Drug Design, Development and Therapy

Dove Medical Press is pleased to invite you to submit your research to an upcoming Article Collection on "Advances in design and development of ophthalmic drugs", organized by Guest Advisors Dr. Georgios D. Panos in Drug Design, Development and Therapy.

This Article Collection will focus on the latest advances in drug design and development for the treatment of various ophthalmic diseases and conditions.

Ophthalmic diseases, including glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and dry eye disease, are a significant public health concern, affecting millions of people worldwide. Despite the increasing availability of some effective treatments, there is still an unmet need for safe and even more effective drugs that can treat these conditions.

This Article Collection will bring together leading researchers and clinicians in the field to present their latest research on the design and development of ophthalmic drugs. Topics that will be covered in this special issue include but are not limited to:

- New drug delivery systems for ophthalmic drugs
- Advances in small molecule drug design and development for ophthalmic conditions
- Nanotechnology-based approaches for ocular drug delivery
- Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of ophthalmic drugs
- Design and development of sustained-release ophthalmic drug delivery systems
- Gene Therapy and novel biological therapies for the treatment of ocular diseases

We welcome submissions of original research articles and review articles that address any aspect of drug design and development for ophthalmic diseases. All submitted manuscripts will undergo a rigorous peer-review process to ensure the highest quality of the published papers.

This Article Collection will provide a valuable resource for researchers, clinicians, and pharmaceutical companies working in the field of ophthalmic drug design and development and will further advance the understanding of the current state of the art in ophthalmic drug research and help pave the way for the development of safe and effective treatments for ophthalmic diseases.

All manuscripts submitted to this Article Collection will undergo desk assessment and peer-review as part of our standard editorial process. Guest Advisors for this collection will not be involved in peer-reviewing manuscripts unless they are an existing member of the Editorial Board. Please review the journal Aims and Scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

The deadline for submissions is 30 June 2025.

Please submit your manuscript on our website, quoting the promo code CBTYJ for a 10% discount on the Article Processing Charge and to indicate that your submission is for consideration in this Article Collection.

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Dove Medical Press is pleased to invite you to submit your research to an upcoming Article Collection in Drug Design, Development and Therapy on "Modern Computational Approaches for Drug Design and Discovery", organized by Dr. Tamer M Ibrahim Abdelrehim (Kafrelsheikh University, Egypt), Dr. Muzammal Hussain (New York University, USA), Dr. Ahmed Elkerdawy (University of Lincoln, UK) and Editor-In-Chief Dr. Frank M. Böckler (Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany).

Computer-aided drug design (CADD) is a fundamental component of contemporary drug discovery. CADD methods are generally divided into two main categories: Structure-Based Drug Design (SBDD) and Ligand-Based Drug Design (LBDD). The swift advancements in crystallography and homology modeling have greatly improved structure-based virtual screening, facilitating the effective identification of potential drug candidates in the initial stages of drug discovery. Furthermore, the rise in accessible computational power has enhanced the implementation of traditional in silico drug design and discovery methods, allowing for the rapid screening of extensive chemical libraries. CADD methods have garnered significant attention due to their ability to expedite drug discovery while reducing time, labor, and costs. They have emerged as a crucial driving force in drug discovery across both academic and industrial sectors.

Recently, this field has experienced remarkable advancements, largely fueled by the progress of artificial intelligence (AI) including both machine learning and/or deep learning in drug discovery initiatives. The increasing availability of experimental data has facilitated the creation of highly precise AI models, which have a wide range of applications, including predicting the pharmacological activities of molecules, conducting ADME/T profiling, and forecasting molecular properties.

This Collection seeks to gather the most recent advancements in the development and application of computational methods for drug design and discovery, along with their application in preclinical research. We invite submissions from all relevant fields of study, including but not limited to:

• de novo drug design

• lead optimization

• virtual screening methodologies

• AI models to predict molecular activities/properties

• ADME/T property prediction

The collection is primarily open to original research articles, as well as reviews and perspectives.

The deadline for submissions is 31 October 2025. Please review the journal’s aims and scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

Please submit your manuscript on our website, quoting the promo code EPTVR for a 10% discount on the Article Processing Charge and to indicate that your submission is for consideration in this Article Collection. Please contact Haoyang Yi (Commissioning Editor) at [email protected] with any queries regarding this Article Collection.

Guest advisors

Dr. Tamer M Ibrahim Abdelrehim, Kafrelsheikh University

[email protected]

Tamer M. Ibrahim Abdelrehim is an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry in the Faculty of Pharmacy, Kafrelsheikh University, Egypt. Prof. Abdelrehim’s research interest includes enhancing the performance of Structure-Based Virtual Screening workflows and fighting infectious diseases using Computer-Aided Drug Design (CADD) methodologies, and Medicinal Chemistry synthesis approaches. 

