The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) and its research journal, Molecular Biology of the Cell (MBoC), are proud to recognize the outstanding scientific achievements of early career researchers through the 2026 Paper of the Year Award and MBoC Early Career Awards.
Selected by the MBoC Editorial Board, these honors celebrate the creativity, rigor, and impact of graduate students and postdocs whose research advances our understanding of cell biology. This year’s award-winning research spans topics including membrane dynamics, nuclear organization, stem cell biology, and cytoskeletal regulation, highlighting the breadth and innovation of today’s cell biology community.
We are delighted to congratulate the 2026 awardees and recognize their exceptional contributions to the field.
MBoC Paper of the Year Awards
Gregory J. Schwarz and Jennifer Landino, Dartmouth College
For the article: Membrane composition-dependent patterning of Rho and F-actin in an artifical cell cortex
MBoC 2026 Early Career Awards
Trieu Le and Spencer Freeman The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids)
For the article: Lipid scrambling via TMEM16F mediates the formation and release of extracellular vesicles
Madison E. Walsh and Elçin Ünal, University of California, Berkeley
For the article: A conserved disruption of nucleocytoplasmic compartmentalization in meiosis is controlled by a kinase-phosphatase pair in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Li Zhang and Lois S. Weisman, University of Michigan
For the article: VAC14 oligomerization is essential for the function of the FAB1/PIKfyve–VAC14–FIG4 complex
Samantha L. Smith, Yuichiro Iwamoto, and David G. Drubin, University of California, Berkeley
For the article: Harnessing fusion of genome-edited human stem cells to rapidly screen for novel protein functions in vivo
Anna C. Cassidy and Marija Zanic, Vanderbilt University
For the article: The microtuble GTP-tubulin cap size is modulated during cell division
About the Author:
This post was collaboratively written by several ASCB staff members.
