LA JOLLA, CA\u2014The Salk Institute for Biological Studies has recruited three assistant professors who exemplify the next generation of leading international scientists hired to forge new research territory and to build on existing investigative areas at the Institute.<\/p>\n
Bjorn Lillemeier joins the Salk’s Nomis Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis where he will study the organization of plasma membranes and their contribution to signal transduction in T-cells. In the body, T-cells play an integral part in regulating the immune system’s activity while attacking virus-infected cells, foreign and cancer cells.\n<\/p>\n
\nLillemeier will also conduct some of his work using high-resolution fluorescence microscopy in the Institute’s Waitt Advanced Biophotonics Center, established last year with a $20 million grant by the Waitt Family Foundation. Better understanding how T-cell responses are controlled in the development and diseased stages could identify new targets for the manipulation of T-cell function.\n<\/p>\n
\nOriginally from Germany, Lillemeier received his master’s and doctorate degrees from London’s Cancer Research UK before conducting his postdoctoral research at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute & Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University. He is the recipient of several awards, including a fellowship to the Human Frontier Science Program.\n<\/p>\n
\nLillemeier is joined in the Salk’s Nomis Center by Ye Zheng, who studies how regulatory T-cells maintain immune system tolerance to prevent autoimmune diseases. Coming from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Zheng’s goal is to tease apart how these regulatory T-cells are generated and maintained so that new therapeutic approaches can be developed for a wide range of autoimmune diseases.\n<\/p>\n
\nA native of China, Zheng is a graduate of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Peking University and Columbia University, where he received a master’s and doctorate degrees in Philosophy before conducting a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is the recipient of the Cancer Research Institute Fellowship and the John S. Newberry Prize. Both Zheng and Lillemeier joined Salk on Nov. 1.\n<\/p>\n
\nNeuroscientist Sreekanth Chalasani, who officially joins Salk on Dec. 1, applies a combination of genetics, functional imaging and behavioral analysis to study how the C. elegans<\/em> worm’s nervous system responds to changes in the environment, such as when food is in short supply. Recruited from Rockefeller University, Chalasani’s work in the Salk’s Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory will provide new insights into how complex neural circuits process information and guide behavior.<\/p>\n \nHe is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his doctorate degree in Neuroscience, and the National Center for Biological Sciences in India, his native country. Chalasani has also received several awards, including a fellowship from the Damon Runyon Cancer Foundation<\/p>\n “We are pleased to welcome each of these gifted junior faculty members to the Salk Institute,” says Salk President William R. Brody. “They represent the pioneering and risk-taking spirit that is essential for new scientific discoveries. Their research will both strengthen and diversify our efforts in Immunology, Biophotonics and Neurobiology – all key directions for the Salk Institute.”<\/p>\n Acerca del Instituto Salk de Estudios Biol\u00f3gicos:<\/strong> \nLos logros del cuerpo docente han sido reconocidos con numerosos galardones, entre los que se incluyen premios Nobel y la pertenencia a la Academia Nacional de Ciencias. Fundado en 1960 por el Dr. Jonas Salk, pionero en la vacuna contra la poliomielitis, el Instituto es una organizaci\u00f3n independiente sin fines de lucro y un hito arquitect\u00f3nico.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","faculty":[97],"disease-research":[],"class_list":["post-2008","disclosure","type-disclosure","status-publish","hentry","faculty-bjorn-lillemeier"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nEl Instituto Salk de Estudios Biol\u00f3gicos es una de las instituciones de investigaci\u00f3n b\u00e1sica m\u00e1s destacadas del mundo, donde un cuerpo docente de prestigio internacional investiga cuestiones fundamentales de las ciencias de la vida en un entorno \u00fanico, colaborativo y creativo. Centrados tanto en el descubrimiento como en la formaci\u00f3n de las futuras generaciones de investigadores, los cient\u00edficos del Salk realizan contribuciones revolucionarias a nuestra comprensi\u00f3n del c\u00e1ncer, el envejecimiento, el Alzheimer, la diabetes y las enfermedades cardiovasculares mediante el estudio de la neurociencia, la gen\u00e9tica, la biolog\u00eda celular y vegetal, y otras disciplinas relacionadas.\n<\/p>\n