Salk Institute welcomes four new faculty

July 7, 2014

Salk Institute welcomes four new faculty

July 7, 2014

LA JOLLA—The Salk Institute is pleased to welcome a new full professor and three new assistant professors, all exceptional leaders in their respective fields. The new faculty will facilitate innovative and collaborative breakthroughs in understanding human health and disease.

“The Salk Institute’s efforts in groundbreaking and inventive work targeting some of our most pressing research and disease questions will be greatly enhanced by these outstanding researchers,” says Salk President 威廉·R·布罗迪. “We could not be more pleased to welcome such accomplished scientists.”

艾伦·萨加特利安, whose appointment was announced last fall, joined the Institute on July 1 as a professor in the 克莱顿基金会肽生物学实验室. Saghatelian’s lab focuses on the biology of metabolites and peptides, two classes of molecules that are extremely important in disease—particularly 糖尿病, 癌症 and autoimmune disease—but are understudied because of technical challenges.

Saghatelian developed new mass spectrometry methods that enable his lab to measure changes in these molecules, which could accelerate the development of novel medicines. Saghatelian plans to integrate these new methods into many areas of research through cross-disciplinary collaborations aimed at discovering new targets for disease therapy. By identifying how key metabolic hormones that control blood glucose levels are processed, for example, Saghatelian and his colleague developed a drug-like compound that improves blood glucose in mice.

Saghatelian, who comes to the Salk from Harvard University, was previously awarded a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, a Searle Scholars Program Award, a New Innovator Award from the 美国国立卫生研究院 and a 伯勒斯·威尔科姆基金 Career Award in Biomedical Sciences. He attended 加州大学洛杉矶分校 for his undergraduate work in chemistry and pursued his graduate degree and postgraduate work at The Scripps Research Institute.

Assistant Professors

朝日奈 健太 will join the 分子神经生物学实验室 as an assistant professor. He is currently a postdoctoral scientist working with David Anderson at the California Institute of Technology where he strives to understand the connection between gene functions, the nervous system and social behavior. In particular, his work on aggression in fruit flies with Anderson garnered attention from the New York Times. Asahina received his undergraduate degree from the University of Tokyo and his PhD in neurobiology from the Rockefeller University.

戴安娜·哈格里夫斯 will be an assistant professor in the Cancer Research Center. She is a postdoctoral research fellow in pathology at the Stanford School of Medicine, where she is exploring the tumor suppressor mechanism of several epigenetic regulators recently identified in genome sequencing efforts of primary human tumors. Particularly, she is aiming to uncover how mutations in a complex within a cell’s nucleus contribute to the creation of tumors. She is the recipient of fellowships from the 国家科学基金会 和 Helen Hay Whitney Foundation and received her PhD in immunology at Yale University and her undergraduate degree from Haverford College.

萨凯特·纳夫拉克哈 joins the Salk Center for Integrative Biology as an assistant professor. Navlakha, a postdoctoral computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, studies “algorithms in nature”—how collections of molecules, cells and organisms communicate, process inputs and coordinate responses to solve problems. He develops algorithms to predict and understand the dynamics and structure of signaling pathways, the evolution of molecular and cellular networks, and the resilience of biological systems in the face of perturbations. He plans to develop collaborations with biologists to create biological network analyses that bridge theoretical computer science and systems biology. Navlakha studied computer science as an undergraduate at Simon’s Rock College 和 Cornell University and received a PhD in computer science focusing on biological networks at the University of Maryland College Park. In 2013, he received an F32 post-doctoral fellowship award from the NIH.

关于索尔克生物研究所：
索尔克生物学研究所是世界上首屈一指的基础研究机构之一，其国际知名的教职员工在一个独特的、协作和创新的环境中，深入探索生命科学的基本问题。索尔克科学家既注重科学发现，也注重培养下一代研究人员，通过研究神经科学、遗传学、细胞生物学、植物生物学及相关学科，为我们理解癌症、衰老、阿尔茨海默病、糖尿病和传染病做出了开创性的贡献。.

教职员工的成就获得了无数荣誉，包括诺贝尔奖和美国国家科学院院士资格。该研究所由脊髓灰质炎疫苗先驱 Jonas Salk 医生于 1960 年创立，是一家独立的非营利组织和建筑地标。.