Current Opinion in Chemical Biology

Edited by:
  • Donald Hilvert &
  • Steven Ley
Current Biology. 6/yr. Print £125, $220 (personal); £60, $120 (student). On-line £137, $242 (personal). Print plus on-line, £150, $264 (personal)

Chemical tools are increasingly being applied to, and chemists are increasingly being inspired by, the molecules of living systems as well as the living systems themselves. As scientists attempt to ride these rapidly advancing currents of progress, new paradigms quickly arise and become part of the fertile and dynamic sea of ideas and experimental results that make up chemical biology.

Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, first published in June 1997, covers timely and important topics of bioorganic as well as bioinorganic chemistry, along with relevant advances in enzymology and medicinal chemistry. Editors Donald Hilvert and Steven Ley have enlisted an impressive group of world leaders in the field to oversee the writing of short reviews by experts on recent developments in the most active areas of chemical biology research. Journal issues this year are devoted to interaction, assembly and processing (February); biocatalysis and biotransformation (February); bioinorganic chemistry (April); combinatorial chemistry (June); next generation therapeutics (August); analytical techniques (October); mechanisms (October); model systems (December); and biopolymers (December). The review articles are of the highest scientific calibre and are focused on recent literature as viewed through the eyes of those who know and understand that literature best. The reviews are generally eight to ten pages in length, long enough to explore thoroughly all essential ideas, but not so long that the reader is set adrift in details.

Current Opinion in Chemical Biology also has ‘paper alert’ and ‘web alert’ sections to help readers negotiate the large number of new currents of chemical biology literature, both published and electronic. In these ‘alert’ sections, scientists representing the journal's key topic areas highlight important recent papers or outstanding websites, along with a concise summary of key results and their significance.

To ride new waves in chemical biology, scientists must know how recent scientific advances are moving around them. A subscription to Current Opinion in Chemical Biology will provide excellent guidance to scientists on how best to harness the onrush of new advances and trends, thereby preventing a scientific ‘wipe out’ caused by being overtaken from an important new direction by something they did not see coming. In scientific research, no good-looking lifeguard comes to the rescue.