April 21, 2025
LA JOLLA—Three Salk Institute faculty members have been promoted for their notable, innovative contributions to science. Associate Professors Nicola Allen and Diana Hargreaves were promoted to full professors, and Assistant Professor Jesse Dixon was promoted to associate professor. The promotions were based on Salk faculty and nonresident fellow recommendations and approved by Salk’s president and Board of Trustees on April 4, 2025.
“Nicola, Diana, and Jesse are all pushing the boundaries of what is known and what is considered possible in their respective fields,” says Salk President Gerald Joyce. “Nicola has also made critical contributions to Salk’s programs in neuroimmunology and Alzheimer’s disease, and both Diana and Jesse have made important advances in cancer research. We are excited to see how their leadership and innovation will continue to shape the Institute’s success.”
Nicola Allen 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 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award to fund a new project exploring brain plasticity.
Diana Hargreaves 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.
Jesse Dixon 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.
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Unlocking the secrets of life itself is the driving force behind the Salk Institute. Our team of world-class, award-winning scientists pushes the boundaries of knowledge in areas such as neuroscience, cancer research, aging, immunobiology, plant biology, computational biology and more. Founded by Jonas Salk, developer of the first safe and effective polio vaccine, the Institute is an independent, nonprofit research organization and architectural landmark: small by choice, intimate by nature, and fearless in the face of any challenge.
