in molecular biology, psychology
Two Yale faculty members -- Ronald Breaker and Marvin Chun -- have won awards from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
The two are among 15 individuals being honored by the NAS for their outstanding scientific achievements. The awards were announced Jan. 18 and will be presented April 23 at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., during the academy's 143rd annual meeting.
Breaker will receive the NAS Award in Molecular Biology, which honors a recent notable discovery in molecular biology by a young scientist. Breaker, an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Henry Ford II Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, focuses his research on RNA and DNA molecules that perform complex biochemical tasks.
In 2002, Breaker's laboratory published proof that modern cells use RNA switches to control many genes in bacteria and in more complex organisms such as plants. These "riboswitches" detect metabolites and change the expression of genes that are responsible for making or transporting many fundamental compounds, such as vitamins, the building blocks of DNA and proteins. His laboratory has begun to target riboswitches with drugs in an effort to create new types of antibiotics.
Chun, professor in the Department of Psychology and also in the interdepartmental Neuroscience Program and the Cognitive Science Program, will receive the Troland Research Award in recognition of his unusual achievement and to further his research in experimental psychology. Chun is a cognitive neuroscientist with research interests in visual attention, memory and perception.
Chun's lab employs neuroimaging and behavioral techniques to study how people perceive and remember visual information. His work in visual attention focuses on why people can consciously perceive only a small portion of all of the sensory information coming through the eyes.
Chun's memory research explores the neuronal correlates of memory encoding and retrieval. He also is interested in how attentional mechanisms and memory processes interact, and the fundamental question of how people recognize objects.
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