Post by Tomas Ferreira

I was very surprised this morning to read that our paper “Mitochondrial DNA: Inherent Complexities Relevant to Genetic Analyses” has won the Genes Best Paper Award 2026, selected by the journal’s committee on the basis of originality, significance, and citation impact. The paper reviewed some of the unique biological and analytical challenges posed by mitochondrial DNA, including heteroplasmy, maternal inheritance, the mitochondrial bottleneck, and nuclear-mitochondrial interactions, and their implications for genetic research. I wrote this in my second year of medical school. Since publication in May 2024, it has become my most cited paper (60+ citations) and arguably the piece that helped me secure a place in Horvath’s neurological mitochondrial disease lab at the University of Cambridge with a full scholarship. The award also comes with a £500 prize and publication fee waiver for a future paper. Not bad for a medical school project…! https://lnkd.in/e-4t5q7r