Uprising of synthetic and systems biotechnology

The inaugural issue of Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology coincides with the celebration of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which was awarded to Profs. Youyou Tu, William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura for the discovery of artemisinin and avermectin, respectively. The efficacy of both artemisinin and avermectin as parasitic disease treatments won the recognition of the whole world, revealing the dawning of renaissance of natural product-based drug discovery. Although artemisinin was originally innovated by the Chinese, the reality is that China has neither proprietary intellectual property rights nor unique leading technology or international market shares. The situation of avermectin is totally opposite. China is the only avermectin producing country in the world with an annual sale above 3 billion RMB, kudos greatly to the power of Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology (reviewed in this issue). Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology is reshaping the way humans live, but there are only a few journals dedicated to this field. I want to take this opportunity to briefly introduce you to our journal that addresses the need for a new outlet for high quality peer reviewed papers reporting research into the nature, extent and impacts of the presence of Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology. I recall some debate with my associate editors, Professors Eriko Takano from Manchester Univ. (UK), Jason Sello from Brown Univ. (USA) and Dan Luofrom Cornel Univ. (USA), about how we would define “Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology.”We settled on the following: Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology aims to promote the communication of original research in synthetic and systems biology, with strong emphasis on applications toward biotechnology. The journal publishes high-quality research; focusing on integrative approaches to enable the understanding and design of biological systems, and research to develop the application of systems and synthetic biology to natural systems. This journal publishes articles, short notes, methods, mini reviews, and conference reviews, including new technologies, processes, methods, materials, systems, and applications. In this inaugural issue, we had one short note, three mini reviews and four full research articles. I hope I’ve illustrated the need for Synthetic and Systems Biotechnology as well as its value as a true home for research in this area, but I appreciate that this is not always all that is on authors’ minds. For this reason, I am excited to be able to highlight the ongoing support provided to the journal and its authors by our publisher, KeAi Publishing. Despite its reasonably short history, KeAi’s associationwith its two founding partners, Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media, as well as their commitment to Science will allow the journal’s authors to enjoy a wide range of benefits. These include free of charge open access publication for the first year, cutting edge publishing systems and fervent dedication to promotion and the widest dissemination possible. No journal editor ever stands alone and so we are very happy to be able to introduce some of the other people who helped and drove the journal forward, including our editorial board members in the field. Our thanks also go to Dr. Keith De Blanger and his outgoing team of publishers including Ms. Hua Bai and Dr. Emilie Wang for their skilled stewardship of the journal so far. In conclusion, I wish you happy reading of this first issue, and look forward to the next, and hope that you will want to be part of shaping and developing the Journal in the future with your own discoveries. Enjoy!