The 2026 FEBS Open Bio Article Prize has been awarded to Klaudia Maruszczak (IMoL Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland) for her outstanding research on the structure of human TIM23 complex, a key player in the translocation of mitochondrial proteins across the inner mitochondrial membrane.

In their study, Klaudia and colleagues used computational approaches to model the TIM23 complex in human cells and compare it to its well-studied yeast counterpart. Their work reveals new findings into the structure of the human TIM23 complex and highlights a conserved mechanism of protein import across eukaryotes.

The winning paper published in the journal’s 2024 October ‘In the Limelight’ special issue on Mitochondrial Biology, was selected by a jury of FEBS Open Bio Editorial Board Members including Aleksandra Mladenovic (Belgrade), Josep Rizo (Texas), and Alex Wlodawer (Frederick), for its scientific significance and strong methodology.

As part of the award, Klaudia has been invited to present her work at the 50^th FEBS Congress in Maastricht this year, providing her with a valuable platform to present her findings to the wider scientific community.

We invite you to read Klaudia’s paper and join us in celebrating her achievement!

^{Top image by @tatyanakorenyugina, sourced from Canva library}