DISCOVERIES

February 2024

With the help of naked mole rats, Xiao Tian seeks to expose and explain the epigenetic drivers of aging

Getting older is inevitable, but aging may be optional, or at least a treatable condition. Increasingly, researchers are parsing the particulars of aging, the ways in which the human body becomes less healthy over time. That research spans measuring declines in cognitive and sensory capabilities to identifying relevant changes in cellular and molecular functions.

Among the scientists looking for the secrets of aging is Xiao Tian, Ph.D., who recently joined Sanford Burnham Prebys as an assistant professor in the Degenerative Diseases Program. Tian’s work, which began as a Ph.D. student at the University of Rochester and continued as a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School, focuses on epigenomic changes and deterioration that influence age-related diseases.

New genome mapping tool may uncover secrets for treating blood cancers

The outlook for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a deadly set of blood cancers that is difficult to treat, has remained dire for decades, especially among patients who are not eligible for bone marrow transplantation.

More than 30% of treated patients will never achieve complete remission using current chemotherapies and, even when chemotherapy treatments work, most patients relapse within five years without a transplant.

In a recent paper, Kristiina Vuori, M.D., Ph.D., Pauline and Stanley Foster Distinguished Chair and professor in the Sanford Burnham Prebys Cancer Center’s Cancer Molecular Therapeutics Program, and colleagues describe the genomic structural variants in AML patients and connected them with patients' sensitivity or resistance to current cancer treatments.".

Speaking of International Day of Women and Girls in Science

February 11 was International Day of Women and Girls in Science. At Sanford Burnham Prebys, the event was marked by a roundtable discussion and by a post in our blog, where three female faculty recount some of their experiences pursuing scientific careers and the importance of diversity.

Events

The heterogeneity of aging, a symposium

Aging research is always timely, and here’s a date: On March 6, the San Diego Nathan Shock Center, a consortium of Sanford Burnham Prebys, Salk and UC San Diego, will hold its second annual Symposium on the Heterogeneity of Aging at the Salk Institute.

The day-long, hybrid program will include scientific presentations from a diverse group of researchers focused on the biology and secrets of aging, including Caroline Kumsta, Ph.D., co-author of a recently published paper that revealed possible novel functions for various autophagy genes, which may control different forms of disposal including misfolded proteins — and ultimately affect aging. Our blog post has more information.

In the News

Opinion: Rare diseases affect 30 million Americans. These are the challenges to find their cure.

In his latest essay, published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, David Brenner writes about the particular and expansive challenges of studying and treating rare diseases—conditions that afflict less than 2,000 people but combined, affect roughly 30 million Americans.

Brenner takes particular note of research conducted at the Sanford Children’s Health Research Center at Sanford Burnham Prebys, an international hub for investigating and finding treatments for congenital disorders of glycosylation.

The Cre-loxP System: A Powerful Tool in the Genetic Toolbox

In this article from The Scientist, Jamey Marth, Ph.D., director and professor in the Immunity and Pathogenesis Program, recounts his lab’s leadership in developing a new tool that uses molecular scissors to precisely manipulate the genome.

Philanthropy

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