Nancy Bonini Elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Nancy Bonini, Lucille B. Williams Professor of Biology, was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, an honor considered to be one of the highest a United States scientist or engineer can receive. Members were chosen for their achievements in original research. The 2012 Academy class consists of 84 members and 21 foreign associates.

Bonini’s research examines the mechanisms of human neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, ALS and Alzheimer’s diseases. Using the genetics of fruit flies, she creates models for human degeneration to provide insight into disease mechanisms. These studies aim to improve understanding of neural decline as a result of aging that will lead to new approaches for treatments.

In 2009, Bonini was the recipient of an Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar Award in Aging Research and the winner of an Exceptional, Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration Grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health. She was also awarded a five-year David and Lucile Packard Fellowship grant in the amount of $500,000 in 1998 and was selected as an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2000.