Molecular Therapy
Published By:
Cell Press
Listing Type:
Enhanced
*
p-ISSN:
1525-0016
e-ISSN:
1525-0024
Founding Year:
1999
Access Model:
Journal Abbreviation:
Mol Ther
Peer Review:
Submission to First Decision:
8
days
Primary Language:
English
Impact Factor (
2025
):
11.4
Best Quartile:
Q1
Publication Frequency:
Monthly
APC:
USD
4500
Author Guidelines URL
https://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/molecular-therapy/authors
Editor-in-Chief
Joseph C. Glorioso III, PhD (University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
Contents
Aims & Scope:
- To promote medicine, biotechnology, and genetics
- Publish studies related to:
- vector development and design
- gene transfer
- stem cell manipulation
- development of gene-, peptide-, protein-, oligonucleotide-, and cell-based therapeutics
- pre-clinical target validation
- vaccine development
- safety/efficacy analyses
- Articles are published under the following subsections:
- Cell therapy
- Biomarker and therapeutic target identification
- Epigenome editing
- Clinical gene and cell therapies
- Genome editing
- Molecular diagnostics and imaging
- Immunotherapy
- Non-viral gene therapy
- Small-molecule therapies
- RNA therapies
- Viral gene therapy
- Vaccine development
Article Processing Charges (APC):
- USD 4,500
Impact Factor (
2025
):
11.4
5-Year Impact Factor:
12.7
Best Quartile (
2025
):
Q1
(
JCR
)
Quartile Details:
- Q1 in Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology (JCR; Rank: 10/180; Percentile: 94.7)
- Q1 in Genetics & Heredity (JCR; Rank: 6/192; Percentile: 97.1)
- Q1 in Medicine, Research & Experimental (JCR; Rank: 18/191; Percentile: 90.6)
- Q1 in Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology (JCR; Rank: 4/177)
- Q1 in Genetics & Heredity (JCR; Rank: 3/192)
- Q1 in Medicine, Research & Experimental (JCR; Rank: 5/195)
Journal Citation Index (
2025
):
2.89
CiteScore (
2025
):
17.9
(
Scopus
)
h-index
(
2025
):
233
(
SCImago
)
SJR (
2025
):
3.814
SNIP (
2025
):
1.863
Submission to First Decision:
8
days
Submission to Acceptance:
136
days
Editor-in-Chief
Joseph C. Glorioso III, PhD (University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
Other Members:
URL
- https://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/molecular-therapy/editorial-board
Editor-in-Chief
- Joseph C. Glorioso III, PhD (University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA)
Front Matter Editor
- John Bell, PhD (University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada)
Subsections and Section Editors
- Biomarker and therapeutic target identification
- Lizi Wu, PhD (University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, USA)
- Cell therapy
- Thomas Ritter, PhD (University of Galway, Galway, Ireland)
- Clinical gene and cell therapies
- Beverly L. Davidson, MD, PhD (The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA)
- Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, PhD (The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA)
- Epigenome editing
- Renzhi Han, PhD (Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA)
- Genome editing
- Annarita Miccio, PhD (Imagine Institute of Genetic Diseases Imagine, INSERM, Paris, France)
- Immunotherapy
- Nathan Singh, MD (Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA)
- Molecular diagnostics and imaging
- Heather Gray-Edwards, DVM, PhD (UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA)
- Non-viral gene therapy
- Xun Sun, PhD (West China School of Pharmacy, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China)
- RNA therapies
- Anna K. Blakney, PhD (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada)
- Small molecule and protein therapies
- Jamie Spangler, PhD (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA)
- Vaccine development
- Joeri Aerts, PhD (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Ixelles, Belgium)
- Viral gene therapy
- Miguel Sena-Esteves, PhD (University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA)
Associate Editors
- Defne A. Amado, MD, PhD (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Mario Amendola, PhD (Genethon Institute, INSERM, Évry, France)
- Federico Ávila-Moreno, PhD (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico)
- Sangsu Bae, PhD (Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea)
- Rasmus O. Bak, PhD (Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark)
- Christian Bär, PhD (Hannover Medical School & Fraunhofer Institute of Toxicology and Experimental Medicine, Hannover, Germany)
- Shannon E. Boye, PhD (University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA)
- George A. Calin, MD, PhD (University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA)
- Xing Chen, PhD (Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China)
