Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
3.4
2.5
Journals
MPs
Special Issues
Feature Papers in Methods and Protocols 2026
share announcement

Feature Papers in Methods and Protocols 2026

A Special Issue of Methods and Protocols (ISSN 2409-9279).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 5475

Editors

Dr. Fernando Albericio

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. School of Chemistry, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa
2. Department of Organic Chemistry, University of Barcelona, CIBER-BBN, Barcelona, Spain
Interests: antimicrobial peptides; solid-phase chemistry; combinatorial chemistry; drug delivery systems; peptide drug conjugates; orthogonal chemistry; drug discovery; biomaterials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Sophie Alvarez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Proteomics and Metabolomics Facility, Center for Biotechnology, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, N300, Beadle Center, 1901 Vine St, Lincoln, NE 68588-0665, USA
Interests: proteomics; mass spectrometry; post-translational modifications; phosphoproteomics; redox proteomics; targeted metabolomics; liquid chromatography; electrophoresis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Maria Luisa Astolfi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Interests: analytical and bioanalytical chemistry; environmental chemistry and monitoring; elemental analysis; atomic spectroscopic techniques (ICP-MS, ICP-OES, CV-AFS, AMA, GF-AAS); sample treatment; determination of trace elements in foods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce this Special Issue of Methods and Protocols, entitled “Feature Papers in Methods and Protocols 2026”. In this Special Issue, we will collate articles from top researchers describing new approaches or new cutting-edge developments to tackle questions in the fields of life sciences, chemistry, and biomedical sciences, including analytical chemistry and advanced measurement science. In particular, we encourage submissions focused on the emerging fields of “Omics and High Throughput”, “Public Health Research”, “Synthetic and Systems Biology”, and “Tissue Engineering and Organoids”, as well as innovative developments in sample preparation, elemental and molecular analysis, and spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques.

Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish new protocols based on established techniques, as well as significant improvements and developments of cutting-edge methods, with particular interest in methodological optimization, control of contamination and matrix effects, and validation of analytical performance. For all articles, background information necessary to understand the underlying principles, full experimental details, and comparison with available protocols/methods must be provided, including critical steps in sample handling and preanalytical variables when relevant. Scientists are encouraged to provide accompanying video demonstrations, which will be published online, for ease of reproducibility.

You are welcome to send short proposals for your feature paper to our Managing Editor Ms. Eunice Fu (eunice.fu@mdpi.com) or the Editorial Office (mps@mdpi.com) before submission. All papers will be subjected to a thorough and rigorous peer-review process.

We look forward to receiving your excellent work.

Prof. Dr. Fernando Albericio
Dr. Sophie Alvarez
Dr. Maria Luisa Astolfi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Methods and Protocols is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cell biology
  • biochemistry
  • chemistry
  • nanotechnology
  • biotechnology
  • imaging
  • applied computation and bioinformatics
  • genomics
  • proteomics
  • developmental biology
  • model organisms
  • pharmacology
  • structural biology/chemistry
  • biophysics
  • tissue engineering
  • public health

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review, Other

18 pages, 6330 KB  
Article
Analysis of Osteocalcin Hormone Proteoforms with Vitamin D Deficiency in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus Using Multiple-Reaction Monitoring–Mass Spectrometric Immunoassay Approach
by Refat M. Nimer, Hicham Benabdelkamel, Afshan Masood, Maha Al Mogren, Salini Scaria Joy, Anas M. Abdel Rahman and Assim A. Alfadda
Methods Protoc. 2026, 9(4), 117; https://doi.org/10.3390/mps9040117 - 12 Aug 2026
Viewed by 957
Abstract
Osteocalcin (OC), a bone protein, is evaluated by its proteoforms, which are implicated in various illnesses. Rapid, clinically used immunoassays are well-established. Epitope dependence, fragment cross-reactivity, uneven identification across carboxylation states, and lack of standardization restrict their efficacy. This study aims to characterize [...] Read more.
Osteocalcin (OC), a bone protein, is evaluated by its proteoforms, which are implicated in various illnesses. Rapid, clinically used immunoassays are well-established. Epitope dependence, fragment cross-reactivity, uneven identification across carboxylation states, and lack of standardization restrict their efficacy. This study aims to characterize various OC proteoforms in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and vitamin D insufficiency and to develop a mass spectrometric immunoassay (MSIA) for their detection. The first MRM-MSIA test to specifically detect OC proteoforms in plasma with vitamin D deficiency-induced alterations in T2DM patients was developed and validated. A precise and selective MRM-MSIA was developed to assess OC fragments in plasma from T2DM patients with normal (DN) or deficient (DD) vitamin D levels. The approach examined OC-1 (aa64–71), OC-2 (aa64–70), and OC-3 (aa72–93) proteoforms. It met international linearity, precision, and accuracy criteria with variability <15% and intra/inter-day accuracy of 88.8% to 110.1%. The DD group had significantly higher OC-1 levels than the DN group. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for OC-1 produced an AUC of 0.8263 (95% confidence interval [CI], p = 0.0004). The developed MRM-MSIA measures plasma OC proteoforms with good specificity and sensitivity, making it a promising clinical diagnostic tool. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Methods and Protocols 2026)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research, Other

