OU Health Sciences Center Alumni Elected to National Academy of Sciences

Two alumni of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center have been inducted into the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.

The honorees are Russell Debose-Boyd, Ph.D., who earned a doctoral degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from the OU College of Medicine and the Health Sciences Center Graduate College, and Amy Bastian, Ph.D., PT, who earned a degree in physical therapy from the OU College of Allied Health.

DeBose-Boyd is a professor and holds the Beatrice and Miguel Elias Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. His research interests include cell regulation, cholesterol homeostasis, endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation, and multivalent feedback regulation of HMG C-A reductase.

He earned a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant. The title of his doctoral thesis at the OU Health Sciences Center was “Identification, characterization, and molecular cloning of alpha 1,3 fucosyltransferases in parasitic and non-parasitic helminths.” Following the defense of his thesis, he joined UT Southwestern as a fellow of the Jane Coffin Childs Memorial Fund for Medical Research.

Bastian is the chief science officer at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, which is dedicated to improving the lives of children and adolescents with developmental and physical disabilities with patient care, research, special education and community services. She is director of the institute’s Center for Movement Studies, whose researchers focus on the neural control of human movement. She is also a professor of neuroscience and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

After earning her degree in physical therapy at the OU College of Allied Health, Bastian completed her doctoral degree in movement science and a post-doctoral fellowship in neuroscience at Washington University. Her research uses computerized movement tracking techniques, non-invasive brain stimulation, novel devices and robotics to control walking and reaching movements. She studies how people with and without neurological damage control movement and learn new patterns.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. It 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.