Call For Papers: Emerging Tools for Infection Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Spread Control

ACS Infectious Diseases is pleased to announce the Special Issue “Emerging Tools for Infection Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Spread Control,” highlighting the rapidly evolving landscape of technologies reshaping how infectious diseases are detected, monitored, and characterized. As global health systems continue to face the challenges of emerging and re‑emerging pathogens, advancements across molecular diagnostics, biosensing, nanotechnology, immunology, computational biology, and environmental surveillance offer unprecedented insight.

This Special Issue brings together cutting‑edge research that enhances early detection, refines clinical outcome prediction, and strengthens our ability to track pathogen transmission. By uniting diverse scientific perspectives, the collection aims to drive new research and accelerate the translation of breakthrough innovations into real‑world infectious‑disease solutions. Read the Editorial for more information.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

• Cutting‑edge molecular diagnostics and biosensor technologies for rapid pathogen detection
• CRISPR‑based platforms, multiomics profiling, and single‑cell immune signatures advancing precision diagnostics
• Portable and point‑of‑care devices enabling fast, low‑processing clinical testing
• Host‑response‑based diagnostic approaches improving disease severity prediction and prognosis
• Innovations in epidemiological and environmental surveillance, including wastewater and vector monitoring
• Digital and computational tools for real‑time tracking of pathogen transmission
• Interdisciplinary translational applications that enhance early detection, outcome forecasting, and spread control

Submit your manuscript by September 1, 2026.

Organizing Editors

Maria Soler, Topic Editor, ACS Infectious Diseases
Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), Spain

Claudio Parolo, Guest Editor
Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV); Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Spain

Ana Paula Arez, Guest Editor
Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHTM); Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (IHMT); NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal

Submission Information

We welcome submissions for this Special Issue through September 1, 2026. For more information on submission requirements, please visit the journal’s Author Guidelines page.

Accepted manuscripts for consideration in this Special Issue will include research articles, letters, reviews, and perspectives and viewpoints (by invitation only).Papers accepted for publication for this Special Issue will be available ASAP (as soon as publishable) online as soon as they are accepted. After all submissions have been published, they will then be compiled online on a dedicated landing page to form the Special Issue. Manuscripts submitted for consideration will undergo the full rigorous peer review process expected from ACS journals.

Open Access: There are diverse open-access options for publications in American Chemical Society journals. Please visit our Open Science Resource Center for more information.

How to Submit

• Log in to the ACS Publishing Center.
• Select the "Journals" tab.
• Choose ACS Infectious Diseases.
• Click "Submit."
• Select your manuscript type, and, under "Special Issue Selection," choose “Emerging Tools for Infection Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Spread Control."

If you have any general questions regarding submission to this Special Issue, please contact please contact eic@id.acs.org.