La Jolla, CA – Diabetic individuals have a significantly higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease but the molecular connection between the two remains unexplained. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies identified the probable molecular basis for the diabetes – Alzheimer’s interaction.
La Jolla, CA – Dr. Clodagh O’Shea, an assistant professor in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has been awarded the 2008 Beckmann Young Investigator Award. She will receive $300,000 over a three-year period to develop new technologies for the rapid assembly and cell type-specific targeting of therapeutic viruses.
La Jolla, CA – Now that high school biology students can recite that genes are made of DNA, which is transcribed into messenger RNA (mRNA), which is then translated into protein, along comes a new class of molecules, sending students-and many scientists-scrambling for updated textbooks.
La Jolla, CA – The Salk Institute today announced the election of Gerald L. Parsky to its Board of Trustees. The Board unanimously approved the appointment at its recent meeting in New York City.
La Jolla, CA – Humans and fruitflies – those pesky little buggers that are irresistibly attracted to overripe fruit – share more than a sweet tooth. Both rely on the same insulin-regulated molecular pathway to maintain their energy balance when starved for food, reports a team of researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
La Jolla, CA – The Salk Institute today announced that it has received a $20 million grant from the Waitt Family Foundation. Ted Waitt is the President of the Waitt Family Foundation and the vice chairman of Salk’s Board of Trustees. The grant will fund the creation of an Advanced Biophotonics Center.
La Jolla, CA – Salk Institute professor Thomas Albright, who studies the neuronal basis of visual perception, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. The Academy made the announcement today during its 145th annual meeting in Washington, DC. Election to the Academy recognizes distinguished and continuing achievements in original research, and is considered one of the highest honors accorded U.S. scientists.
La Jolla, CA – A team of scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies think they know how many-if not most-living organisms answer this question. They recently showed that when food supplies dwindle, mammals, fruitflies, or frogs probably activate the same ancient cell signaling pathway in order to conserve energy.
La Jolla, CA – Until recently, the chemical marks littering the DNA inside our cells like trees dotting a landscape could only be studied one gene at a time. But new high-throughput DNA sequencing technology has enabled researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies to map the precise position of these individual DNA modifications throughout the genome of the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, and chart its effect on the activity of any of Arabidopsis‘ roughly 26,000 genes.
La Jolla, CA – Come summer, we will once again marvel at the amazing athletic skills of Olympic athletes while in fact, the simple act of walking is no less remarkable. Just to prevent us from toppling over, the neuromuscular circuitry that controls all bodily movements relies on constant sensory feedback from the periphery to fine-tune its commands to hundreds of muscles.
La Jolla, CA – The Salk Institute announced today that Irwin and Joan Jacobs have established a $10 million matching fund to support the creation of 10 Senior Scientist Endowed Chairs. By providing a match, this fund enables 10 donors to each make a gift of $2 million to create and name a highly prestigious and permanent chair. The Irwin and Joan Jacobs Leadership Challenge will add a $1 million match to each gift, thus providing each Chair with a $3 million endowment. Each named chair will provide key support to a Salk Institute Senior scientist.
La Jolla, CA – Those spindly plants that desperately try to reach for a break in the canopy formed by larger plants all suffer from the same affliction: Shade avoidance syndrome or SAS. Now, the molecular details of SAS have been brought to light by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
La Jolla, CA – Dr. Clodagh O’Shea, an assistant professor in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, has been selected for the 2007 Young Investigator’s Award in Gene Therapy for Cancer. She will receive $500,000 over a three-year period to develop the “next generation oncolytic adenoviruses for p53-selective tumor therapy.”
La Jolla, CA – The fifth annual Pearl Meister Greengard Prize, an international award to recognize outstanding women scientists, has been awarded to Salk professor Vicki Lundblad, Ph.D., for her groundbreaking work in telomere biology.
La Jolla, CA – A team of scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies has discovered that the roundworm C. elegans constructs the protective tips of its chromosomes – known as telomeres – with a little more panache than do mammals, a finding that could deepen our understanding of the interrelationship of aging and cancer.
La Jolla, CA – Continually revved up insulin production, the kind that results from overeating and obesity, slowly dulls the body’s response to insulin. As a result, blood sugar levels start to creep up, setting the stage for diabetes-associated complications such as blindness, stroke and renal failure. To make matters even worse, chronically elevated blood sugar concentrations exacerbate insulin resistance.
La Jolla, CA – Perhaps the oldest question in the world is “where do I come from?”
La Jolla, CA – A nuclear receptor protein, known for controlling the ability of cells to burn fat, also exerts powerful anti-inflammatory effects in arteries, suppressing atherosclerosis in mice prone to developing the harmful plaques, according to new research by scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Harvard School of Public Health.
La Jolla, CA – For quite some time now, scientists suspected the so-called hexosamine pathway – a small side business of the main sugar processing enterprise inside a cell – to be involved in the development of insulin resistance. But they could never quite put their finger on the underlying mechanism.
La Jolla, CA – The editors of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) selected the article “Targeted delivery of proteins across the blood-brain barrier” by Brian J. Spencer, Ph.D. and Inder M. Verma, Ph.D., for the 2007 Cozzarelli Prize, which recognizes papers that reflect the highest standards of scientific excellence and originality.
