LA JOLLA—Profesor del Salk e Investigador del HHMI Ronald Evans ha sido galardonado con $2.5 millones por Ponte de Pie Contra el Cáncer (SU2C) como parte de un equipo multinstitucional para llevar a cabo estudios clínicos que abran una nueva vía para la inmunoterapia en el tratamiento del páncreas cáncer. Mientras que el cáncer normalmente excluye a las células T inmunitarias, el laboratorio Evans descubrió que la vitamina D modificada reprograma el entorno del cáncer de una manera que podría permitir que el fármaco Keytruda de Merck® invadir y destruir el tumor.
LA JOLLA—Para tener una buena conversación telefónica, necesitas una buena conexión celular. Lo que es cierto para los teléfonos móviles, también resulta ser cierto para las neuronas.
LA JOLLA—Profesor Asistente del Instituto Salk Eiman Azim ha sido nombrado/a Director del NIH Innovador Novato para 2017 como parte del Programa de Investigación de Alto Riesgo y Alta Recompensa de los Institutos Nacionales de Salud. El premio otorga $1.5 millones para un proyecto de 5 años durante el cual Azim explorará cómo el sistema nervioso controla los movimientos diestros.
LA JOLLA—El Instituto Salk anunció que los ingresos totales en el año fiscal 2017 (del 1 de julio de 2016 al 30 de junio de 2017) aumentaron a $134 millones desde $118 millones el año fiscal anterior, un incremento del 13.5 %. Casi la mitad de los ingresos, $62 millones, provino de donantes, incluyendo donaciones y subvenciones de fundaciones, así como donaciones y legados de particulares. El resto provino de financiación gubernamental y corporativa, además de ingresos por inversiones.
La presidenta del Instituto Salk, Elizabeth Blackburn, fue invitada a pronunciar el discurso de apertura en la Universidad de Queensland el mes pasado sobre equidad de género y temas de diversidad en las disciplinas de Ciencia, Tecnología, Ingeniería, Matemáticas y Medicina (STEMM, por sus siglas en inglés). Blackburn es la primera mujer australiana en ganar un Premio Nobel. Después de su discurso, que recibió una respuesta positiva de la audiencia, participó en un panel de discusión sobre las barreras y desafíos para las mujeres en la ciencia. Aquí hay una transcripción de su discurso:
LA JOLLA—Silvana Konermann, a research associate in the lab of Helmsley-Salk Fellow Patrick Hsu, was chosen as one of 15 inaugural Instituto Médico Howard Hughes Hanna H. Gray Fellows. Each fellow will receive up to $1.4 million in funding over eight years.
LA JOLLA—Is it better to do a task quickly and make mistakes, or to do it slowly but perfectly? When it comes to deciding how to fix breaks in DNA, cells face the same choice between two major repair pathways. The decision matters, because the wrong choice could cause even more DNA damage and lead to cancer.
LA JOLLA—The immune system automatically destroys dysfunctional cells such as cancer cells, but cancerous tumors often survive nonetheless. A new study by Salk scientists shows one method by which fast-growing tumors evade anti-tumor immunity.
LA JOLLA—Salk Institute scientists have discovered that an interaction between two key proteins helps regulate and maintain the cells that produce neurons. The work, published in Células Madre 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.
LA JOLLA—Salk Institute President Elizabeth Blackburn—the Institute’s first female president and one of only 12 women to have won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine—is among 46 honorees featured in FIRSTS, a new HORA multimedia project celebrating “women who broke ground in their fields” and “played pioneers in history,” the Salk Institute announced today.
LA JOLLA—Profesor Asociado del Salk Tatyana Sharpee ha recibido una subvención de aproximadamente $950,000 por 4 años de la National Science Foundation para estudiar cómo el cerebro procesa sonidos complejos. Esta subvención es parte de un proyecto multinacional junto con grupos en Francia e Israel.
LA JOLLA—It may seem paradoxical, but studying what goes wrong in rare diseases can provide useful insights into normal health. Researchers 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.
LA JOLLA—Under a microscope, it can be hard to tell the difference between any two neurons, the brain cells that store and process information. So scientists have turned to molecular methods to try to identify groups of neurons with different functions.
LA JOLLA—As part of the National Science Foundation’s funding for new multidisciplinary approaches to neuroscience, Salk Professor Terrence Sejnowski together with the California Institute of Technology will receive over $1 million over 3 years to pursue advanced modeling of the brain.
LA JOLLA—Scientists have, for the first time, corrected a disease-causing mutation in early stage human embryos with gene editing. The technique, which uses the CRISPR-Cas9 system, corrected the mutation for a heart condition at the earliest stage of embryonic development so that the defect would not be passed on to future generations.
LA JOLLA—Dos laboratorios de neurociencia del Salk forman parte de un esfuerzo de la National Science Foundation (NSF) para comprender mejor el cerebro. Los profesores del Salk Terrence Sejnowski y Ed Callaway reciben cada uno de los colaboradores en proyectos interinstitucionales más de $9 millones cada uno.
LA JOLLA—Profesor del Salk Reuben Shaw has received the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Outstanding Investigator Award (OIA), which encourages cancer research with breakthrough potential. Shaw, a member of Salk’s Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory and holder of the William R. Brody Chair, will receive $4.2 million in direct funding over the next seven years to further his work. The award is granted, according to the NCI website, to innovative cancer researchers with outstanding records of productivity to allow them to take greater risks and be more adventurous in their research.
LA JOLLA—Stretched out, the DNA from all the cells in our body would reach Pluto. So how does each tiny cell pack a two-meter length of DNA into its nucleus, which is just one-thousandth of a millimeter across?
LA JOLLA—It might seem like a tomato plant and a subway system don’t have much in common, but both, it turns out, are networks that strive to make similar tradeoffs between cost and performance.
LA JOLLA—Salk scientists have found further evidence that a natural compound in strawberries reduces cognitive deficits and inflammation associated with aging in mice. The work, which appeared in the Journals of Gerontology Series A in June 2017, builds on the team’s previous research into the antioxidant fisetin, finding it could help treat age-related mental decline and conditions like Alzheimer’s or stroke.