- Selami Demirci, PhD (The National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA)
- Dongsheng Duan, PhD (University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA)
- Christopher H. Evans, PhD (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA)
- Boris Fehse, PhD (University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany)
- Gilbert O. Fruhwirth, PhD (King’s College London, London, UK)
- Monika M. Gladka, PhD (University Medical Center in Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
- Stephen Hart, PhD (University College London, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, London, United Kingdom)
- Brian Patrick Head, PhD (MS, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA)
- Owen Ho Ko, MBChB, PhD (Hong Kong, China)
- Yuanyu Huang, PhD (Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China)
- Michael Jain, MD, PhD (Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, USA)
- Taewan Kim, PhD (Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China)
- Ulrich Koller, PhD (EB House Austria, University Hospital of the Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria)
- Kyung Lee, PhD (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA)
- Connor J. Lewis, BS (University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA)
- Bowen Li, PhD (University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada)
- Dexi Liu, PhD (University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA)
- Jinglei Liu, PhD (Guangzhou BioDiscovery Co., Ltd., Guangzhou, China)
- Qi Liu, PhD (Rice Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou, China)
- Casey Maguire, PhD (Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA)
- Giulia Massaro, PhD (University College London, London, UK)
- Moein Moghimi, PhD (Pharmaceutics and Nanomedicine, Newcastle University, Tyne, UK)
- Kevin V. Morris, PhD (Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia)
- Wei Qiu, PhD (Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, IL, USA)
- Ahad A. Rahim, PhD (University College London, London, UK)
- Denise E. Sabatino, PhD (The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA)
- Niek Sanders, PhD (Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium)
- Yuguang Shi, PhD (UT Health San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA)
- Masataka Suzuki, PhD (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA)
- Toloo Taghian, PhD (UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA)
- Phillip Tai, PhD (UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA)
- Yucai Wang, PhD (University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China)
- Jun Xie, PhD (UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA, USA)
- Jonathan S. Yen, PhD (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA)
- Seppo Ylä-Herttuala, MD, PhD (University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland)
- Weizhou Zhang, PhD (University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL, USA)
Other Board Members
- Annemieke Aartsma-Rus, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Karen S. Aboody, Duarte, CA
- Mohamed Abouelenein, Los Angeles, CA
- Daniel G. Anderson, Cambridge, MA
- Valder R. Arruda, Philadelphia, PA
- Alberto Auricchio, Naples, Italy
- Daniel Bauer, Cambridge MA
- Gerhard Bauer, Sacramento, CA
- Mark Behlke, Coralville, IA
- John Bell, Ottawa, Canada
- Ben Berkhout, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- David C. Blakey, London, UK
- Catherine Bollard, Washington DC
- Xandra O. Breakefield, Charlestown, MA
- Malcolm K. Brenner, Houston, TX
- Brian Brown, New York, NY
- Giovanni Camussi, Turin Italy
- Peter A. Campochiaro, Baltimore, MD
- Paula Cannon, Los Angeles, CA
- Jeffrey Chamberlain, Seattle, WA
- Esther Chang, Washington, DC
- Wade W. Chien, Bethesda, MD
- Antonio Chiocca, Columbus, OH
- Giuseppe Ciaramella, Cambridge MA
- Ken Cornetta, Indianapolis, IN
- Tim Cripe, Columbus, OH
- Ronald G. Crystal, New York, NY
- Ype de Jong, New York, NY
- Hongkui Deng, Beijing, China
- Gianpietro Dotti, Houston, TX
- Cynthia E. Dunbar, Bethesda, MD
- Costanza Emanueli, Bristol, UK
- John F. Engelhardt, Iowa City, IA
- Hildegund C.J. Ertl, Philadelphia, PA
- Yuman Fong, Duarte, CA
- Roger S.Y. Foo, Singapore
- Shiroh Futaki, Kyoto, Japan
- Thomas Gaj, Urbana IL
- Guangping Gao, Worcester, MA
- Nicole Gaudelli, Cambridge MA
- Charles Gersbach, Duke University
- Mauro Giacca, Trieste, Italy
- Paloma Giangrande, Cambridge MA
- Peter M. Glazer, New Haven, CT
- Joseph C. Glorioso, Pittsburgh, PA
- Dirk Grimm, Heidelberg, Germany
- Hideyoshi Harashima, Sapporo, Japan
- Sian Harding, London, UK
- Joshua M. Hare, Miami, FL
- Gunther Hartmann, Bonn, Germany
- Stephen D. Hauschka, Seattle, WA
- Roland Herzog, Indianapolis, IN
