ACS Launches New Journal On Infectious Diseases

The American Chemical Society plans to begin publishing a new journal, ACS Infectious Diseases, with the first full issue scheduled for release in January 2015. Courtney C. Aldrich, an associate professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, will serve as the journal’s inaugural editor-in-chief.

The monthly, online-only journal will focus on “the basic science that advances the field and lays the foundation for the clinical sciences,” Aldrich says. Topics will include “the discovery of new antimicrobial and antiviral agents, characterization and validation of drug targets, and description of the molecular basis of drug resistance and pathogenesis.”

ACS Infectious Diseases will be the first journal to highlight chemistry’s role in this multidisciplinary field, says Susan King, senior vice president of the Journals Publishing Group at ACS, which also publishes C&EN.

Aldrich holds a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Missouri, St. Louis, and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles. His research involves the design and synthesis of antibacterial agents with new mechanisms of action, as well as small-molecule probes to chemically validate new biochemical targets. Aldrich served as associate director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Drug Design from 2007 to 2013.

The journal will begin accepting manuscript submissions in September.