Each year ASGCT 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 ASGCT Active Member who has achieved a pioneering research success, a specific high impact accomplishment, or a lifetime of significant scientific contributions to the fields of gene and/or cell therapy. Only ASGCT Active Members can submit nominations for this award. The ASGCT Advisory Council reviews all nominations submitted by members, and then makes a recommendation to the ASGCT Board of Directors.

The 2010 Call for Nominations is closed. ASGCT is pleased to recognize Dr. Katherine A. High as the 2010 Outstanding Achievement Award recipient. Dr. High will present a lecture on her work during the 13th Annual Meeting in May, 2010.

Previous recipients of this award are:

Outstanding New Investigator Awards

The ASGCT Board of Directors and the ASGCT 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 ASGCT 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 and/or cell therapy. The Advisory Council reviews all nominations and recommends 2 to 4 qualified candidates to the ASGCT Board of Directors. The award winners receive a $1,000 cash award and present their work during the Outstanding New Investigators Symposium at the ASGCT Annual Meeting.

The 2009 award winners were:

• Renier Brentjens, MD, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
  Treatment of B-cell Malignancies with CD19 Targeted T-cells
  
  
• Barbara Savoldo, MD, PhD, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
  Improving T Cell Based Therapies
  
  
• Tatiana Segura, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
  Gene Delivery in Three Dimensions

Nominations for the 2010 awards are due on March 9, 2010. Click here for full nomination criteria. To submit a nomination, click here.

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 ASGCT 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 2009 were:

• Mario Amendola
  San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (HSR - TIGET)
  Regulated and Multiple miRNA and siRNA Delivery into Primary Cells by a Lentiviral Platform
  
  
• Cynthia Bartholomae
  German Cancer Research Center and National Center for Tumor Diseases
  Distribution of Lentivirus Vectors in Human Hematopoiesis
  
  
• Erin Burnight
  University of Iowa
  Gene Transfer to Murine Liver Using a piggyBAC Transposon System
  
  
• Bernhard Gentner
  San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (HSR - TIGET)
  Characterization of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Specific microRNA: From Physiologic Function to Gene Therapy Applications
  
  
• Janaiah Kota
  The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital
  AAV8-Mediated Delivery of miR-26a Inhibits Cancer Cell Proliferation and Induces Tumor-Specific Apoptosis in a Liver Cancer Model
  
  
• Inge Petrus
  Vesalius Research Center, VIB - KUL
  De Novo Identification of Combinations of Hepatocyte-Specific Transcription Factor Binding Sites Using a Novel Bioinformatics Algorithm Yield Robust Liver-Specific Expression
  
  
• Zhili Xu
  Food and Drug Administration, Division of Cellular and Gene Therapies
  Intravenous Administration of Adenovirus Vectors in Rodents Causes Rapid Shock: An Important Role for the Lipid Mediator PAF in the Early Response to Adenovirus
  
  
• Jiehua Zhou
  Beckman Research Institute, Division of Molecular Biology
  Cell-Type Specific Aptamer-siRNA Delivery System for HIV-1 Therapy