Guest Edited by Andrew Ewing, Ed Boyden and Nhu Phan

Like all biological systems, the brain is made of nanoscale biological building blocks, biomolecules, which are organized into cells, and circuits. But because of the complexity of the brain, the tension between understanding individual nanoscale components and complex, emergent, 3-D systems, is particularly acute. We are at the cusp of technology that can deconstruct the brain's complexity in terms of such components.

We are organizing a unique collection of articles dedicated to Nanoscale Analysis of Brain Chemistry and Structure. This special collection will pull together technology-oriented papers related to the nanoscale analysis or imaging of the chemistry and function of the cellular and subcellular building blocks of the brain. We welcome both primary research articles in this space, as well as perspective pieces. We welcome futuristic and even controversial perspectives on inventions and their applications. Thus, it is important to note that in writing an article for this issue you will be given flexibility to speculate about your topic. The scope of QRB Discovery is a bit unique: QRB Discovery publishes new developments in the field of experimental and computational biophysics. Articles report on significant physical observations of relevance to biological systems, both experimental and theoretical, that may point towards an exciting direction, rather than the presentation of a traditional comprehensive study.” The papers will be peer-reviewed, but reviewers will be instructed as to the nature of QRB Discovery papers.

We cordially invite you to submit a paper to this collection. 

Submission deadline: 31st March 2026