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Bonni elected to Canada’s premier academic society

Recognized for his studies on how the brain’s neurons connect

September 7, 2017

Azad Bonni, MD, PhD, the Edison Professor and head of the Department of Neuroscience at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been elected to the life sciences division of the Academy of Science of the Royal Society of Canada.

The election honors his work on how neural circuits in the developing brain are assembled and function, and how these mechanisms go awry in neurological disorders. He has made seminal contributions to our understanding of how molecular pathways inside cells influence how neurons make connections as the brain develops.

Among the disorders he studies are intellectual disability and autism, which may be caused by problems in the linkages between neurons in the brain. Studies of the molecular pathways that control how neurons make connections during brain development are yielding important insights into these brain disorders.

The Royal Society of Canada comprises distinguished men and women from all branches of learning who have made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, as well as in Canadian public life. Bonni was educated in Canada and the United States and is a citizen of both countries.