Events

Jazz legend Victor Goines and his quartet played to a sold-out crowd on January 24, 2016 for the third concert in the Salk Science & Music series. Sreekanth Chalasani, assistant professor, gave a riveting talk about his latest developments on brain research in Salk’s Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory. For information, visit www.salk.edu/music.

A talented trifecta of Salk cancer researchers—Geoffrey Wahl, Amy Rommel and Reuben Shaw (above, from left)—drew 75 attendees to the Salkexcellerators program in January at the Institute. The scientists spoke of their groundbreaking work pursuing the origins of cancers and better understanding the tumor suppressor P53 and glioblastoma. Also announced was a $20,000 grant from Merck to help fund early career scientists.

Salkexcellerators, the next generation of community members committed to supporting scientific discovery at Salk, meets throughout the year.

To learn more:
Contact Jane Rhett,
director of Annual Giving
(858) 453-4100 x1521
jrhett@salk.edu
www.salk.edu/salkexcellerators

Diana Hargreaves, assistant professor in Salk’s Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, discussed the latest in cancer research at the Salk Women & Science event in December. In her talk, “Interior Remodeling for Cancer Defense,” Hargreaves shared how proteins called epigenetic regulators can make regions of our genome more or less accessible for activation, affecting what kinds of tissues cells become. Similar to remodeling a house, cells must rearrange their packaged DNA—with the help of these epigenetic regulators—to carry out certain functions while making others inaccessible. Hargreaves studies a particular epigenetic regulator whose subunit is mutated in many solid tumors, such as in ovarian, bladder and colorectal cancers. She aims to understand how mutations in this complex contribute to the creation of tumors and potentially find new targets for therapy.

About 100 business and community members attended the event. Salk’s Women & Science program offers three lectures a year given by the Institute’s esteemed female faculty as well as staff scientists and up-and-coming researchers. The next Salk Women & Science event will take place on Wednesday, July 20, 2016.

To learn more about the program:
Contact Betsy Collins,
director of Donor Relations
(858) 500-4883
becollins@salk.edu
www.salk.edu/womenandscience

Salk’s Education Outreach program welcomed 300 high school girls from the San Diego Unified School district for a Women in Biotech lecture on November 17, 2015. The event was part of the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) Leadership series, which focuses on career opportunities within those fields and connects business leaders to local students. The keynote speakers were Tina Nova, president and CEO of Molecular Stethoscope, and Salk’s Janelle Ayres, assistant professor in the Nomis Foundation Laboratories for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis. Carol Marchetto, a Salk senior staff scientist, and two researchers from the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research concluded the presentation with a panel discussion.

Nearly 200 Salk donors, faculty and trustees celebrated the Campaign for Salk on November 11, 2015 with an evening of music, memories and talks on the Institute’s future as a global research leader. The six-year campaign, the Institute’s first major fundraising effort since opening its doors in the early 1960s, surpassed its $300 million objective of raising private resources to address the decline in federal funding for science and the rising cost of new technologies. The celebratory event included exhibits and videos depicting campaign successes and archival footage of faculty who helped establish the Institute.