Dr. Muzammal Hussain, New York University

[email protected]

Muzammal Hussain is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, where his research focuses on targeted protein degradation and drug discovery aimed at addressing challenging disease targets. His interests include structure-based drug design, modeling and analysis of ligand-protein interactions, phenotypic and virtual drug screening, and investigating drug mechanisms and signaling pathways. 

Dr. Ahmed Elkerdawy, University of Lincoln

[email protected]

Dr. Ahmed Elkerdawy earned his doctoral degree from the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg - Germany with a specialization in Computer-aided Drug Design (CADD) in the Computer-Chemistry-Centre (CCC) research group. Dr. Elkerdawy has a unique blend of experiences in synthetic chemistry and CADD. He published more than 70 papers dealing with using computer-aided drug design approaches for lead discovery and lead optimization for new targets in the treatment of serious health problems like cancer, Alzheimer’s, and inflammation. 

Dr. Frank M. Böckler, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen

[email protected]

At the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Frank Böckler heads the laboratory of Molecular Design & Pharmaceutical Biophysics, which combines Chemical Biology, Molecular and Structural Biology and Biophysics, as well as Computational Chemistry, Machine Learning and Molecular Design. In addition, he is a member of the Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (IBMI). His work is dedicated to understanding molecular interactions, such as halogen and chalcogen bonds, as the foundation for chemical biology and drug discovery and to apply theoretical, fragment-based, biophysical and structural methods to cancer research, particularly involving the human kinome and the network of the tumor suppressor p53.

 

 

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Dove Medical Press is pleased to invite you to submit your research to an upcoming Article Collection in Drug Design, Development and Therapy on "Advances in p53 Drug Discovery", organized by Dr. Andreas Joerger (Goethe University, Germany), Dr. Alexander Dömling (Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic) and Editor-In-Chief Dr. Frank M. Böckler (Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany).

Often referred to as the "guardian of the genome", p53 plays an important role in maintaining cellular homeostasis by regulating and orchestrating cell cycle arrest, DNA repair, apoptosis, and senescence. Mutations in the TP53 gene which encodes p53, are found in a broad range of human cancers, leading to loss of its tumor-suppressive functions and contributing to cancer progression and metastasis. In addition, some gain-of-function (GOF) p53 mutants can acquire new oncogenic activities affecting genomic instability, metabolic reprogramming, and the tumor microenvironment, while promoting invasion, metastasis, and cancer cell proliferation. The complexity of p53's structure and function, particularly its role as a transcription factor and its interactions with a large number of cellular signaling pathways, has made it a challenging target for drug discovery. However, recent advances in structural biology, computational methods, and medicinal chemistry have opened new avenues for the development of drugs that can restore or enhance p53 function, offering hope for more effective cancer therapies. Furthermore, additional targets, such as MDM2/X, HAUSP, Cop-1, Pirh-2, Wip-1, PTEN, AKT, and Siah-1, could become points of therapeutic intervention, influencing p53 and its signaling and regulation network.

Playing a core role in tumor suppression, the ability to modulate p53 activity holds the potential to transform cancer treatment. The development of drugs that can restore the function of mutant p53 or enhance the activity of wild-type p53 is a critical area of research with significant implications for improving patient outcomes and survival rates in cancer.

To help raise the profile of this important area of research, Drug Design, Development and Therapy is publishing a timely Article Collection on p53 drug discovery. The Collection is led by Dr. Andreas Joerger, Prof. Dr. Alexander Dömling, and the Editor in Chief, Prof. Dr. Frank Böckler. 

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Structural and Molecular Biology of p53 Elucidating its Therapeutic Value
• Small Molecule Modulators of Targets Involved in p53 Signalling and Regulation
• Rescue of Loss-of-function Mutant p53 or Restraint of Gain-of-function Mutant p53
• p53-targeted Gene / Immune Therapies
• Clinical Translation of p53-based Therapies
• Challenges and Future Directions

Please submit your manuscript on our website, using the promo code XITLT for 20% off the advertised article processing charge and to indicate that your manuscript will be considered for the “Advances in p53 Drug Discovery” Collection. We will be welcoming relevant papers up until the 31st of March 2026. Please review the journal’s aims and scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

Please contact Haoyang Yi (Commissioning Editor) at [email protected] with any queries regarding this Article Collection. 

