Center for Clinical and Translational Science

Two Rockefeller scientists have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Leslie B. Vosshall, Robin Chemers Neustein Professor and head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior, has been named a member, and Jean-Laurent Casanova, senior attending physician, professor, and head of the St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases, has been named a foreign associate. They are among 84 new national and 21 new foreign members.

Established by an act of Congress, the Academy provides independent, objective advice to the federal government and other organizations on matters related to health, science, and technology. New members are elected by their peers based upon their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

Dr. Vosshall works with flies, mosquitos, and humans to study how complex behaviors are controlled by cues from the environment and modulated by an organism’s internal physiological state. Dr. Casanova seeks to identify single-gene mutations responsible for “holes” in the immune defenses of otherwise healthy children, rendering them highly susceptible to specific infectious diseases. In addition to their appointments at Rockefeller, both Drs. Vosshall and Casanova are investigators with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.