Rate My Professor Keiko Kono

Keiko Kono serves as Associate Professor at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), where she leads the Membranology Unit. Her research centers on plasma membrane damage, cellular senescence, and organismal aging. She holds a B.S. from the University of Tokyo Department of Science awarded in 2000, an M.S. from the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Frontier Sciences awarded in 2002, and a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Frontier Sciences awarded in 2005.

Kono began her academic career as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Frontier Sciences in 2005. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, from 2005 to 2012. From 2012 to 2017 she worked as Lecturer of Cell Biology at the Graduate School of Medical Science and Medical Department of Nagoya City University. In 2017 she joined OIST as Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in April 2025. Among her honors are the Faculty Excellence in Mentoring Award in 2025, the Yeast Genetics Forum President’s Award in 2022, the Students’ Choice Teaching Award at OIST in 2022, and the 35th Naito Conference Poster Award in 2013. She has served on the Journal Advisory Board of The Journal of Biochemistry since 2018, on the Steering Committee of the Yeast Genetics Forum from 2020 to 2024, and on the Program Committee of the 94th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Biochemical Society in 2021. She teaches the course Molecular Biology of the Cell at OIST.