- Helen E. Heslop, Houston, TX
- Katherine High, Philadelphia, PA
- Zoltan Ivics, Berlin, Germany
- Steven M. Jay, College Park, MD
- Carl H. June, Philadelphia, PA
- Yasufumi Kaneda, Osaka, Japan
- Mark A. Kay, Stanford, CA
- Hans-Peter Kiem, Seattle, WA
- Ronald Klein, Shreveport, LA
- Stephan Kochanek, Ulm, Germany
- Don B. Kohn, Los Angeles, CA
- Ryszard Kole, Bothell, WA
- Jeffrey H. Kordower, Chicago, IL
- Arthur M. Krieg, Wellesley, MA
- Robert Langer, Cambridge, MA
- Ryanghwa Lee, College Station, TX
- Andre Lieber, Seattle, WA
- Maria P. Limberis, Philadelphia, PA
- Gerald S. Lipshutz, Los Angeles, CA
- David Liu, Cambridge, MA
- Johan M. Lorenzen, Zurich, Switzerland
- Crystal L. Mackall, Stanford, CA
- Marcela Maus, Cambridge, MA
- Fulvio Mavilio, Modena, Italy
- Scott McIvor, Minneapolis, MN
- Phillipe Menasché, Paris, France
- Jerry R. Mendell, Columbus OH
- Carol H. Miao, Seattle, WA
- John D. Mountz, Birmingham, AL
- Christine L. Mummery, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Tuna Mutis, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Philip Ng, Houston, TX
- Stuart Nicklin, Glasgow, Scotland
- Robin Parks, Ottawa, Canada
- Kah-Whye Peng, Rochester, MN
- Lihua Peng, Hangzhou, China
- Glenn Pierce, Berkeley, CA
- Matthew Porteus, Stanford, CA
- Jesus Prieto, Pamplona, Spain
- Darwin J. Prockop, Temple, TX
- Samuel D. Rabkin, Charlestown, MA
- Isabelle Rivière, New York, NY
- Cliona Rooney, Houston, TX
- Steven A. Rosenberg, Bethesda, MD
- John Rossi, Duarte, CA
- David Russell, Seattle, WA
- Stephen J. Russell, Rochester, MN
- Michel Sadelain, New York, NY
- Richard J. Samulski, Chapel Hill, NC
- Mark S. Sands, St. Louis MO
- Barbara Savoldo, Chapel Hill, NC
- David Schaffer, Berkeley, CA
- Andrew Scharenberg, Seattle, WA
- Dmitry Shayakhmetov, Atlanta, GA
- Lonnie D. Shea, Evanston, IL
- Elizabeth Shpall, Houston, TX
- Evan Snyder, La Jolla, CA
- Arun Srivastava, Gainesville, FL
- Bruce Sullenger, Durham, NC
- Francis Szoka, Jr, San Francisco, CA
- Kenzaburo Tani, Fukuoka, Japan
- Adrian J. Thrasher, London, UK
- Thomas Thum, Hannover, Germany
- Jacques Tremblay, Quebec, Canada
- Fyodor Urnov, Berkeley CA
- Thierry Van den Driessche, Leuven, Belgium
- Luk H. Vandenberghe, Boston, MA
- Richard Vile, Rochester, MN
- Daniel Weiss, Burlington, VT
- Drew Weissman, Philadelphia, PA
- David A. Williams, Boston, MA
- James Wilson, Philadelphia, PA
- John H. Wolfe, Philadelphia, PA
- Joseph Wu, Stanford, CA
- Weidong Xiao, Indianapolis, IN
- Xiao Xiao, Chapel Hill, NC
- Feng Zheng, Cambridge MA
- Original Research
- Basic, translational, or clinical research
- Full-length article
- Section headings and order: abstract > introduction > results > discussion > materials & methods > data availability statement > acknowledgments > author contributions > declaration of interests statement > 5–10 keywords > references > tables > figure legends
- Unstructured abstract: 200 words
- Maximum of 8 figures + tables; additional items as supplementary material
- Reference limit: 150
- Graphical abstract/eTOC required
- Unsolicited submissions acceptable
- Review Article
- At least one author must an expert in the topic of the review article
- A maximum of 5 authors
- Section headings and order: introduction > text > acknowledgments > author contributions > declaration of interest statement > 5–10 keywords > references > tables > figure legends
- Unstructured abstract: 200 words
- Maximum of 8 figures + tables; additional items as supplementary material
- Reference limit: 150
- Graphical abstract/eTOC required
- Unsolicited submissions acceptable
- Clinical Perspective
- Must focus on a single disease or a single family of diseases
- Describe diagnostic approaches, best practices for treatment, novel descriptions of disease etiology, current challenges, or unique clinical presentations
- Section headings and order: abstract > introduction > main text > conclusions > acknowledgments > author contributions > declaration of interest statement > 5–10 keywords > references > tables > figure legends
- Unstructured abstract: 200 words
- Maximum of 8 figures + tables; additional items as supplementary material
- Reference limit: 150
- Graphical abstract/eTOC required
- Unsolicited submissions acceptable
- Brief Report
- Research with early results that are insufficient for a full-length research article, but markedly impacts the target area of interest
- Section headings and order: abstract > introduction > results > discussion > materials & methods > data availability statement > acknowledgments > author contributions > declaration of interest statement > 5–10 keywords > references > tables > figure legends
- Word limit: 4000 words (excluding references and disclosures)
- Unstructured abstract: 200 words
