Up-and-Coming Scientist Best Paper in The Journal of Membrane Biology Winner

The Journal of Membrane Biology celebrates a major update/expansion to scope and the best paper submitted to the Up-and-Coming Scientist collectin in 2025
Up-and-Coming Scientist Best Paper in The Journal of Membrane Biology Winner
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About the Collection 

The Up-and-Coming Scientists Collection contains short articles, published periodically, that give young researchers a platform to present their own, exciting scientific discoveries to get a boost of visibility and engage with the readers and the Editorial Board Members of The Journal of Membrane Biology on the research they have done. All articles are accompanied by a short introductory abstract written by the Editor(s) who invited the author. The Editor-in-Chief, Editors, and Editorial Board Members solicit scientists to be highlighted and invite them to contribute, but suggestions and/or self-nominations from researchers in our readership are also encouraged. Please contact one of the Editors to discuss your suggestion.

to read papers from the collection, please see here: Up-and-Coming Scientists [Strictly By Invitation Only] | Springer Nature Link

About the Winner

Rajan Lamichhane,  works in the Department of Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Tennessee, USA, and was nominated by the editors of The Journal of Membrane Biology as the top “up-and-coming scientist paper” of the year. He had the below to say: 

"I am honored by this award and thankful to my mentors, collaborators, group members, and funding agencies for their support in advancing our research on fundamental questions in single-molecule biophysics and membrane biology, and I sincerely appreciate the Journal of Membrane Biology for featuring our research.”

Biophysical Society meeting, 2026. Pictured: Rajan Lamichhane, and Joshua Bayliss (Senior Publisher, Springer Nature) 

About the Journal 

Home | The Journal of Membrane Biology | Springer Nature Link

The Journal of Membrane Biology focuses on publishing high-quality scientific research related to membrane biology, biochemistry, and biophysics. As of 2026, we have extended the aims and scope to focus on all biological membranes, including those outside of humans. The below are our new focus areas. If you would like to submit a paper in any of these areas, or join the journal, please fill in our form: Get Involved in Springer Nature Biophysics Journals – Fill in form

1. Chemical & Biophysical Approaches to Biomembranes
  • Studies on membrane structure, composition, and organization, including lipid–protein interactions and membrane phase behaviour
  • Mechanisms of membrane asymmetry, including lipid trafficking by flippases, scramblases, and lipid transfer proteins
  • Membrane solubilization, reconstitution, and enabling technologies that advance the study of membrane proteins and complexes
  • High‑resolution biophysical methods including electrophysiology, spectroscopy, imaging, and single‑molecule approaches
  • Computational and theoretical membrane biology, including molecular dynamics simulations, coarse‑grained modelling, and machine‑learning‑based membrane analysis 
2. Membrane Biology in Non‑Human Systems
  • Membrane structure, signaling, and transport in plants, fungi, and diverse animal species
  • Plant membrane biophysics, including responses to environmental cues and stress
  • Comparative and evolutionary studies of membrane organization and function
  • Extracellular vesicles and exosomes in plant, fungal, or microbial systems 
3. Membrane Biology in Human Health and Disease
  • Mitochondrial membrane biology and membrane‑centric metabolic disorders
  • Membrane roles in cellular communication, immunity, inflammation, and pathology
  • Extracellular vesicles and exosomes in signaling, biomarkers, and diagnostics
  • Virus–membrane interactions, including mechanisms of entry, fusion, assembly, and budding
  • Drug–membrane interactions, membrane permeability, and pharmacologically relevant membrane processes
  • Membrane‑active peptides (e.g., antimicrobial peptides, cell‑penetrating peptides, pore‑forming toxins) and their roles in physiology, immunity, and therapeutics 
4. Bioenergetics & Membrane‑Associated Energy Processes
  • Mechanisms of energy transduction, including electron and proton pathways across biological membranes
  • Membrane‑coupled ATP synthesis and energy‑converting organelles (mitochondria, chloroplasts, bacterial membranes)
  • Experimental, computational, and theoretical work that elucidates the energetics of biological membrane systems
5. Foundations of Membrane Biophysics
  • Transport mechanisms (channels, pumps, carriers) and determinants of membrane permeability
  • Signal transduction across membranes and the biophysical principles underlying receptor dynamics
  • Membrane mechanics, curvature, fusion/fission, vesicular trafficking, and organelle dynamics - Extracellular vesicle biogenesis, budding, and release mechanisms
  • Lipidomics and membrane proteomics, including global analyses of membrane composition, dynamics, and remodeling

