Biochimica et Biophysica Acta

Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of biochemistry and biophysics that was established in 1947. The journal is published by Elsevier with a total of 100 annual issues in nine specialised sections.

Biochimica et Biophysica Acta was first published in 1947 and was the first international journal to be devoted to the joint fields of biochemistry and biophysics. Published by Elsevier in cooperation with Interscience, it was the first international journal to be launched by Elsevier. The journal first made a profit in 1951.

Early papers were published in English, French, and German, with summaries in all three languages. The majority of papers in the first volume originated in northern and western Europe, with a minority from the USA and elsewhere; contributors included William Astbury, Jean Brachet, Hubert Chantrenne, Pierre Desnuelle, Claude Fromageot, Heinz Holter, Raymond Jeener, Felix Haurowitz, Edgar Lederer, Kaj Linderstrøm-Lang, Roger Vendrely, Jean-Marie Wiame, and Ralph W.G. Wyckoff.

Important papers from these early years include "Studies on the structure of ribonucleic acids" by Boris Magasanik and Erwin Chargaff (1951), part of the evidence on which Watson and Crick's model of the structure of DNA was based, and "Enzymic synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid" by Arthur Kornberg and colleagues (1956), an early report on the isolation of DNA polymerase I.