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This month, our scientific news comes from Martin Hetzer, Rusty Gage, Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte and Jan Karlseder, who made headlines with their research in premature aging, brain disease and tumors.
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| Other recognition goes to Salk's Tatyana Sharpee, Rusty Gage, Carol Marchetto, Silvana Konermann and Axel Nimmerjahn. On a personal note, I was honored to be among 46 women around the globe recognized by TIME magazine as a "First" in our professions. |
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Beyond the labs, we look back at another successful Symphony at Salk and look forward to our first Women & Science Design and Discovery Fashion Showcase, and the fifth season of the Science & Music Series.
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| Please read on for more Institute news. |
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| Yours in Discovery, |
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| Elizabeth Blackburn |
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Researchers in Martin Hetzer's lab probing the premature aging disorder Hutchinson-Gilford progeria have uncovered an errant protein process in the disease that could help healthy people as well as progeria sufferers live longer.
In measuring protein turnover in cells cultured from both healthy people and those with progeria, the team found that protein synthesis is overactive in progeria sufferers. Along with the rapid turnover of proteins, a cellular structure called the nucleolus, which makes the protein-assembling structures known as ribosomes, was enlarged in the prematurely aging cells compared to healthy cells. Even more intriguing, the team found that nucleolus size increased with age in the healthy cells, suggesting that the size of the nucleolus could not only be a useful biomarker of aging, but potentially a target of therapies to counter both premature and normal aging.
The work appeared in Nature Communications on August 30, 2017. |
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| A partnership for a healthy brain |
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Rusty Gage's lab discovered that an interaction between two key proteins helps regulate and maintain the neural precursor cells that produce neurons. The work, published in
Cell Stem Cell on September 14, 2017, offers insight into why an imbalance between these precursor cells and neurons might contribute to mental illness or age-related brain disease.
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| MicroRNA helps cancer evade immune system |
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| The immune system has mechanisms to automatically destroy dysfunctional cells such as cancer cells, but nonetheless many cancerous tumors often survive. A new study by the lab of Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte shows one method by which fast-growing tumors, using microRNAs, evade the immune system. The discovery, published in Nature Cell Biology on September 18, 2017, could point to a new target for treatment in various types of cancer. |
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| Alan Saghatelian, Jiao Ma, Anna Merlo, Adriana Correia, Jan Karlseder, Nausica Arnoult |
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| The right way to repair DNA |
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| The lab of Jan Karlseder found that a tiny protein called CYREN, previously identified by Salk's Alan Saghatelian, helps cells choose between two competing DNA-repair pathways, clarifying a longstanding mystery about the repair process and offering researchers a powerful tool that could guide better treatments for cancer. The research was described in Nature on September 20, 2017. |
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| Tatyana Sharpee receives NSF grant to study how brain processes sound |
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| Salk Associate Professor Tatyana Sharpee was awarded a grant of approximately $950,000 over 4 years by the National Science Foundation to study how the brain processes complex sounds, using both experimental and computational methods. This grant is part of a multi-national project together with groups in France and Israel. |
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| Rusty Gage receives Alzheimer's "Courage & Hope" award |
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| Salk Professor Rusty Gage has been named the 2017 Courage & Hope Researcher by Alzheimer's San Diego for his research on age-related neurodegenerative disease. Gage is among four San Diegans honored for their frontline work in healthcare, research, awareness and caregiving at the sixth annual Celebration of Courage & Hope ceremony earlier this month. |
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Carol Marchetto named BRAINS Fellow and Silvana Konermann named HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow
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Carol Marchetto, a senior staff scientist in the lab of Rusty Gage, was selected as a 2017 BRAINS Fellow, which is a national program funded by the NIH to accelerate and improve the career advancement of neuroscience postdoctoral researchers and assistant professors from underrepresented groups.
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Silvana Konermann, a research associate in the lab of Patrick Hsu, was chosen as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Hanna Gray Fellow, a new program that seeks to increase diversity in the biomedical research community by recruitment and retention of individuals from groups underrepresented in the life sciences.
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Axel Nimmerjahn is part of a BRAIN Initiative grant with UC Davis, UCSF and OHSU awarded almost $3 million over 3 years by the National Institutes of Health to develop novel fluorescent sensor proteins for optically measuring the dynamic changes of neuromodulatory chemicals in the brain and spinal cord of awake, behaving animals. Being able to monitor these signaling events in real time could yield important new insight into the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying Parkinson's disease, depression, spinal cord injury and addiction.
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TIME honors Salk President Elizabeth Blackburn
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Elizabeth Blackburn, the Institute's first female president and one of only 12 women to have won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, was honored by
TIME magazine as a trailblazing woman. She is among 46 honorees featured in FIRSTS, a new
TIME multimedia project celebrating "women who broke ground in their fields" and "played pioneers in history."
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Salk Women & Science
Design and Discovery
Fashion Showcase |
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Get your tickets now!
The first Salk Women & Science Design and Discovery Fashion Showcase is October 4 in the Conrad Prebys Auditorium. For more information, contact
Betsy Collins at
becollins@salk.edu or (858) 500-4883.
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| Salk Science & Music Series |
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The Salk Science & Music Series opens its fifth season with a concert by violinist Alena Baeva and pianist Vadym Kholodenko at 4:00 p.m. October 22 in the Conrad T. Prebys Auditorium. Comprising the science component of the afternoon, Salk Associate Professor Wolfgang Busch will discuss his research. Purchase the four-concert series for a discounted price.
- October 22, 2017 - Violinist Alena Baeva and pianist Vadym Kholodenko with Associate Professor Wolfgang Busch
- December 3, 2017 - Pianist Dasol Kim with Professor Satchidananda Panda
- February 4, 2018 - Pianist Karen Joy Davis, violinist Asi Matathias and cellist Gabriel Schwabe with Associate Professor Tatyana Sharpee
- April 8, 2018 - Pianist Zlata Chochieva with Assistant Professor Edward Stites
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| Padres Pedal the Cause |
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Training is in full swing for Salk's Cancer Center cycling group, for the annual
Padres Pedal the Cause.
Padres Pedal the Cause has the mission of providing funding for cancer research in hopes that the collaborative research funded by this event will ultimately lead to a cure. This year's cyclo-thon is November 11-12, with courses beginning and ending at Petco Park.
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| Spectacular Symphony at Salk |
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| More than 750 people attended the 22nd annual Symphony at Salk on August 26, raising $1 million for Institute research and education outreach programs. The concert under the stars was more interactive and immersive than ever. Guest artist David Foster & Friends brought the crowd to its feet dancing, and a new visual system projected the art of Françoise Gilot onto the concrete walls. |
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| Salk science wallpaper images |
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Looking for a unique background image for your computer, iPad or phone?
Salk scientists discover that a microprotein helps cells choose the best path to repair genes and avoid cancer. Shown below are chromosomes (red) with telomeres (green).
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