Sean R. Eddy, Ph.D., assistant professor of genetics at the School of Medicine, and Randy L. Buckner, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences and assistant professor of radiology and of neurobiology at the medical school, have been selected as new Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigators.
The institute is a medical research organization that enters into long-term research collaboration agreements with universities and other academic research organizations. A total of 430 scientists were nominated in its national competition; 48 were selected from 31 institutions.
The University now has 11 HHMI investigators.
"These new investigators are an incredibly talented group who have begun to make their mark on biomedical research," said HHMI president Thomas R. Cech. "We were looking for researchers who explore big questions and take risks -- people with that special quality that leads to scientific breakthroughs and medical advances."
Eddy is a computational biologist. He devises methods to identify genes in the DNA sequences emerging from the Human Genome Project. He is especially interested in genes that code for noncoding RNAs. The latter include the small nucleolar RNAs that chemically modify and process the ribosomal RNA that makes up a cell's protein-synthesizing machinery. Eddy's group uses probabilistic models called Hidden Markov models and stochastic context-free grammars to analyze genomic sequences in the computer.
Buckner's research interests include the use of neuroimaging to study memory and other brain functions. In collaboration with the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, his current research also includes exploring how brain imaging methods can be used to understand the progression of Alzheimer's disease. A member of the faculty here since 1997, Buckner also has served on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, where he conducted several important functional magnetic resonance imaging studies of human memory function.
Buckner and Eddy will become HHMI employees but remain at the University. HHMI expects to spend between $500,000 and $1 million annually for each new investigator.
