Yukiko Goda

Yukiko Goda is a Japanese molecular biologist who is a professor and group leader at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. Her research considers neural communication through synapses. She was elected a Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization in 2023.

Early life
Goda was born in Osaka, but grew up between Japan and Canada because her father worked in a trading company. She was at high school in Toronto, and secured a scholarship to attend the University of Toronto. Despite initially considering literature, Goda became interested in science during her undergraduate studies, and spent her summer holidays on research placements in chemistry and biology. She worked in Jack Greenblatt's laboratory, where she studied bacteriophage transcription. She trained in cell biology, and completed her doctoral research at Stanford University with Suzanne Pfeffer, where she studied vesicular transport from endosomes to the Golgi complex. She completed a course on developmental neurobiology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where she learned that Stevens' group were investigating synaptic plasticity in vivo. Goda moved to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies as a postdoctoral researcher with Charles F. Stevens, where she specialised in electrophysiology, and studied how neurons alter their synaptic strengths. Goda eventually set up her own laboratory at University of California, San Diego. In 2001, she moved to the Medical Research Council at University College London.

Research and career
In 2011, Goda returned to Japan, where she established her own research group at Riken. She joined the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in 2022. Her research has uncovered the processes involved in trans-synaptic interactions. Goda has dedicated her career to understanding the molecular mechanisms of synaptic function, including synaptic homeostasis and other types of plasticity.

Awards and honours

 * 2013 Tsukahara Memorial Award
 * 2014 Elected to the Science Council of Japan
 * 2023 Elected to the European Molecular Biology Organization