AAPS Open Names Continuous Nanomaterials Manufacturing Paper Its First High Impact Article Award Winner

The editorial team of AAPS Open has announced the recipient of the journal’s first High Impact Article Award, sponsored by the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS). The winning manuscript, published in the open-access journal, was selected from articles published during a fixed two-year eligibility period and will be formally presented at the AAPS PharmSci 360 annual meeting in New Orleans, LA, held October 25–28, 2026.

According to the editorial announcement, the award decision rests on a balanced assessment of citations, downloads and views, and the editorial team’s own judgement about the impact and value of each candidate article. The evaluation covered all articles published in AAPS Open during the eligibility window, and the editors note that selecting a single recipient required them to assess a substantial number of manuscripts.

The 2026 award goes to “Learning from the future: towards continuous manufacturing of nanomaterials,” authored by Michael A. VandenBerg, Xiangyi Dong, William C. Smith, Geng Tian, Olen Stephens, Thomas F. O’Connor, and Xiaoming Xu. The editors describe the paper as an article that organizes the literature around a single guiding question: what would it take to manufacture nanomaterial-based drug products continuously?

In the award-winning article, the authors draw on the successes and learnings accumulated from the continuous manufacturing of solid oral dosage forms and make the case for extending that approach to liquid-based nanomaterials. The piece reviews available mixing and emulsification technologies and identifies opportunities for digital tools to enable increased reproducibility and consistency in product quality, positioning the work as a forward-looking synthesis rather than a report of new experimental results.

Alongside the winning manuscript, the editorial team named seven additional articles from the assessment period as honorable mentions, listed in order of publication. The earliest of these is “Effect of chemical penetration enhancers on the transdermal delivery of olanzapine in human skin in vitro” by Amitkumar Virani, Nirali Dholaria, Hana Mohd, Nubul Albayati, and Bozena Michniak-Kohn, published in 2024.

The honorable mentions continue with “A digital platform for automated analysis of 1H NMR data: prototype framework of digital reference standard” by Sunil Babu Paudel, Joo-Won Nam, Gonzalo R. Malca Garcia, Ben Shapiro, Pekka Laatikainen, and Yang Liu, and “Injection site reactions of biologics and mitigation strategies” by Li Zhi, Dingjiang Liu, and Mohammed Shameem, both published in 2025.

Three further 2025 articles received honorable mention recognition: “The future of regulatory filings: digitalization” by Kabir Ahluwalia, Michael J. Abernathy, Marquerita Algorri, Nina S. Cauchon, Natalie M. Perico-Norred, and Rita Y. Albert Youssef; “Optimization and transfer of robust primary drying protocols for biopharmaceuticals through lyophilization process modeling” by Brecht Vanbillemont, Andrea Arsiccio, Tim Menzen, and Andrea Hawe; and “Impact of cell line and reporter gene selection on in-vitro transfection evaluation of mRNA lipid nanoparticles” by Zixuan Zhen, Xinhao Lin, Mittal Darji, Nirnoy Dan, Sheyda Ranjbar, and Xiuling Lu.

The final honorable mention is “Recent trends in pharmaceutical freeze-drying and control strategies observed in human drug applications and manufacturing inspections” by Steve Y. Rhieu, Maxwell Korang-Yeboah, David D. Anderson, John Arigo, Thomas O’Connor, and Rakhi Shah, also published in 2025. The breadth of topics across the recognized articles spans transdermal delivery, analytical digitization, biologic injection-site reactions, regulatory digitalization, lyophilization modeling, mRNA lipid nanoparticle transfection assays, and freeze-drying trends in regulatory inspections.

In closing the announcement, the editorial team states that an award of this kind reflects the impact evident to readers and to the editors themselves. The editors extend thanks to the authors who have entrusted AAPS Open with their research, and to the journal’s peer reviewers and editorial advisory board for their expertise and stewardship of the journal.

The announcement itself is published as an editorial in AAPS Open, volume 12, article number 66, released on 17 September 2026, and is available under open access.

Subject of Research: The first AAPS Open High Impact Article Award recognizing a review on continuous manufacturing of nanomaterial-based drug products

Article Title: Announcing the 2026 AAPS Open high impact article award

Article References: Moseson-Tarrh, D. E., Lu, X., Maniruzzaman, M., Qiu, Y., Su, Y., & Yen, C.-W. (2026). Announcing the 2026 AAPS Open high impact article award. AAPS Open, 12(1), Article 66. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41120-026-00201-2

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s41120-026-00201-2

Keywords: AAPS Open, High Impact Article Award, continuous manufacturing, nanomaterials, pharmaceutical sciences, drug products, mixing and emulsification, digital tools, lyophilization, mRNA lipid nanoparticles, regulatory filings, freeze-drying