BMB associate professor Scott Bailey

Bailey at the Frontier

By Maryalice Yakutchik • Photo by Chris Hartlove

Scott Bailey's $250,000 President’s Frontier Award is buying him something even more valuable than the multi-million-dollar microscope that he depends on to study never-before-seen components of cellular structures.

The Johns Hopkins University award purchases freedom, says the associate professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

“The award is not restricted like NIH grant money,” explains Bailey, PhD, a structural biologist whose focus is bacterial immune response. “No specific idea is required. There’s no [government] contract; so we can do things more ... risky.”