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Congratulations to University of Illinois Cancer Center member Wonhwa Cho, PhD, for being named by the Biophysical Society as the recipient of its 2026 BPS Award in the Biophysics of Health and Disease.

Cho, a Professor and Head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), is being recognized for the mechanistic elucidation of lipid-protein interactions, which are foundational to lipid-targeted drug discovery, the Society announced. Cho is a member of the Cancer Center’s Translational Oncology Research Program.

Wonhwa Cho, PhD

The Biophysics of Health and Disease Award honors significant contributions to understanding the fundamental causes or pathogenesis of disease or enabling the treatment or prevention of disease.

“Wonhwa has pioneered new and innovative experimental approaches to overcome obstacles and make breakthrough discoveries that have revolutionized lipid research and laid the foundation for new translational research on lipid-targeting drug discovery,” said BPS President Lynmarie Thompson of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “His high-impact work will continue to support and resonate with the best of future cell biology.”

He will be honored at the Society’s 70th Annual Meeting, scheduled to take place in February in San Francisco, California.

Founded in 1958, the Biophysical Society is a professional, scientific society dedicated to leading an innovative global community working at the interface of the physical and life sciences, across all levels of complexity, and to fostering the dissemination of that knowledge.