Four faculty members at the University of Washington have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. The new members from the UW are:
- Elizabeth Buffalo, professor and chair of physiology and biophysics
- Joseph Mougous, professor of microbiology
- Jay Shendure, professor of genome sciences
- James Truman, professor emeritus of biology
They are among 120 new members and 30 international members to the National Academy of Sciences this year. Election “recognizes achievement in science by election to membership, and — with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine — provides science, engineering, and health policy advice to the federal government and other organizations,” according to an announcement May 3 by the academy.
Buffalo is noted for her research on the neural mechanisms behind learning and remembering. She studies how a system of structures in the brain, including the hippocampus and its surrounding cortical regions, set up new memories and how this system functions during memory retrieval. These structures are the first to be affected in Alzheimer’s disease. Lesions within these structures are associated with profound memory deficits. Her work may help improve the understanding of what foreshadows the onset Alzheimer’s and other dementias. She has a particular interest in how the brain maps surroundings, because getting lost in familiar locations is a common early symptom of Alzheimer’s. Buffalo earned her doctoral degree at the University of California, San Diego and did postdoctoral training in neuropsychology at the National Institute of Mental Health. She received the 2011 Troland Research Award for her innovative studies from the National Academy of Sciences.
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