University of Wisconsin-Madison (PhD) Nancy M. Bonini (born 1959) is an American neuroscientist and geneticist, best known for pioneering the use of Drosophila as a model organism to study neurodegeneration of the human brain.

[17] Her undergraduate thesis research, performed under the direction of William (Chip) Quinn, formed the basis for her first publication, "Reward Learning in Normal and Mutant Drosophila".

[17] Focusing on using the fruit fly as a tool for understanding the genetic basis of the brain and behavior, Bonini was the first to demonstrate that Drosophila can be used as a model of human neurodegenerative disease.

[21][22] Using this model, Bonini's research group subsequently discovered unexpected and novel pathways that play a role in normal biology, injury, and disease.

[7][26][27] Bonini's research team demonstrated the pharmacologic potential of chaperones in further Drosophila studies; administering geldanamycin (an antitumor antibiotic that acts on Hsp90) to mutant flies before symptoms of neural decline were visible averted the onset of neurodegeneration in the mutant flies, suggesting a new approach for people susceptible to Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.

[35][36] In 2018, Bonini, with collaborators Shelley Berger, Brad Johnson, and others, completed a study investigating the epigenetic landscape of tissue samples donated by individuals who did and did not have Alzheimer's disease.

[46] Bonini is married to Anthony Cashmore,[16] a University of Pennsylvania Professor Emeritus best known for discovering the cryptochrome that serves as a blue light photoreceptor in Arabidopsis.