Guest Advisors

Dr. Andreas Joerger, Goethe University

[email protected]

Andreas C. Joerger obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Freiburg, Germany in 2000. He then assumed a postdoc position in the group of Prof. Sir Alan Fersht at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Protein Engineering in Cambridge, United Kingdom, initially working on protein design. He stayed on as a senior scientist in structural biology until 2010, before moving to the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (2010-2015). During his long spell at the MRC, he made key contributions towards unraveling the complex structural biology of the tumor suppressor p53 and related proteins. He determined the first crystal structures of p53 cancer mutants, which led to the Y220C mutant being used as a paradigm for the development of mutant p53 rescue drugs based on protein stabilization. In 2016, Dr. Joerger joined the group of Prof. Stefan Knapp at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. Since 2018, he is Principal Investigator on p53 drug discovery and transcriptional regulation at the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) Frankfurt. His other research interests include the evolutionary history of the p53 pathway, protein design, epigenetic targets and E3 ubiquitin ligases. 

Dr. Alexander Dömling, Palacky University in Olomouc

[email protected]

Alex Dömling studied Chemistry & Biology at the Technische Universitat Munchen (TUM). He performed his Ph.D. with Ivar Ugi and his postdoc – funded by a Feodor Lynen stipend from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation – with double Nobel Laureate Barry Sharpless. After his habilitation at TUM, he became a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, then chair of the Department of Drug Design at the University of Groningen, and most recently ERA Chair at Palacky University. He also started several biotech companies. He is the author of over 300 publications and over 70 patent applications. His current lab works according to the mantra ‘Automation + Miniaturization = Acceleration’ on the ERC-funded project of engineering an autonomous drug discovery platform called AMADEUS.

Alexander Dömling is a world-renowned researcher in the area of miniaturization, automation of synthetic chemistry, and multicomponent reaction chemistry. Professor Dömling applies multicomponent reaction chemistry to solve problems in drug discovery and related areas. Notably, he introduced the Acoustic Droplet Ejection technology platform to perform precise high throughput synthetic chemistry and demonstrated its applicability to multiple different chemistries and chemical biology projects.

Dr. Frank M. Böckler, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen

[email protected]

At the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Frank Böckler heads the laboratory of Molecular Design & Pharmaceutical Biophysics, which combines Chemical Biology, Molecular and Structural Biology and Biophysics, as well as Computational Chemistry, Machine Learning and Molecular Design. In addition, he is a member of the Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (IBMI). In 2004, he received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry with summa cum laude at Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen (Germany). Joining Prof. Sir Alan R. Fersht as a postdoc at the MRC Center for Protein Engineering in Cambridge/UK, he discovered p53 mutant stabilizers as potential new cancer therapeutics. In 2008, he was appointed Professor (W2tt) for Bioanalytics at Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) Munich, before moving to Tübingen in 2010 as a full professor. His work is dedicated to understanding molecular interactions, such as halogen and chalcogen bonds, as the foundation for chemical biology and drug discovery and to apply theoretical, fragment-based, biophysical, and structural methods to cancer research, particularly involving the human kinome and the network of the tumor suppressor p53.

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Dove Medical Press is pleased to invite you to submit your research to an upcoming Article Collection in Drug Design, Development and Therapy on "Exploring Fragment-Based Approaches in Drug Discovery", organized by Prof. Anna K. H. Hirsch (Saarland University, Germany), Dr. Walid A. M. Elgaher (Saarland University, Germany), Prof. Oliver Koch (Universität Münster, Germany) and Editor-In-Chief, Prof. Frank M. Böckler (Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany).

With the emergence of fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD), the field of drug discovery has undergone significant changes. Unlike traditional high-throughput screening techniques, FBDD is based on identifying low molecular weight compounds (fragments) with a low affinity to the biological target. These initial fragment hits are then developed into drug-like molecules through a range of techniques, including fragment merging, growing, and linking, to produce a lead with a higher affinity.

FBDD has the capacity to streamline the drug discovery process by initiating a bottom-up process of combining fragments with high ligand efficiencies. Structural insights from X-ray crystallography have fostered hopes that fragments with strong local interaction networks could be extended to target a wider binding site, often boosting the affinity substantially. The method not only increases the probability of identifying active compounds compared to random screening but also allows an in-depth exploration of the chemical and biological space surrounding these fragments. In 2024, 52 fragment-derived candidates had made it to different phases of clinical studies (phase 1–3), while seven drugs (Asciminib, Capivasertib, Erdafitinib, Pexidartinib, Sotorasib, Vemurafenib, and Venetoclax) have already been approved. This highlights the great relevance and potential of this approach for drug discovery.