- Maximum of 3 figures + tables; additional items as supplementary material
- Reference limit: 30
- Graphical abstract/eTOC required
- Unsolicited submissions acceptable
- Case Report
- Describe the treatment of one or more patients with novel cell and gene therapies
- Should follow CARE guidelines
- Section headings and order: abstract, introduction (how is the case unique, purpose for reporting the case, etc.) > patient details and clinical findings (presentation, diagnosis, interventions, and outcome) > discussion > acknowledgments > author contributions > declaration of interest statement > 5–10 keywords > references > tables > figure legends
- Word limit: 1500 words (excluding references and disclosures)
- Unstructured abstract: 200 words
- Maximum of 3 figures + tables; additional items as supplementary material
- Reference limit: 30
- Graphical abstract/eTOC required
- Unsolicited submissions acceptable
- Commentary
- Short analysis of any published study
- Requires a declaration of interest statement before the references
- Word limit: 1200 words (excluding references and disclosures)
- Maximum of 2 figures + tables; additional items as supplementary material
- Reference limit: 10
- Invitation only
- Editorial
- Short and succinct opinions and/or statements in response to the studies published in this journal
- Comment on events that have impacted any area of interest
- Word limit: 500 words (excluding references and disclosures)
- No figures or tables
- Reference limit: 10
- Invitation only
- Opinion
- A discussion on important topics and/or controversies regarding a cell or gene therapy
- Must be written from a personal point of view
- Must be approved by the editor-in-chief before submission
- Requires a declaration of interest statement before the references
- Word limit: 1200 words (excluding references and disclosures)
- Maximum of 2 figures + tables
- Reference limit: 10
- Invitation only
- Beyond Molecular Therapy
- Features impactful articles from other journals
- Authors are invited to submit a summary of their recently published article
- Unsolicited submissions acceptable
- Requires a declaration of interest statement before the references
- Word limit: 1000 words (excluding references and disclosures)
- Maximum of 2 unique figures + tables (not repurposed from the original article)
- Reference limit: 10
- News from Biotech
- Covers latest industry-level progress related to cell, molecular, or gene therapies
- Unsolicited submissions acceptable
- Requires a declaration of interest statement before the references
- Word limit: 1200 words (excluding references and disclosures)
- Maximum of 2 unique figures + tables (not repurposed from the original article)
- Reference limit: 10
- Letter to the Editor
- Short and succinct opinions and/or statements in response to the studies published in this journal
- Focused on the target article; no ad hominem arguments
- Unpublished data in support of the author’s position not recommended
- Word limit: 1200 words (excluding references and disclosures)
- No figures or tables
- Reference limit: 10
- Invitation only
- Meeting Report
- Discussion of the key themes of a recent conference relevant to the Molecular Therapy Family of Journals
- Highlights of important talks or sessions in that conference, essentially summarizing novel exciting findings in the target field of interest
- Unsolicited submissions acceptable
- Requires a declaration of interest statement before the references
- Word limit: 2000 words (excluding references and disclosures)
- Maximum of 2 figures + tables
- Reference limit: 15
URL
- https://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/molecular-therapy/authors
Miscellaneous
- Review Process: Single blind
- Language: Any English used consistently
- Acceptable manuscript formats: MS Word (.doc/.docx)
- Cover letter must be written on institutional letterhead
- Double-spaced text
- Pages must be numbered
- Line numbering (continuous from beginning to end)
- Headings on separate lines and not numbered
- Different levels of headings must be clarified via upper/lower case letters and bold/italic type font
- Ensure the equations, if any, are editable
- SI units throughout the article
- Define all acronyms and abbreviations at first mention
Title Page
- Page 1 of the manuscript
- Title: Concise and informative. Maximum of three lines long, with 47 characters (including spaces) per line
- Author names and affiliations; use superscript numbers after the authors’ names and before the affiliations to indicate the connection
- Corresponding author details; they should provide an institutional email address
- Format: “Correspondence should be addressed to <author’s name> (<author’s institutional email address>)”
- Should include address, telephone, and fax number of the corresponding author below this statement
