LA JOLLA, CA\u2014El Instituto Salk se complace en anunciar el nombramiento de cinco miembros del profesorado que recibir\u00e1n c\u00e1tedras dotadas establecidas por l\u00edderes filantr\u00f3picos en apoyo de la investigaci\u00f3n cient\u00edfica.<\/p>\n
The creation of three new chairs and the rededication of two existing chairs is a testament to the strong commitment of private donors who support the Salk Institute and its groundbreaking research. These significant endowments will provide crucial resources to support the laboratories and the innovative research that impacts humanity.<\/p>\n
“Each of the chairs established by our generous donors provides vital support that sustain the scientists and their laboratories and are instrumental in encouraging more seminal research,” said William R. Brody, president, Salk Institute. “We look forward to continued success from these outstanding individuals as they push the frontiers of basic research.”<\/p>\n
Salk scientists Tom Albright, Sam Pfaff and Martin Hetzer were selected as inaugural holders of the new chairs created through the Joan Klein Jacobs and Irwin Mark Jacobs Senior Scientist Endowed Chair Challenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2008 Salk’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Irwin Jacobs, and his wife Joan, created a $10 million challenge grant to encourage donors to establish 10 endowed chairs for senior scientists. For every $2 million that a donor contributes toward an endowed chair at the Institute, Joan and Irwin Jacobs will add $1 million to achieve the $3 million funding level required to fully endow a chair for a Salk senior scientist. Due to the enthusiastic response of the Chair Challenge, the Jacobses have committed to add five more chairs to the challenge for a total of 15 endowed chairs. To date, 11 chairs have been established.<\/p>\n Jacobs Challenge Inaugural Chairs:<\/strong><\/p>\n Tom Albright<\/a>, professor and director of the Vision Center Laboratory<\/a>, was appointed as the holder of the Conrad T. Prebys Chair in Vision Research<\/strong>. Albright is an authority on the neural basis of perception, probing the relationship between the activity of brain cells and the experience of perceiving motion. He found that single neurons in a brain area specialized for processing motion exhibited robust form-cue invariance, a discovery that came as a surprise at the time. Albright also uncovered a specific neuronal process by which visual pictorial recall serves to augment sensory data with “likely” interpretations in order to overcome the ever-present noise, ambiguity and incompleteness of the retinal image.<\/p>\n Sam Pfaff<\/a>, professor in the Laboratorio de Expresi\u00f3n G\u00e9nica<\/a>, was selected as the inaugural holder of the Benjamin H. Lewis Silla<\/strong>. Pfaff’s lab explores how nerve cells are formed and wire up correctly, focusing on the fetal development of the spinal cord. Pfaff is especially interested to understand how motor neurons develop and make connections between the spinal cord and muscles in the body, since these connections are necessary for all body movements. Spinal cord injuries lead to paralysis because motor neuron function is disrupted and degenerative diseases such as ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), spinal muscle atrophy and post-polio syndrome result from the loss of motor neurons.<\/p>\n Mart\u00edn Hetzer<\/a> was named the inaugural holder of the Silla de la Fundaci\u00f3n Jesse y Caryl Philips<\/strong>. A professor in the Laboratorio de Biolog\u00eda Molecular y Celular<\/a>, Hetzer uses live cell imaging and biochemistry as well as genetic and computational approaches to study the molecular basis of nuclear assembly and its regulation during cell division. The annual endowment will support his research to shed light on the nucleus and how the breakdown of its structure is implicated in disease and enable the development of new technologies for the investigation of aging and neurodegenerative diseases.”<\/p>\n Scientist Joseph Ecker, plant biologist was awarded the Salk International Council Chair in Genetics. Created in 1997,the chair has provided critical resources to further the understanding of genetic contributions to human health.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Salk International Council Chair in Genetics:<\/p>\n Joseph Ecker<\/a>, professor in the Laboratorio de Biolog\u00eda Molecular y Celular Vegetal<\/a> is one of the world’s leading authorities on the molecular biology and genetics of plants and the funds from the endowment will annually support his studies. He was a principal investigator in the multinational project that sequenced the genome of Arabidopsis thaliana, a modest weed that has become a model organism for the study of plant genetics and the first plant to have its genome sequenced, an achievement expected to have widespread implications for agriculture and perhaps human medicine as well.<\/p>\n Dennis O’Leary was named the holder of the Vincent J. Coates Chair in Molecular Neurobiology, which was established in 2001 to support research in molecular neurobiology aimed at investigating the chemistry of the brain. Coates and his wife Stella have been important philanthropists to the Salk and provided significant funding to create a mass spectrometry center at the Institute in 2003.<\/p>\n Dennis O\u2019Leary<\/a>, professor in the Laboratorio de Neurobiolog\u00eda Molecular<\/a>, studies the development and plasticity of the vertebrate nervous system. His research seeks to understand fundamental developmental events, and to use this knowledge to make the most efficient therapeutic use of stem cell biology and to design effective strategies to overcome birth defects, neurological diseases and disorders, and neural injury.<\/p>\n Los 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":[],"disease-research":[450,146,124,125,451,452,160],"class_list":["post-2140","disclosure","type-disclosure","status-publish","hentry","disease-research-climate-change","disease-research-aging-and-regenerative-medicine","disease-research-neuroscience-and-neurological-disorders","disease-research-plant-biology","disease-research-plant-genomics","disease-research-plant-physiology","disease-research-spinal-cord-injury"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nVincent J. Coates Chair in Molecular Neurobiology:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nAcerca del Instituto Salk de Estudios Biol\u00f3gicos:<\/strong>
\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 infecciosas mediante el estudio de la neurociencia, la gen\u00e9tica, la biolog\u00eda celular y vegetal, y otras disciplinas relacionadas.<\/p>\n