This award recognizes three early-career authors, highlighting their exceptional research published in the journal and the profound impact it has had on the field of molecular pharmaceutics. Learn about the 2026 winners and their research.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2026 Molecular Pharmaceutics Early Career Best Paper Award. The winners were selected based on the quality and potential impact of their research recently published in Molecular Pharmaceutics. Our winners are early career scientists (<10 years post Ph.D.) from one of three major geographical regions (the Americas, Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA), and Asia Pacific).
We received a significant number of nominations. The selection committee was impressed by the exceptionally high quality of the candidates. We thank everyone who submitted nominations for the 2026 Molecular Pharmaceutics Early Career Best Paper Award.
We are excited to announce the 2026 winners from each region:
- Michaela Cohrs (EMEA)
- Nicholas Fletcher (Asia Pacific)
- Mingyue Li (Americas)
As part of the award, the winners will present their research as part of ACS Publications' Winners Week 2026 webinar series in June 2026 (details to come).
Read on to learn more about each recipient and read their winning papers.
Michaela Cohrs, Belgium
Winning Article: Intrinsic Differential Scanning Fluorimetry for Protein Stability Assessment in Microwell Plates
Michaela Cohrs is a Ph.D. student exploring the stability and aggregation of monoclonal antibodies from development to in-hospital handling under the supervision of Prof. Hristo Svilenov (TUM) and Prof. Stefaan De Smedt (UGent). She completed her pharmacy studies at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, supported by the Deutschland Stipendium, and conducted her diploma thesis at the University of Vienna. She also gained industry experience at Bayer AG, focusing on parenteral formulation development of biologics, including subvisible particle analysis, and freeze-drying processes.
Her research, combining expertise in antibody developability, stability, and advanced analytical techniques, is funded by an FWO PhD Fellowship. Beyond her research, Michaela contributes to the scientific exchange within the working community “Biopharmaceutical Product Attributes and Biological Consequences” under AAPS as a Secretary.
Nicholas Fletcher, Australia
Winning Article: Development of a Novel Engineered Antibody Format for PSMA-Targeted Radionuclide Therapy
Dr. Nicholas Fletcher is a research-focused academic driving studies in the radiobiology and radiopharmaceutical development space. He is based within the Centre for Advanced Imaging (CAI) at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) where he is the Radiobiology Theme Leader.
Mingyue Li, United States
Winning Article: Molecular Insight into Lipid Nanoparticle Assembly from NMR Spectroscopy and Molecular Dynamics Simulation
Mingyue Li, Ph.D., is a Principal Scientist in Analytical R&D of Biotherapeutics & Pharmaceutical Sciences at Pfizer, Inc., based in Andover, Massachusetts. Mingyue leads the Technology & Innovation team in ARD, orchestrating innovation in analytical technologies to support preclinical to clinical development of biotherapeutics. Mingyue serves as a subject matter expert on various analytical and biophysical techniques for structure elucidation, attribute understanding, and comparability assessment. She leads the development of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based techniques for application to multiple areas of biologics development including understanding structure-function relationship, formulation and bioprocess development.
Learn About Last Year's Winners
