EUFEPS PhD competition 2026

For the fourth time, EUFEPS organized a competition between PhD candidates from different member societies. In total, 10 candidates competed in a special session by giving an overview of their work in 5 min. The jury members, Prof. Dr. Martin Brandl (University of Southern Denmark, Denmark), Prof. Dr. Doina Draganescu (University Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Romania), Dr. Christoph Saal (Boehringer Ingelheim, Germany) and Dr. Lu Turković (University of Zagreb, Croatia, EUFEPS Young Section Committee) asked a question to each candidate. Monika Prašnikar (Slovenia), Nico Boback (Germany) and Marloes Pennings (The Netherlands) have been selected by the jury as the best three candidates.

As the first winner, Monika Prašnikar presented her PhD thesis with the title "Overcoming high viscosity in concentrated monoclonal antibody formulations using novel excipients". The second prize was awarded to Nico Boback for his work on "Quantifying protein assembly and inhibition –label-free drug discovery by mass photometry". And Marloes Pennings received the third prize for her work on "Molecular glues of the regulatory ChREBP/14-3-3 complex protect beta cells from glucolipotoxicity".

The prizes are linked to a monetary donation of 1.000€, 750€ and 500€.

We sincerely congratulate all award winners and thank them for their outstanding pharmaceutical work!

Prof. Giuseppe De Rosa, EUFEPS President