Each year ASGT gives out several awards to members of the Society. These awards include the Outstanding Achievement Award, the Outstanding New Investigator Awards, and the Excellence in Research Awards.

Outstanding Achievement Award

This award began in 2008 and recognizes an ASGT Active Member who has achieved a pioneering research success, a specific high impact accomplishment, or a lifetime of significant scientific contributions to the field of gene therapy. Only ASGT Active Members can submit nominations for this award. The ASGT Advisory Council reviews all nominations submitted by members, and then makes a recommendation to the ASGT Board of Directors.

In 2008, the first Outstanding Achievement Award was given to R. Jude Samulski, PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Samulski accepted the award during the 2008 Presidential Symposium at the 11th Annual Meeting in Boston, and gave the presentation AAVolution of a Smart Virus.

Nominations for the 2009 Outstanding Achievement Award are due October 15, 2008. Information regarding the criteria and nomination process can be viewed here.

Outstanding New Investigator Awards

The ASGT Board of Directors and he ASGT Advisory Council initiated the Outstanding New Investigator Awards in the fall of 2002. Each year the Advisory Council puts out a call for nominees for this award. Only Active ASGT Members can nominate someone for the award. Nominees must be Active Members of the Society and 7 or fewer years out from their first full-time assistant professorship or equivalent position. Candidates also must be independent investigators conducting original research in basic science, technology development and/or clinical translation in the field of gene therapy. The Advisory Council reviews all nominations and recommends 2 to 4 qualified candidates to the ASGT Board of Directors. The award winners receive a $1,000 cash award and present their work during the Outstanding New Investigators Symposium at the ASGT Annual Meeting.

The 2008 award winners were:

• Karen S. Aboody, MD, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte CA
  Stem Cell-Mediated Cancer Therapy: A Tumor-Selective Gene Delivery Approach
  
  
• Maciej S. Lesniak, MD, FACS, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
  Adenoviral Virotherapy for Malignant Brain Tumors
  
  
• Dmitry M. Shayakhmetov, PhD, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
  Adenovirus-Host Interplay and the Development of Efficient Vectors for Gene Therapy

Nominations for 2009 will be due in March 2009.

Excellence in Research Awards - For Students and Postdoctoral Fellows

Each year the Society gives out Excellence in Research Awards to Associate Members of the Society who have received the highest abstracts scores from the Abstract Review process. The number of awards given each year is based on the funds available from Corporate Supporters. Award winners receive a $500 cash award and a travel award for the ASGT Annual Meeting. A travel award of $500 is given to domestic winners and a $600 travel award is given to international winners.

The Excellence in Research Award Winners for 2008 were:

• Rob Burke - Student, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
  Extracellular Barriers to In Vivo Polyplex-Mediated Gene Delivery to the Liver
  
  
• Hunter Chen - Student, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
  Simultaneous Non-Invasive Analysis of Nanocomplex and DNA Stability by Two-Step QD-FRET
  
  
• Arkasubhra Ghosh - Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
  Systemic AAV-9 Delivery in Normal Dog Leads to High-Level Persistent Transduction in Whole Body Skeletal Muscle
  
  
• Steven Howe - Postdoctoral Fellow, University College London, London, UK
  Molecular Analysis of a Severe Adverse Event in the UK SCID-X1 Gene Therapy Clinical Trial
  
  
• Kenya Kamimura - Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
  Image-Guided Hydrodynamic Gene Delivery to Pig Liver
  
  
• Simon Waddington - Postdoctoral Fellow, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, UK
  A Fundamental Role for the Adenovirus Serotype 5 Hexon in Liver Gene Transfer
  
  
• Zhongya Wang - Student, Oregon Stem Cell Center, Portland, OR
  Multi-Organ Site-Specific Integration in Ribosomal DNA after Systemic Administration of rDNA-AAV Vectors