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PRESIDENT’S LETTER
Dear Friends,
Thoughts of rejuvenation arrive with spring and in this issue of
Inside Salk
you’ll
find that much of our current work at the Institute focuses on innovative ways to
achieve vibrancy and health.
You’ll meet Janelle Ayres, one of our rising star faculty members, who is challenging
the traditional use—and sometimes overuse—of antibiotics to fight infectious
diseases. As anyone who reads the headlines knows, diseases that have long been
controlled by antibiotic medications are staging a worldwide resurgence. According
to the Centers for Disease Control, at least 2 million people in the U.S. become infected
with antibiotic-resistant diseases each year and around 23,000 die. Janelle proposes
a new way of tackling this problem: rather than trying to kill the invading bacteria,
she aims to harness the body’s own “good” bacteria—its microbiome—to counter
the damaging effects of pathogens. Her studies, already proving successful, are
redesigning the protocol for how we deal with infectious disease.
In headlines of another kind, Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, professor in the
Gene Expression Laboratory, is being hailed internationally for his work addressing
the chronic shortage of donor organs by coaxing human cells to grow inside another
species. You’ll read about this and many more groundbreaking findings in our
Discoveries section.
Here on the Salk campus, we’re undergoing rejuvenation of an architectural nature.
A months-long project to restore the teak components of our buildings, in partnership
with The Getty Conservation Institute, is nearing completion. Filmmaker Nathaniel
Kahn, son of famed architect Louis Kahn, who designed the Institute, and Dr. Jonathan
Salk, Jonas Salk’s son, speak in this issue on the importance of the architectural icon
their fathers worked together to create some 50 years ago.
Finally, you’ll get a peek inside the inventive mind of Ted Waitt, Salk’s new chairman
of the Board. Ted, who founded Gateway, Inc., and guided it to a multibillion-dollar
corporation, has been immensely successful applying innovative strategies to drive
businesses forward. We are working closely with him here at Salk as we begin
implementing an ambitious strategic plan to propel Salk forward for the next 50 years.
That’s just about the time we’ll be returning our attention to the teak.
Be well!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Blackburn
President, Salk Institute
Irwin M. Jacobs Presidential Chair
“Thoughts of rejuvenation
arrive with spring and in this
issue of
Inside Salk
you’ll find
that much of our current work
at the Institute focuses on
innovative ways to achieve
vibrancy and health.”