Authors: Deanne Nolan | Greta Heydenrych
Source: ChemSystemsChem (article, 2020-12-16)
Field: Chemistry — Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

Systems Chemistry Looking Forward Full steam ahead: The editors reflect on developments at the journal in 2020 and discuss exciting projects in the pipeline for 2021. We also introduce our new Editorial Board co-Chair and take a look at two new Chemistry Europe sister journals which will publish their first issues in 2021. This past year must have been one of the strangest years most of us has ever experienced. At ChemSystemsChem we are among the lucky ones, as we could carry on with our work seamlessly, with the only change being switching from the office to the living room. 2020 will likely mark the end of an era during which we took for granted extensive personal interaction with friends and colleagues and the ability to travel almost anywhere we would like to go, whenever we want to go. 2020 also marks the end of another era. In April this year, ChemSystemsChem and all our Chemistry Europe sister journals revamped our look to a sleek, modern design to take us into the future and to strengthen the ties between our journals. Despite research slowing down due to global campus and laboratory lockdowns, we received some excellent submissions and were able to publish some top-notch systems chemistry from all over the world. Table 1 contains a small selection that shows the breadth of the topic. Authors Titles C. Wanzke, A. Jussupow, F. Kohler, H. Dietz, V. R. I. Kaila, J. Boekhoven Dynamic Vesicles Formed By Dissipative Self-Assembly S. J. Mojzsis, H.-J. Kim, T. Carell, R. Brasser, E. Biondi, E. A. Bell, S. A. Benner, A. Omran, M. A. Pasek, D. Trail When Did Life Likely Emerge on Earth in an RNA-First Process? S. Panja, B. Dietrich, D. J. Adams Chemically Fuelled Self-Regulating Gel-to-Gel Transition B. Fan, Y. Men, S. A. P. Rossum, G. Li, R. Eelkema A Fuel-Driven Chemical Reaction Network Based on Conjugate Addition and Elimination Chemistry K. Reuter, B. Han, H. Oberhofer, C. Kunkel, H. Jung, S. Stocker, J. T. Margraf Size-Extensive Molecular Machine Learning with Global Representations A. Altemose, A. J. Harris, A. Sen Autonomous Formation and Annealing of Colloidal Crystals Induced by Light-Powered Oscillations of Active Particles L. Faltova, R. Zuccarini, U. Capasso Palmiero, A. M. Küffner, M. Prodan, P. Arosio Acceleration of an Enzymatic Reaction in Liquid Phase Separated Compartments Based on Intrinsically Disordered Protein Domains Y. Sumiya, Y. Tabata, S. Maeda Understanding the Acetalization Reaction Based on its Reaction Path Network R. A. Jara-Toro, G. A. Pino, D. R. Glowacki, R. J. Shannon, E. Martínez-Núñez Enhancing Automated Reaction Discovery with Boxed Molecular Dynamics in Energy Space M. J. Männel, A. Kaufmann, T. Heida, T. Köhler, J. Thiele Cell-Free Protein Synthesis in Bifunctional Hyaluronan Microgels: A Strategy for In Situ Immobilization and Purification of His-Tagged Proteins For this year, we have a few new special collections planned. The first is on Chemobrionics, based on the very successful COST meeting in Prague in January 2020. Chemobrionics is a topic at the heart of systems chemistry, as it is not only possible that early life may have evolved in the protection of such systems, the study of chemical gardens also deepens our understanding of the varied self-assembly processes that play a central role in systems chemistry. Our second special collection will feature Chemistry in Crowded Systems. Such systems can display interesting and complex behaviour, as is well-known from the cellular environment. Finally, we will also have a special collection on Prebiotic Systems and Protocells. Understanding the origin of life and perhaps one day succeeding in the de novo synthesis of life is central to systems chemistry. Taken together, these three themes focus on essential aspects of systems chemistry and it is our hope that these special collections will become references in the field over the next few years. Please keep an eye on ChemSystemsChem’s Early View page and follow us on Twitter @ChemSystemsChem for the latest articles and news! We are delighted to welcome Rein Ulijn (Advanced Science Research Center, City University of New York, USA) as an Editorial Board co-Chair of ChemSystemsChem. From January 2021, Rein will join Wilhelm Huck (Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands) and Ludovic Jullien (Sorbonne and ENS, Paris, France), the current co-chairs of the journal. We take this opportunity to thank our co-Chairs, and all our Editorial Board members, for their unwavering support of the journal. Chemistry Europe is pleased to announce the launch of two new sister journals, both of which will publish their first issues in 2021. The journal Analysis & Sensing publishes top-quality peer-reviewed research on all aspects of analytical and bioanalytical chemistry and sensors, ranging from fundamental studies on core spectroscopic and spectrometric methods to applications across a variety of disciplines. Its multidisciplinary scope includes biomedical analysis, biosensors, electrochemical analysis, in vivo probes, imaging, instrumentation, mass spectrometry, metabolomics, microfluidics, nano- and 2D materials, point-of-care assays, proteomics, and separation. Analysis & Sensing is published on behalf of a subgroup of Chemistry Europe. The Editorial Board Chairs are Ron Heeren (Universiteit Maastricht, The Netherlands), Janina Kneipp (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany), and Jianghong Rao (Stanford University). The second new journal, Chemistry–Methods, is a fully open-access interdisciplinary journal publishing high-impact peer-reviewed research on all aspects of methods in chemistry, ranging from operando methods in catalysis, to new approaches, to imaging and new synthetic methods. The Editorial Board Co–Chairs are Jana Roithová (Radboud Universiteit, The Netherlands), Oliver Kappe (Universität Graz, Austria), and Steven Wheeler (University of Athens, Georgia, USA). Finally, we, the editorial team at ChemSystemsChem, wish all of you, our authors, reviewers and readers, a good and successful and, above all, healthy 2021. It is our hope that your new year will be somewhat less strange and complicated than 2020 had been and that you can tackle the year's challenges with a renewed sense of optimism! 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