To help raise the profile of this important area of research, Drug Design, Development and Therapy is publishing a timely Article Collection on fragment-based drug discovery. The Collection is led by Prof. Anna K. H. Hirsch, Dr. Walid A. M. Elgaher, Prof. Oliver Koch, and Editor in Chief, Prof. Frank M. Boeckler.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Advancements in Fragment Screening Techniques
• Specialized Fragment-Libraries and Library Design
• Structural Biology and Fragment-Based Design
• Chemical Biology and Fragment Evolution
• Case Studies and Success Stories
• Challenges and Future Directions

Please submit your manuscript on our website, using the promo code SODHO for 20% off the advertised article processing charge and to indicate that your manuscript will be considered for the “Advances in p53 Drug Discovery” Collection. We will be welcoming relevant papers up until the 30th of April 2026. Please review the journal’s aims and scope and author submission instructions prior to submitting a manuscript.

Please contact Haoyang Yi (Commissioning Editor) at [email protected] with any queries regarding this Article Collection.

Guest Advisors

Prof. Dr. Anna K. H. Hirsch, Saarland University, Germany

[email protected]

Anna Hirsch read Natural Sciences with a focus on Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and spent her third year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, doing a research project with Prof. Timothy Jamison. She carried out her Master’s research project in the group of Prof. Steven V. Ley at the University of Cambridge. She received her Ph.D. from the ETH Zurich in 2008 and worked on the de novo structure-based design and synthesis of inhibitors for an anti-infective target enzyme in the group of Prof. François Diederich. Subsequently, she joined the group of Prof. Jean-Marie Lehn at the Institut de Science et d’Ingénierie Supramoléculaires (ISIS) in Strasbourg as an HFSP postdoctoral fellow, before taking up a position as assistant professor at the Stratingh Institute for Chemistry at the University of Groningen in 2010 where she was promoted to associate professor in 2015. In 2017, she moved to the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS), where she heads the department for drug design and optimization. Her work focuses on anti-infective drug design by adopting rational approaches such as structure- and fragment-based drug design in combination with the target-guided strategies dynamic combinatorial chemistry and kinetic target-guided synthesis. 

Dr. Walid A. M. Elgaher, Saarland University, Germany

[email protected]

Dr. Walid A. M. Elgaher studied Pharmacy at Assiut University (Egypt). He was awarded a scholarship from the German academic exchange service (DAAD) for doctorate study in Germany. In 2016, he got his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Rolf W. Hartmann, Saarland University. He then returned to Egypt and was appointed as a Lecturer of Pharmaceutical Organic Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Assiut University. In 2017, he joined the group of Prof. Anna K. H. Hirsch as a postdoctoral fellow at HIPS, and since 2024 has been a habilitand at Saarland University. His work focuses on the application of modern drug design approaches tackling un(der)exploited therapeutic targets and the use of biophysical and computational techniques for drug discovery and optimization. 

Prof. Dr. Oliver Koch, Universität Münster, Germany

[email protected]

Oliver Koch is Heisenberg-Professor of Computational Drug Discovery at the Institute of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, University of Münster. His interests lie in the development and application of computational methods in rational drug design with focus on ‘big data’ driven decisions and artificial intelligence combined with fragment- and structure-based design. The methods are applied to develop bioactive molecules and to understand selectivity, promiscuity and polypharmacology of protein-ligand interactions. In an interdisciplinary way, the in-silico work is combined with biochemical evaluation, x-ray crystallography and preparative organic synthesis. He received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 2007 at Philipps-University Marburg in the group of Gerhard Klebe and also completed a postgraduate program computer science with focus on machine learning and data science. He worked as a postdoc at CCDC in Cambridge/UK and afterwards for MSD Animal Health Innovation GmbH, Schwabenheim, Germany. In 2012, he became an Independent Junior Group Leader of „In-silico Medicinal Chemistry“ at Technical University Dortmund, Germany. From 2019-22 he was Independent Group Leader for “Computational Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Design” at University of Münster, where he became a Heisenberg-Professor for Computational Drug Discovery in 2022. 

Prof. Dr. Frank M. Böckler, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen

[email protected]

At the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Frank Böckler heads the laboratory of Molecular Design & Pharmaceutical Biophysics, which combines Chemical Biology, Molecular and Structural Biology and Biophysics, as well as Computational Chemistry, Machine Learning and Molecular Design. In addition, he is a member of the Institute for Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics (IBMI). In 2004, he received his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry with summa cum laude at Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen (Germany). Joining Prof. Sir Alan R. Fersht as a postdoc at the MRC Center for Protein Engineering in Cambridge/UK, he discovered p53 mutant stabilizers as potential new cancer therapeutics. In 2008, he was appointed Professor (W2tt) for Bioanalytics at Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) Munich, before moving to Tübingen in 2010 as a full professor. His work is dedicated to understanding molecular interactions, such as halogen and chalcogen bonds, as the foundation for chemical biology and drug discovery and to apply theoretical, fragment-based, biophysical, and structural methods to cancer research, particularly involving the human kinome and the network of the tumor suppressor p53.

View all papers in this article collection