bioinorganic chemists working in inorganic biochemistry, chemical biology, and metallo-pharmaceutics.

Peptide structure and function can be modified, and coordination chemistry plays a crucial role in bridging the gap between chemistry and biology, offering insights into molecular interactions, enzymatic functions, and therapeutic developments. This field has proven essential in understanding biological processes and developing new materials and drugs. The continuous advancements in coordination chemistry offer potential breakthroughs in tackling challenges within biological and biomedical systems.

This Research Topic aims to explore recent advancements in peptide and protein metalation and their applications in chemical biology, with a particular focus on innovations in protein structure and function. We seek to highlight how peptide and protein metalation can contribute to understanding complex biological mechanisms, supporting the design of artificial metalloenzymes, therapeutic agents, and metallodrug delivery systems. Contributions exploring both theoretical and experimental approaches for the synthesis and characterization of novel metal compounds, their interactions with peptides and proteins, and their potential applications in catalysis and human health are especially encouraged.

We welcome research articles, brief research reports, comprehensive reviews, mini-reviews, perspectives, and methodological papers that explore, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Interactions of metal compounds with peptides and proteins
• Structural studies of metal/peptide and metal/protein adducts
• Impact of metalation on the structure, stability, and function of peptides and proteins
• Influence of metalation on enzymatic mechanisms
• Role of peptide and protein metalation in the structure and function of organelles
• Applications of peptide and protein metalation in the design and synthesis of new therapeutic agents and materials relevant to chemical biology
• Use of peptide and protein metalation in drug delivery systems and their potential
therapeutic applications
• Innovations in analytical techniques for studying peptide and protein metalation in biological systems
• Theoretical modelling and structural predictions in peptide and protein metalation applications

For a full description of each article type, please see here

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Specialty Grand Challenge

Keywords: Peptide Metalation, Protein Metalation, Coordination Chemistry, Inorganic Biochemistry, Metallo-pharmaceutics, Enzymatic Mechanisms, Biological Processes, Therapeutic Developments, Artificial Metalloenzymes, Metallodrug Delivery Systems

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.