La Jolla, CA–In a study that could have significant consequences for neural tissue transplantation strategies, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies report that inactivating a specific gene in adult neural stem cells makes nerve cells emerging from those precursors form connections in the wrong part of the adult brain.
La Jolla, CA – The San Diego City Council unanimously approved the Salk Institute’s master plan in a vote yesterday afternoon that clears the way for the Institute to construct new buildings and parking facilities that will add a net 186,000 square feet of research and support space on its 27-acre site.
“The Salk Institute has been a foundation of our economy, not to mention the important scientific research it contributes for all our benefit,” Mayor Jerry Sanders said during the City Council meeting. “This expansion will help extend its research.”
La Jolla, CA – Life exists at the edge of chaos, where small changes can have striking and unanticipated effects, and major stimuli may go unheard. But there is no space for ambiguity when the brain needs to transform head motion into precise eye, head, and body movements that rapidly stabilize our posture and gaze; otherwise, we would stumble helplessly through the world, and our vision would resemble an undecipherable blur.
The first reports of the successful reprogramming of adult human cells back into so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which by all appearances looked and acted liked embryonic stem cells created a media stir. But the process was woefully inefficient: Only one out of 10,000 cells could be persuaded to turn back the clock.
La Jolla – Salk researcher Dr. Fred H. Gage, professor in the Laboratory of Genetics, has been awarded the Keio Medical Science Prize for his discovery of the physiological role of adult neurogenesis in mammalian brains. He will officially receive the award during a ceremony at Keio University’s School of Medicine in Japan on Nov. 21.
La Jolla, CA – Terry Sejnowski, Ph.D., professor and head of the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory at the Salk Institute has been elected to the Institute of Medicine, the IOM has announced. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
La Jolla, CA – The Salk Institute at a press conference today announced the appointment of Dr. William R. Brody, an acclaimed physician scientist and university leader, as the Institute’s new president. Currently completing a 12-year tenure as president of The Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Brody is renowned for his achievements in biomedical engineering and his stellar academic career. He will assume his new role effective March 1, 2009.
La Jolla, CA – Once a toddler has mastered the art of walking, it seems to come naturally for the rest of her life. But walking and running require a high degree of coordination between the left and right sides of the body. Now researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have shown how a class of spinal cord neurons, known as V3 neurons, makes sure that one side of the body doesn’t get ahead of the other.
La Jolla, CA – If the current financial climate has taught us anything, it’s that a system where over-borrowing goes unchecked eventually ends in disaster. It turns out this rule applies as much to our bodies as it does to economics. Instead of cash, our body deals in energy borrowed from muscle and given to the brain.
La Jolla, CA – The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) only brings along a minimalist’s survival gear and relies on its host cell to provide what’s missing. Now, a new study provides novel insight into how the virus exploits cellular functions to take up house in infected cells.
La Jolla, CA – Salk researcher Dr. Lei Wang has been named a 2008 recipient of the National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award. He joins a group of young scientists who will receive a portion of more than $138 million in support of innovative approaches to biomedical research.
La Jolla, CA – The superior colliculus has long been thought of as a rapid orienting center of the brain that allows the eyes and head to turn swiftly either toward or away from the sights and sounds in our environment. Now a team of scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has shown that the superior colliculus does more than send out motor control commands to eye and neck muscles.
La Jolla, CA – A team of biologists from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, UC San Diego, and Oregon State University has identified the genes that enable plants to undergo bursts of rhythmic growth at night and allow them to compete when their leaves are shaded by other plants.
La Jolla, CA – Neurons constituting the optic nerve wire up to the brain in a highly dynamic way. Cell bodies in the developing retina sprout processes, called axons, which extend toward visual centers in the brain, lured by attractive cues and making U-turns when they take the wrong path. How they find targets so accurately is a central question of neuroscience today.
La Jolla, CA – Even closely related plants produce their own natural chemical cocktails, each set uniquely adapted to the individual plant’s specific habitat. Comparing anti-fungals produced by tobacco and henbane, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies discovered that only a few mutations in a key enzyme are enough to shift the whole output to an entirely new product mixture. Making fewer changes led to a mixture of henbane and tobacco-specific molecules and even so-called “chemical hybrids,” explaining how plants can tinker with their natural chemical factories and adjust their product line to a changing environment without shutting down intracellular chemical factories completely.
La Jolla, CA – Body weight and fertility have long known to be related to each other – women who are too thin, for example, can have trouble becoming pregnant. Now, a master switch has been found in the brain of mice that controls both, and researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies say it may work the same way in humans.
La Jolla, CA – It may take just one or two proteins to polish off a simple cellular task, but life-or-death matters, such as caring for the ends of chromosomes known as telomeres, require interacting crews of proteins, all with a common goal but each with a specialized task.
La Jolla, CA – As the summer approaches most of us rejoice, reach for the sunscreen and head outdoors. But an ever-growing number of people reach for tissue instead as pollen leaves eyes watering, noses running and spirits dwindling. Hay fever is just one of a host of hypersensitivity allergic diseases that cause suffering worldwide and others, such as severe reactions to bee stings or eating peanuts, can be more serious and even fatal.
La Jolla, CA – The bird enthusiast who chronicled the adventures of a flock of red-headed conures in his book "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" knows most of the parrots by name, yet most of us would be hard pressed to tell one bird from another. While it has been known for a long time that we can become acutely attuned to our day-to-day environment, the underlying neural mechanism has been less clear.
LA JOLLA, CA—Trying to reap the health benefits of exercise? Forget treadmills and spin classes, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies may have found a way around the sweat and pain. They identified two signaling pathways that are activated in response to exercise and converge to dramatically increase endurance.