37 pages, 3082 KB  
Review
An Overview of In Vitro Release Methods for Long-Acting Injectable Products Based on PLGA
by Maja Lusina Kregar, Iva Krtalić and Ivana Šagud
Methods Protoc. 2026, 9(3), 87; https://doi.org/10.3390/mps9030087 - 1 Jun 2026
Viewed by 1645
Abstract
Long-acting injectables (LAIs) are widely used for chronic conditions such as schizophrenia, opioid use disorder, and HIV. Their prolonged efficacy improves adherence and reduces dosing frequency. Among these systems, poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA)-based formulations are commonly used to deliver drugs ranging from small molecules to [...] Read more.
Long-acting injectables (LAIs) are widely used for chronic conditions such as schizophrenia, opioid use disorder, and HIV. Their prolonged efficacy improves adherence and reduces dosing frequency. Among these systems, poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA)-based formulations are commonly used to deliver drugs ranging from small molecules to peptides and proteins. In vitro release (IVR) tests play a critical role in evaluating drug product performance for both immediate- and prolonged-release dosage forms. However, there is a lack of standardized compendial IVR methods for the assessment of LAIs. This lack impedes the development of new drug products in this area and also complicates their regulatory approval process. Considering the complexity of drug release mechanisms and the diversity of various formulation design approaches, it is not possible to devise a universal IVR method that is applicable to all LAI products. The in vitro release test applied for quality control should be simple, robust, reproducible, and discriminatory. On the other hand, more complex biorelevant media and methods are often used during development to better reflect physiological conditions. This article provides a comprehensive review of compendial and non-compendial methods used for in vitro release testing of PLGA-based LAIs (microspheres and in situ forming implants), with the goal of aiding the development and standardization of future methodologies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Methods and Protocols 2026)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Other

Jump to: Research, Review

14 pages, 10220 KB  
Protocol
Collection and Lipidomic Analysis of Murine Knee Synovium and Infrapatellar Fat Pad
by Tong Yang, Luke Stasikelis and Alexander J. Knights
Methods Protoc. 2026, 9(3), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/mps9030070 - 2 May 2026
Viewed by 1543
Abstract
Intra-articular soft connective tissues such as synovium and adipose tissue play a crucial role in governing joint homeostasis and disease progression in various forms of arthritis. In the knee, like many synovial joints, adipose tissue forms an integrated anatomic and functional unit with [...] Read more.
Intra-articular soft connective tissues such as synovium and adipose tissue play a crucial role in governing joint homeostasis and disease progression in various forms of arthritis. In the knee, like many synovial joints, adipose tissue forms an integrated anatomic and functional unit with the joint-lining synovium, and the most prominent adipose depot is the infrapatellar fat pad (IFP). With growing evidence that lipid profiles in the synovium–IFP unit shift during progression of joint diseases like osteoarthritis (OA), there is strong impetus for consistent tissue collection approaches and reproducible subsequent lipid characterization. Here, we present a standardized dissection and low-input untargeted lipidomics workflow optimized for mouse knee synovium and IFP, to enable comprehensive lipid profiling. Synovium/IFP from multiple joints are pooled to increase input mass and guarantee robust lipid yield, followed by lipid extraction and high-resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC–MS) acquisition for global, untargeted lipidomic profiling. The analysis workflow encompasses robust feature detection, accurate lipid annotation, data transformation and normalization. These steps enhance comparability across samples, particularly those with low input amounts, while minimizing technical variance and batch effects. Using this approach, we detect a broad spectrum of lipid species spanning the major lipid categories. As expected for untargeted discovery, a subset of non-lipid species is also observed. This protocol provides a practical framework for robust, reproducible lipidomics in murine intra-articular soft tissues to support future disease-specific biomarker and drug target discovery in OA and other joint diseases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Methods and Protocols 2026)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop