BETHESDA, MD – The 10 winners of the annual Undergraduate Poster Award Competition (UPAC) were recognized at the 70th Biophysical Society Annual Meeting Poster Awards Ceremony on February 23, 2026. After two rounds of review, judges from every career level selected these students for their outstanding presentations during the poster competition. Seventy-one students participated in the competition.
The 2026 UPAC winners are:
Colin Frank, University of Florida, USA – “Molecular Mechanisms of TRPM1 Regulation by Heterotrimeric G-Protein”
Alice Walker – Williams College, USA – “Mechanistic Influence of Ph, Lipid Composition, and Small Molecule Inhibitors on Dengue Virus Membrane Fusion”
Julian Chen – Swarthmore College, USA – “Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Reveals Concentration-Dependent Assembly of a Bacterial Amyloid”
Jenson Aaron – University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA – “Sex- and Age-Dependent Mechanisms of the Mechano-Chronotropic Response in the Sinoatrial Node”
Soleil Chung – University of Arizona, USA – “Deciphering Retinal Orientation and Dynamics in Rhodopsin with Deuterium NMR and Quantum Mechanical Calculations”
Alexander Holloway – University of Texas at Austin, USA – “HaloTag-Based Approach to Quantify Subcellular Localization of TRPV3 Channels”
Kieran Fruebis – University of Washington, USA – “Single-Molecule Measurements of an Ancestral RNA-Guided Nuclease Reveal R-Loop Dynamics, Discrete Intermediates, and Mechanisms of Improved Variants”
Iren Saffarian-Deemyad – Stanford University, USA – “Single-Molecule Measurements of an Ancestral RNA-Guided Nuclease Reveal R-Loop Dynamics, Discrete Intermediates, and Mechanisms of Improved Variants”
Ronan Tia – Stony Brook University, USA – “Object Engulfment by Cellular Aggregates ('Spherophagy'): Computational Simulations with Applications to Destruction of Solid Tumors”
Rajiv Venkatesh – University of Chicago, USA – “Investigating THE Role of the HFLK/C-FTSH Protease Complex on Membrane Modulation and State Transition in E. Coli Using Molecular Dynamics Simulation”
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