Asako Sugimoto received her B. Sc. from the Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry in the University of Tokyo, School of Science in 1987, and her doctorate from the same institution in 1992. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Joel Rothman’s laboratory in the University of Wisconsin – Madison from 1992 to 1996, before returning to Japan to assume an assistant professorship at the University of Tokyo. She remained in that position until 2002, pursuing concurrent work as a Japan Science and Technology Corporation PRESTO researcher from 1997 to 2000. She was appointed team leader at the RIKEN CDB in 2001.