Award Recipients
Congratulations to our 2021 Salk Women & Science Special Award Recipients
The Salk Women & Science Special Awards provide crucial support to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to pursue high-risk, high-reward research in stages too early to attract traditional funding. The awards are targeted towards supporting future scientific leaders who will also actively foster the increased participation of women and girls in science.
Xiaochun Cai
Jin Lab
Discover how two brain regions, the thalamus and striatum, work together to control the way animals perform actions in sequence
Suzanne Dufresne, PhD
Towers Lab
Investigate how cancer cells can survive and bypass the deletion of autophagy—the way cells remove and recycle their “junk”—in animal models, and how we might treat it
Helen McRae, PhD
Hargreaves Lab
Profile epigenomics—chemical changes to the genome—in tumor-associated immune cells called macrophages
Payel Mondal, PhD
Towers Lab
Use new light-based tools to inhibit autophagy—the process cells use to remove and recycle their “junk”—and visualize the resulting metabolic changes over time
Nuttida Rungratsameetaweemana, PhD
Sejnowski Lab
Determine how neurons work together to take in sensory information and form a schema—a conceptual picture of a task or environment, which can help shape future learning
Veronica Scerra, PhD
Reynolds Lab
Develop new methods to probe changes in synapses—connections between neurons—that could play a role in neurological diseases
Ying Sun, PhD
Busch Lab
Identify the genes and regulatory factors that control root growth in legumes—ultimately to optimize roots that capture excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
Katia Troha, PhD
Ayres Lab
Determine how amino acid supplementation promotes renal growth to increase survival of infection
Wen Mai Wong, PhD
Chalasani Lab
Characterize ultrasound-sensitive proteins from single-celled organisms for use in sonogenetics—a new method for activating cells with sound waves
Congratulations to our 2020 Salk Women & Science Special Award Recipients
Bianca Barriga
Pfaff Lab
Investigating Effects of Exercise Training on Spinal Neural Networks
Hsiuyi Chen, PhD
McVicker Lab
Generating HIV-resistant human CD4+ T cells by introducing of thousands of chimpanzee alleles with massively-parallel genome editing
Sej Chung, PhD
Engle Lab
Defining the role of CA19-9 in the pancreatic microbiome
Sharon (Hsiang-Hsuan) Huang, MD
Jin Lab
Dissect the role of sensorimotor feedback in action sequencing
Youtong Huang
Lemke Lab
Microglial TAM receptors as modulators of pathology in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Andreea Manole, PhD
Gage Lab
Neuroinflammation associated with genetic defects in phospholipase A(2) and glucocerebrosidase
Heather McGee, MD, PhD
Kaech Lab
Investigating the role of radiation-induced innate immune cell activation in unique tumor microenvironments
Jia Ning, PhD
Hunter Lab
Establishing cell and mouse models to study RNA polymerase III-related neurodegenerative diseases
Annelise Snyder, PhD
Kaech Lab
Determining the role of microglial metabolic reprogramming in linking infection to Alzheimer’s disease
Yuan Xue, PhD
Belmonte Lab
Creating biocompatible electric organoids for the mammalian system
Congratulations to our 2019 Salk Women & Science Special Award Recipients
Juliana Capitanio, PhD
Martin Hetzer Lab
Deciphering the role of long-lived histones in the genomic landscape
Kay Chung, PhD
Susan Kaech Lab
Next-generation designer T cells for optimal and persistent anti-tumor immunity
Jessica Haley
Sreekanth Chalasani Lab
eSCAPEing the immobilized preparation: Whole-brain imaging in freely-moving animals
Wenrong He, PhD
Wolfgang Busch Lab
Identification of novel regulators for root system architecture by combining high-throughput chemical genetics and GWAS
Shijia Liu
Sung Han Lab
Dissecting neural circuits for opioid-induced respiratory depression
Nikki Lytle
Geoffrey Wahl Lab
Tracking cellular plasticity during tumorigenesis by intravital imaging
Amanda Phillips Yzaguirre, PhD
Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte Lab
Elucidating a novel mechanism of angiogenesis
Congratulations to our 2018 Salk Women & Science Special Award Recipients
View Awardee Gratitude Messages
Thanks to you, we met our fundraising goal of $300,000.