- Short title: 50 characters long (including spaces)
Abstract
- Page 2 of the manuscript
- Unstructured
- Word-limit: 200 words
- Abbreviations, acknowledgements, and references not allowed
Main Text
- Introduction Section: No longer than two double-spaced typed pages
- Results and Discussion sections must not be combined
- Materials and Methods section should be included after the Discussion section
Highlights
- Highlights required during article submission
- To be submitted in a separate file named “Highlights”
- Comprise 3–5 bullet points, each at most 85 characters long (including spaces)
Graphical Abstract
- Single-panel, square image
- Separate file
- Accepted formats: PDF, JPEG, and TIFF
- Format: https://www.cell.com/pb/assets/raw/shared/figureguidelines/GA_guide-1537202744020.pdf
eTOC Synopsis
- Short summary of the key message of the article
- Word limit: 50 words
- Written in third person; refer to “Corresponding Author(s) and colleagues”
Figures
- Submit each figure as a separate file, named as Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.
- Number and cite the figures sequentially
- Legends listed at the end of the manuscript file; define all abbreviations used in a figure and its legend at the end of the corresponding legend
- Each figure should fit on a single page (6.5 × 8 in or 16.5 × 20 cm)
- Accepted formats: TIFF, PDF, JPEG, EPS, PNG, PSD, and CDX
Tables
- Editable text and not images
- Number and cite sequentially
- Placed in the main manuscript file in a separate section at the end
- Avoid vertical rules or shaded cells
- To be created in MS Word using the Table tool
- Table captions placed above the tables
- All abbreviations defined in table footnote
Citations
- Superscript numbers
References
- List all authors in a reference
- Format examples: https://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/molecular-therapy/authors
Supplementary Files
- Published as is
- Cite all material in the manuscript
- One comprehensive PDF for all supplementary materials
- No title page
- Pages to be numbered
- The materials should be labeled with “Supplemental” and not “Supplementary”
Declaration of Interests
- Professional or non-professional relationships with organizations or people that might impact the study
- Potential examples include Employment, Stock ownership, Consultancies, Paid expert testimony, Honoraria, Grants or any other funding, Patent applications, Affiliation with the journal, etc.
- Add this declaration both the cover letter and the main manuscript
Declaration of Generative AI Use
- AI tools can be used as a support while preparing manuscripts
- AI tools must not replace human expertise and critical thinking
- Declare the use of AI tools as follows:
- Section title: “Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the manuscript preparation process.”
- Section content: “During the preparation of this work the author(s) used [NAME OF TOOL / SERVICE] in order to [REASON]. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take(s) full responsibility for the content of the publication.”
- Do not add this declaration if AI tools not used
Data Availability Statement
- Provide the access to the repository where the relevant dataset has been submitted
Acknowledgments
- List individuals who helped with the research
- The corresponding author should get permission from the individuals to be listed in this section
- Disclose all funding sources that might be considered potential conflicts of interet
- Separate section before the references
Author Contributions
- Include contributions in the final article
- Listed using CRediT roles, including Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, and Writing – review and editing
- Use initials to refer to the relevant author
Ethical approval and informed consent
- Ethical approval and declaration required for human studies
- Human studies should follow International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines, World Health Organization, and Declaration of Helsinki guidelines
- Clinical trials should follow the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) clinical trials registration guidelines and Declaration of Helsinki
- Randomized controlled trials should follow the CONSORT guidelines.
- Written informed consent to participate and for publication required from the participants
Animal Studies
- Should follow ARRIVE guidelines
- A statement of declaration to be included in the manuscripts
Listing Type:
Enhanced
This journal’s profile is presented under the Enhanced listing level. Listing levels determine the information and resources included in a profile. They are not ratings, rankings, certifications, endorsements, or assessments of journal quality or credibility.