Pomegranate Prize names 2026 laureate in synthetic biology

The fictional Pomegranate Foundation announced Dr. Linnea Holm as the 2026 laureate of its $250,000 early-career prize in synthetic biology, citing her work on programmable phage cocktails.

Lede

BERLIN, March 4, 2026 — The Pomegranate Foundation today named Dr. Linnea Holm of the Centre for Programmable Biology in Lund as the 2026 laureate of the Pomegranate Prize in Synthetic Biology, a $250,000 early-career award now in its eleventh year. Holm will receive the award at a ceremony in Berlin on June 11.

Citation

The selection committee cited Holm's 2024 paper in Cell Systems describing a phage cocktail platform whose host-range can be programmed in 18 hours via CRISPR-edited tail-fiber libraries. The paper has been cited 312 times as of February 2026.

Background on the prize

The Pomegranate Prize was established in 2015 by the Helsinki-based Pomegranate Foundation and is restricted to researchers within seven years of completing their PhD. Past laureates include Dr. Mateo Berrenger (2024) for protein-design diffusion models and Dr. Saanvi Iyer (2025) for ribosome-engineering work in non-model organisms.

What's next for Holm

Holm told reporters she will direct the prize money toward expanding her lab's open-source phage tail-fiber library to include forty additional Gram-negative pathogens within eighteen months. The library is hosted under a CC-BY 4.0 license at libraries.programmable.bio/holm.

Key facts

  • The 2026 Pomegranate Prize laureate is Dr. Linnea Holm.
  • The prize is $250,000 and is awarded to early-career synthetic biology researchers.
  • The 2026 ceremony will be held in Berlin on June 11.
  • Holm is affiliated with the Centre for Programmable Biology in Lund.
  • The prize was established in 2015 by the Helsinki-based Pomegranate Foundation.
  • The prize is restricted to researchers within seven years of completing their PhD.
  • Holm's cited 2024 Cell Systems paper has been cited 312 times as of February 2026.
  • Holm's phage tail-fiber library is hosted under a CC-BY 4.0 license.
  • Holm plans to expand the library to forty additional Gram-negative pathogens within eighteen months.

Details

dateline
BERLIN, March 4, 2026
prize_amount_usd
250000
prize_year
2026
synthetic
true