Lydia Daboussi, PhD
Samuel Pfaff Lab
Genetic and functional characterization of a novel factor involved in nerve regeneration
Kathleen DelGiorno, PhD
Geoffrey Wahl Lab
Epithelial heterogeneity and the pathogenesis of pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer
Isabella Farhy-Tselnicker, PhD
Nicola Allen Lab
Identification of novel protein complexes at developing synapses
Shefali Krishna, PhD
Martin Hetzer Lab
Long-lived proteins in the mitochondria and their role in aging
Emily Manoogian, PhD
Satchidananda Panda Lab
Artificial intelligence-driven optimum personalized lifestyle to sustain circadian rhythms, prevent disease, and accelerate recovery
Kathleen Quach, PhD
Sreekanth Chalasani Lab
Pristionchus pacificus as a nematode model of aggression
Shani Stern, PhD
Rusty Gage Lab
Novel humanized organoids based platform for modeling bipolar disorder
Neeraja Vegesna, PhD
Julie Law Lab
Characterization of a DNA damage specific chromatin reader
Cuiqing Zhong, PhD
Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte Lab
Using interspecies chimeras to derive glucose-competent human pancreatic cells
Congratulations to our 2017 Salk Women & Science Special Award Recipients
We are thrilled to announce that we have reached our 2017 fundraising goal of $175,000. A special thank you to Lynne and Mason Rosenthal / Leo S. Guthman Fund for their significant lead gift and matching challenge!
Ceyda Coruh, PhD
Julie Law Lab
Identification of proteins associated with double-strand breaks in different chromatin contexts
Graziana Gatto, PhD
Martyn Goulding Lab
A novel in vivo approach to titrate sensory input during basic and complex motor behavior
Claire Geddes
Xin Jin Lab
How corticostriatal circuits control action sequences
Silvana Konermann, PhD
Patrick Hsu Lab
Genome-scale genetic perturbation of the APOE2 and APOE4 human interactomes
Sara Linker, PhD
Rusty Gage Lab
Examining if activity-induced retrotransposition modulates neural reactivity
Hermina Nedelescu, PhD
Eiman Azim Lab
Organization of internal copy neural circuits for skilled forelimb movement
Annie Rathore
Alan Saghatelian Lab
Microprotein-associated proteins via promimity labeling
Cynthia Reyes, PhD
Vickie Lundblad Lab
A new model for telomere length regulation
Maya Ridinger, PhD
Geoffrey Wahl Lab
Deciphering p53 functions in the stroma of pancreatic cancer
Swati Tyagi, PhD
Martin Hetzer Lab
Dynamics of genome architecture at nuclear pore complexes during cell development
Congratulations to our 2016 Salk Women & Science Special Award Recipients
We did it! We exceeded our 2016 fundraising goal of $150,000 by $15,000! Your gift this year provided funding for five early career scientists.
Nausica Arnoult, PhD
Jan Karlseder Lab
Characterizing the first regulator
of DNA repair pathway choice
Amandine Chaix, PhD
Satchidananda Panda Lab
Gating of hepatic transcriptional response
to food intake by the circadian clock
Wei-Mien (Mendy) Hsu
Tatyana Sharpee Lab
The impact of sensory uncertainty on maximally informative adaptive dynamics in neural populations
Liang Song, PhD
Joseph Ecker Lab
Phosphorylation-mediated transcriptional feedback control of ABA receptors in plants
Mako Yamamoto, PhD
Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte Lab
In vivo genome editing via CRISPR-Cas9 mediated homology-independent targeted integration
