ASCB honors Asai, Goley and Bagde



Three American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology members have won recognition from the American Society for Cell Biology: David J. Asai at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Erin Goley at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Saket Bagde at Cornell University. They’ll be celebrated at the ASCB’s annual meeting in December in Washington, D.C.
Asai won the Bruce Alberts Award for Excellence in Science Education. He has been the senior director for science education at HHMI since 2008. His team runs programs supporting science education at the pre-college, undergraduate and graduate levels. Before he joined HHMI, Asai taught, conducted research and held leadership positions at Harvey Mudd College in California and Purdue University in Indiana. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the ASCB.
Goley will give the LGBTQ+ keynote speech at the ASCB meeting. She is an associate professor and director of admissions for Hopkin’s graduate program in biochemistry and cellular and molecular biology. Her lab uses cell biological, biochemical, genetic and structural approaches to study bacterial growth mechanisms and antibacterial resistance.
Bagde was one of two winners of the ASCB’s Porter Prizes for Research Excellence. He is a Ph.D. candidate in the Cornell lab of Chris Fromme. The Porter Prize recognizes Bagde’s recent work on deciphering how the GTPase Rab11, a protein switch that functions in membrane trafficking, the postal service of the cell, is switched on by its activator, the TRAPPII complex. He also won the Spicer Young Investigator Award from the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource in September; the Spicer award recognizes his determination of the entire structure of the protein complex called polyketide synthase, which is involved in the biosynthesis of antibiotic natural products. Bagde earned his bachelor’s and master's degree from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, and conducted his master’s thesis research at the University of Texas at El Paso.
Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?
Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition monthly.
Learn moreGet the latest from ASBMB Today
Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.
Latest in People
People highlights or most popular articles

In memoriam: Ralph G. Yount
He was a professor emeritus of chemistry and biochemistry at Washington State University and an ASBMB member for 58 years.

From dust to discovery
From makeshift classrooms in Uganda to postdoctoral research in Chicago, MOSAIC scholar Elizabeth Kaweesa builds a legacy in women’s health.

Fliesler wins scientific and ethical awards
He is being honored by the University at Buffalo and the American Oil Chemists' Society for his scientific achievements and ethical integrity.

Hope for a cure hangs on research
Amid drastic proposed cuts to biomedical research, rare disease families like Hailey Adkisson’s fight for survival and hope. Without funding, science can’t “catch up” to help the patients who need it most.

Before we’ve lost what we can’t rebuild: Hope for prion disease
Sonia Vallabh and Eric Minikel, a husband-and-wife team racing to cure prion disease, helped develop ION717, an antisense oligonucleotide treatment now in clinical trials. Their mission is personal — and just getting started.

ASBMB members recognized as Allen investigators
Ileana Cristea, Sarah Cohen, Itay Budin and Christopher Obara are among 14 researchers selected as Allen Distinguished Investigators by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.