AAAS fellows

Four medical school faculty honored for distinguished efforts to advance science

 
 
DNA illustration

Four School of Medicine faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society.

The newest fellows are Alison Goate, PhD, Jeanne M. Nerbonne, PhD, D.C. Rao, PhD, and Barry Sleckman, MD, PhD. Members are given the rank of fellow, the highest honor awarded by AAAS, by their peers in recognition of scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

Goate, the Samuel and Mae S. Ludwig Professor of Genetics in Psychiatry and director of the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders at the School of Medicine, was praised by colleagues for her work in the genetics of neuropsychiatric disease, particularly Alzheimer’s disease. She also studies genetic risk for substance dependence.

Nerbonne, the Alumni Endowed Professor of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology, was lauded by colleagues for her contributions to research and training in the molecular and cell biology of ion channels that control excitability in the cardiovascular and nervous systems. Nerbonne also leads the Translational Cardiovascular Biobank and Repository (TCBR), funded in part by the Children’s Discovery Institute and Washington University’s Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS), a resource for investigators interested in studying heart and vascular conditions in adults and children.

Rao, director of the Division of Biostatistics, was honored by colleagues for his contributions in the area of genetic epidemiology and human genetics, and for his work in training the next generation of statisticians and epidemiologists.

Sleckman, the Conan Professor of Pathology and Immunology, was lauded by peers for his work in the field of immunology and biochemistry, particularly for his
pioneering research into how cells repair breaks in their DNA and how problems in these repair processes can contribute to cancer.

These School of Medicine faculty members were among 702 new fellows acknowledged in the Nov. 30 issue of Science magazine.

« previous story
back to top
next story »