ChemPubSoc Europe and Wiley-VCH have named Dr. David Peralta as Editor-in-Chief of ChemMedChem, as of July 1, 2017. The appointment was confirmed by society representatives at the annual meeting of ChemPubSoc Europe and Wiley-VCH in Berlin last September.
Dr. Peralta earned his B.S. in chemistry at the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines, in 2006. He finished his master’s degree there as well, focusing on bio-, organic, and analytical chemistry, specifically working on carbohydrate-active enzymes. While finishing his M.S. degree, he also taught undergraduate classes in general chemistry, biochemistry, and science & society. On the side, he finished an additional degree in German studies, which eventually inspired him to pursue his Ph.D. in Germany.
In 2009, he moved to Heidelberg for his Ph.D. at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), in the research group of Prof. Tobias Dick, where he discovered a mechanism for the H2O2-sensitivity of the moonlighting enzyme glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH). In 2015, he earned his Ph.D. in biosciences from the DKFZ and the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. Shortly before his doctoral defense, he joined Wiley-VCH in 2014 as an Assistant Editor for both ChemMedChem and ChemistryOpen, and later also ChemistrySelect. In 2016, he became Managing Editor of ChemMedChem.
ChemViews Magazine talked to David about his promotion.
What fascinates you about your job?
I love being at the forefront of science … without having to do any of the lab work. It’s exciting to read about undisclosed science, and I do learn something new with each paper I encounter. It’s also rewarding to then help scientists communicate their findings to the research community and the rest of the world. As an editor, I also enjoy going to conferences to meet our contributors and learn about the hottest topics in medicinal chemistry. Finally, I enjoy the fast pace of publishing.
Do you have a message for your predecessor?
I owe my great start as an editor to Natalia Ortúzar. She was an excellent mentor, and for a long time, really “the face of ChemMedChem“. If I am able to run the journal well now and in the coming years, it’s largely due to her training, and her work ethic, which has definitely rubbed off on me.
Peter Gölitz, the journal’s founding editor, was also instrumental in my training as an editor and eventual promotion. I definitely learned a lot shadowing him in the office and at conferences. I am grateful to both Natalia and Peter for this opportunity to lead the journal.
How do you see the development for ChemMedChem?
Medicinal chemistry these days is not just limited to the traditional synthesis and analysis of potentially therapeutic small compounds. Its definition continues to broaden, and now includes topics like nanomedicine, biologics, and computational and data-driven drug design. More and more conferences include sessions on nanodrugs, chemical-biology-based drug design, and interdisciplinary drug development.
The future of ChemMedChem lies in publishing more papers on these topics. We’ve recently expanded our scope to formally include nanomedicine. With my background in biology, I think the next step would be to open up to more papers on biologics and biochemistry-driven drug design.
So what’s in store for the near future?
In 2018, we plan on publishing a number of special issues. The first one would be on Cheminformatics in Drug Design, which is unprecedented for ChemMedChem and is already shaping up to be quite an issue.
Further special issues in the year are on Nanodrugs and Drug Delivery, Theranostics, Neglected Tropical Diseases, and Novel Antibacterials. We also plan on publishing our first Patent Reviews next year.
- ChemMedChem journal homepage
ChemMedChem (Impact Factor 2016: 3.225) is a top journal for research at the interface of chemistry, biology, and medicine.
Recent Editorial by David Peralta
- A New ChemMedChem Era,
David Peralta, Scott D. Williams
ChemMedChem 2017, 12(1), 3–10.
https://doi.org/10.1002/cmdc.201600618
