索尔克研究所晋升三名神经科学、免疫学和癌症研究领域的教职员工

April 21, 2025

索尔克研究所晋升三名神经科学、免疫学和癌症研究领域的教职员工

April 21, 2025

拉霍亚—三位萨克研究所的教职员工因其对科学的杰出、创新贡献而获得晋升。副教授 尼古拉·艾伦 和 戴安娜·哈格里夫斯 晋升为正教授，以及助理教授 杰西·迪克森 晋升为副教授。此次晋升基于索尔克学院教职员工和非居民研究员的推荐，并于2025年4月4日获得索尔克学院院长和董事会批准。.

“尼古拉、黛安娜和杰西都在各自领域不断突破已知和可能性的界限，”索尔克研究所所长说道。 杰拉尔德·乔伊斯. 尼古拉在索尔克研究所的神经免疫学和阿尔茨海默病项目也做出了关键贡献，戴安娜和杰西都在癌症研究方面取得了重要进展。我们很期待看到他们的领导能力和创新精神将如何继续塑造研究所的成功。“

尼古拉·艾伦 is a member of the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory, where she studies astrocytes, a major cell type in the nervous system. Astrocytes were long considered to be the mere scaffolding for neurons, but Allen and her colleagues have shown that these cells do so much more. Allen discovered that astrocytes play a key role in creating and stabilizing the synaptic connections between neurons. She has also described how this process can go wrong in aging and disease. Her lab is now identifying new ways to reverse these processes in neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. Allen is also a leader in Salk’s Neuroimmunology Initiative, which aims to enrich our understanding of the crosstalk between the immune and nervous systems, and she recently earned an 美国国立卫生研究院院长先驱奖 to fund a new project exploring brain plasticity.

戴安娜·哈格里夫斯 is a member of the Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, where she studies how proteins called epigenetic regulators can turn specific genes on or off to produce different kinds of cells. Her work also explains how this process can go awry in cancer and immune disorders. Her research on the BAF complex has revealed critical insights into how the body regulates inflammation and tumor immunity, and her recent discoveries could help make immunotherapy more effective for people with difficult-to-treat cancers. Hargreaves is also a leader in the Institute’s Neuroimmunology Initiative, and she was named the American Cancer Society’s Early-Career Researcher of the Year in 2024, and a Pew-Stewart Scholar for Cancer Research in 2019.

杰西·迪克森 is a member of the Gene Expression Laboratory, and he holds the Helen McLoraine Developmental Chair at Salk. His research uses molecular and computational approaches to explore how our genetic information is organized within our cells, and how abnormal genome folding leads to disease. His team has already found several genetic mutations that can cause cancer genes to be turned on. He also identified a protein that reshapes the genome to control the activity of important cancer-fighting immune cells. His latest work is taking advantage of innovations in artificial intelligence to develop new approaches for detecting and treating cancer. Jesse is a member of Salk’s Cancer Center, and he was named a 2024 Pew Biomedical Scholar and a 2023 Rita Allen Scholar for his outstanding promise to advance human health through his research.