President’s Letter

Dear Friends of Salk,

I have been thinking about what it means to truly understand how the brain works, both when it is functioning well and when something goes wrong, and how the brain changes over a lifetime. These questions sit at the heart of Salk’s Year of Brain Health, which I am pleased to say has galvanized research efforts across the Institute.

Fittingly, brain health is the central theme of this issue of Inside Salk. Nearly everyone reading these pages has been touched by a brain-related condition such as cognitive decline or Alzheimer’s disease in someone they love. These are all too common and unsolved challenges in human health. And while there are no simple answers, there is a path forward: foundational science that starts with a question and, over time, builds the knowledge base from which real solutions emerge.

What makes Salk uniquely suited to this work is our ability to bring together scientists from different research fields and give them the freedom to work and think alongside one another. This issue features Jamie Blum, whose research asks a question most of us have never considered: What does what we eat have to do with how well our brains tolerate inflammation? The connection between diet, the immune system, and brain health is a relatively new area of inquiry, and Dr. Blum’s work is helping to map that territory. These are the kinds of early-stage, curiosity-driven questions that private philanthropy makes possible—questions that may not yet fit a federal grant template but could point toward new ways to protect cognitive health.

You will also meet Adam Farsheed, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Rusty Gage, one of the world’s foremost neuroscientists and a pioneer in Alzheimer’s disease research. Dr. Gage’s lab has fundamentally changed how scientists study the human brain by devising techniques that allow researchers to examine living brain cells derived from transformed skin cells obtained from actual patients. Dr. Farsheed’s work builds on that platform, pushing further into questions about how brain cells age and what might slow that process. Seeing the next generation of scientists take those tools and run with them is one of the most gratifying parts of leading this institution.

This issue also carries a note of loss. We mourn the passing of Suzanne Bourgeois, a founding scientist of the Salk Institute whose many contributions to molecular biology exemplify what rigorous, curiosity-driven science looks like. Her legacy is inseparable from Salk’s own, and she will be deeply missed by all who knew her.

None of the work described in these pages happens without you. Federal funding has grown less reliable, and the gap between what our scientists need and what traditional grants can provide continues to widen. Your support is what allows us to take risks, ask bold questions, and give early-stage ideas the time and space they deserve.

Thank you for being part of our community. 

With deep appreciation,

Gerald Joyce, MD, PhD
Salk Institute President
Irwin M. Jacobs Presidential Chair