Sara Aton, PhD
Now an Associate Professor at University of Michigan, Sara’s lab studies how different aspects of neurophysiology, which change during sleep, contribute to memory.
Born and raised in the Ozarks, Sara earned her PhD in Neuroscience at WashU in 2006
Her graduate work in the Herzog lab discovered a neuropeptide within the brain’s suprochiasmatic nucleus that coordinates daily rhythms in firing between neurons
Now an Associate Professor at University of Michigan, Sara’s lab studies how different aspects of neurophysiology, which change during sleep, contribute to memory. Among her recent findings, the Aton lab discovered that neurons encoding new memories are re-activated during sleep, a process required for proper memory storage
Sara has been awarded several honors including the Barbara Jakschik Award in Pharmacology from WashU for her PhD work, followed by several major awards such as the New Innovator Award from NIH, an Alfred P Sloan Foundation Fellowship, and a Young Investigator Award
In her free time, Sara and her husband love to hike, brew beer and keep bees. Her 7-year-old son has recently gotten her interested her in fencing
Sara’s family also includes 2 dogs, who love to play with the local skunks. As a result, she has a “skunk kit” available at all times