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Follow the Topic

Biological Membranes
Life Sciences > Biological Sciences > Chemical Biology > Biological Membranes
Membrane Biophysics
Physical Sciences > Physics and Astronomy > Biophysics > Membrane Biophysics
Membrane Permeation and Transport
Physical Sciences > Physics and Astronomy > Biophysics > Membrane Biophysics > Membrane Permeation and Transport
Membrane potential
Life Sciences > Biological Sciences > Physiology > Neurophysiology > Membrane potential
Membrane potential
Life Sciences > Biological Sciences > Neuroscience > Neurophysiology > Membrane potential

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Transport across Biomembranes in Metabolism and Disease

The proposal for a special issue on transport processes across biomembranes is both timely and relevant due the rapid and multi-faceted expansion in our understanding of integral membrane proteins involved in active or passive transport of metabolites required for normal physiology of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Numerous compounds including ions, sugars, amino acids, amino acid derivates, neurotransmitters and osmolytes are transported through specific gating processing involving ion or ATP coupled energy gradients. Channels on the other hand facilitate movement of ions along their concentration gradients. These multispan integral membrane proteins are influenced by their environment in the lipid bilayer where multiple phospholipids or sterols interact with the protein surface to specifically modulate their conformation and kinetics. In addition to their roles in cellular physiology, transporters and channels are targets for numerous pharmacophores that yield therapeutic outcomes. Besides the substrate specificity demonstrated by these systems, they can also be promiscuous to carry diverse substrate types depending on the charge and size of the individual substrates. Blocking transport has been a major pharmacological strategy, albeit underexplored due to limitations on fundamental insights into structures, interaction sites and models of transporters. With the advent of accurate deep learning tools like Alphafold2, RFdiffusion, high-resolution cryoEM structures, advanced light microscopy and extensive biochemical studies, these issues are being circumvented. These molecular machines have also been a focus for synthetic biology to allow specific release of metabolic end products outside the cell as part of biosynthetic applications.

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Selective permeability barrier function of the plasma membrane is essential in maintaining the compartmentalized cellular architecture. Any damage to the plasma membrane can be detrimental to the cellular homeostasis, and can eventually lead to cell death.

Pore-forming proteins/toxins (PFPs/PFTs) constitute a unique class of membrane-damaging proteins. They show the remarkable ability to form oligomeric pores in the membrane lipid bilayer. Ability of the PFPs/PFTs to punch holes in the cell membranes designates them as the Nature’s one of the most efficient cell-killing entities. PFPs/PFTs are documented in the diverse life forms starting from pathogenic microorganisms to human. Two of the most important examples of the PFPs, implicated for the execution of the immune responses in humans, include the membrane-attack complex (MAC) of the complement pathway, and perforin protein, produced by the cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Pathogenic bacteria employ PFTs for the execution of their virulence mechanisms. Notably, more than one-third of the bacterial protein toxins belong to the PFT family.

PFPs/PFTs are often appreciated as a remarkable group of dimorphic proteins. They are generally produced/secreted as soluble monomeric molecules, and upon encountering the target cell membranes, they convert into membrane-embedded oligomeric pore complexes. Metamorphosis of the PFPs/PFTs from their soluble precursor form into the oligomeric membrane-damaging pore state involves large-scale structural/conformation/assembly changes within the proteins’ molecular architecture. It is well-appreciated that the membrane lipid bilayer plays a pivotal role in orchestrating the pore-formation mechanism of the PFPs/PFTs. In most of the cases, pore-formation process can be executed by the PFPs/PFTs in the lipid bilayer, without any essential requirement of the non-lipid components of the membrane. Thus, membrane lipid bilayer appears to act almost like a catalytic platform to support the pore formation process of the PFPs/PFTs. It is well-established that specific membrane lipid components play crucial roles in regulating pore-formation mechanism of many PFPs/PFTs. Even in certain cases, specific membrane lipids serve a receptor-like role. It is now also being appreciated that the specific physicochemical features of the membrane environment (such as, the distribution of the ordered/disordered phases of the membrane microdomains) can also influence the efficacy of membrane pore formation. Despite all these insights, it still remains intriguing how the membrane environment triggers the intricate cascade of structural/assembly changes in the PFPs/PFTs.

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