LA JOLLA, CA—The seeds sprouting in your spring garden may still be struggling to reach the sun. If so, they are consuming a finite energy pack contained within each seed. Once those resources are depleted, the plant cell nucleus must be ready to switch on a “green” photosynthetic program. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies recently showed a new way that those signals are relayed.
LA JOLLA, CA—Today, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies announced the visionary gift of Irwin and Joan Jacobs in the dedication of two endowed chairs to pay permanent tribute to Drs. Dulbecco and Guillemin, two of Salk’s Nobel Prize winners as well as former Presidents, for their incredible achievements in science and research, the leadership they have provided over the years, and for the legions of scientists they have mentored and inspired.
LA JOLLA, CA—A multi-institutional team headed by Ursula Bellugi, professor and director of the Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has been awarded a $5.5 million Program Project Grant by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to link social behavior to its underlying neurobiological and molecular genetic basis using Williams syndrome as a model.
LA JOLLA, CA—In principle, genetic engineering is simple, but in practice, replacing a faulty gene with a healthy copy is anything but. Using mutated versions of the lamin A gene as an example to demonstrate the versatility of their virus-based approach, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies successfully edited a diseased gene in patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells as well as adult stem cells.
LA JOLLA, CA—A uniquely collaborative study by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies uncovered a novel mechanism that turns up glucose production in the liver when blood sugar levels drop, pointing towards a new class of drugs for the treatment of metabolic disease.
LA JOLLA, CA—By virtue of having survived, all animals-from flies to man-share a common expertise. All can distinguish times of plenty from famine and adjust their metabolism or behavior accordingly. Failure to do so signals either extinction or disease.
Dr. Reuben Shaw and Dr. Marc Montminy, both of Salk’s Helmsley Center for Nutritional Genomics, will be presenting two research studies disclosing critical discoveries in the area of diabetes and metabolism.
LA JOLLA, CA—In stark contrast to normal cells, which only divide a finite number of times before they enter into a permanent state of growth arrest or simply die, cancer cells never cease to proliferate. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have uncovered an important clue to one of the mechanisms underlying cancer cell immortality.
LA JOLLA, CA—April 14-17 was the weekend to be at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. If you care about art you could see an original Chihuly installation 9 feet in diameter suspended from an administration-building ceiling. If history is your passion, England’s Magna Carta—widely recognized as one of the most important documents in the history of democracy—was visiting. Finally, if you want to know who is fueling scientists’ ability to conduct groundbreaking research on some of the world’s most vexing medical dilemmas, you would see the new installation of Salk’s donor plaques in the courtyard, honoring those who are providing funding that helps change lives.
LA JOLLA, CA—After undergoing an extensive review process by Salk senior faculty, Non-Resident Fellows, and scientific leaders in their respective fields, Leanne Jones and Satchidananda Panda have been promoted to Associate Professor, and E.J. Chichilnisky, Andrew Dillin, Martin Hetzer, and Jan Karlseder to full Professor, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies announced today.
LA JOLLA, CA—After a century of studying the causes of schizophrenia-the most persistent disabling condition among adults-the cause of the disorder remains unknown. Now induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) generated from schizophrenic patients have brought researchers from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies a step closer to a fundamental understanding of the biological underpinnings of the disease.
LA JOLLA, CA—The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is pleased to announce that Nobel Laureate and distinguished Salk research professor Renato Dulbecco, has been awarded the President’s Medal for Excellence by Indiana University.
LA JOLLA, CA—When cells find themselves in a tight spot, the cell cycle regulator p21 halts the cell cycle, buying cells time to repair the damage, or if all else fails, to initiate programmed cell death. In contrast to other stress-induced genes, which dispense with the regular transcriptional entourage, p21Cip1 still requires SKIP, a transcription elongation factor that also helps with the editing of transcripts, to be expressed, found researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
LA JOLLA, CA—The moment we open our eyes, we perceive the world with apparent ease. But the question of how neurons in the retina encode what we “see” has been a tricky one. A key obstacle to understanding how our brain functions is that its components—neurons—respond in highly nonlinear ways to complex stimuli, making stimulus-response relationships extremely difficult to discern.
LA JOLLA, CA—A key question in protein biochemistry is how proteins recognize “correct” interaction partners in a sea of cellular factors. Nowhere is that more critical to know than in the brain, where interactions governing channel protein activity can alter an organism’s behavior. A team of biologists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has recently deciphered a molecular code that regulates availability of a brain channel that modulates neuronal excitability, a discovery that might aid efforts to treat drug addiction and mental disorders.
LA JOLLA, CA—Many people suffer from a devastating condition known as critical limb ischemia (CLI) that can lead to muscle wasting and even amputation. The disease is linked to the blockage of blood flow to the skeletal muscle and current treatment options include rehabilitative exercise and surgical bypass of blood vessels. New preclinical research suggests there may be a way to restore blood supply in skeletal muscle without traditional intervention.
LA JOLLA, CA—The Salk Institute for Biological Studies announced the appointment of Stacie Spector as the new Chief Communications Officer.
LA JOLLA, CA—The current pace of population aging is without parallel in human history but surprisingly little is known about the human aging process, because lifespans of eight decades or more make it difficult to study. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies replicated premature aging in the lab, allowing them to study ageing-related disease in a dish.
LA JOLLA, CA—Substantial evidence suggests that lifespan is increased if an organism restricts its daily calorie intake, a spartan regime that some say works by just making life seem longer. A team of scientists from the Salk Institute of Biological Studies has discovered a molecular switch flipped by hunger that could not only make longevity more appetizing but identify drug targets for patients with aging-related diseases such as type II diabetes or cancer.
LA JOLLA, CA—It has been long known that stress plays a part not just in the graying of hair but in hair loss as well. Over the years, numerous hair-restoration remedies have emerged, ranging from hucksters’ “miracle solvents” to legitimate medications such as minoxidil. But even the best of these have shown limited effectiveness.
