Igniting the spark

Salk’s donor-funded innovation and collaboration grants bring risky but rewarding science out of the dark  Pancreatic cancer is among the deadliest cancers and is projected to be the deadliest by 2030. Of the nearly 70,000 patients diagnosed annually in the US, only 13 percent survive five years post-diagnosis. While the number of people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer continues to rise each year, mortality rates have stayed the same. This is due in part to the minimal symptoms in the early stages of the disease, which hinder early diagnosis and give the cancer time to metastasize. These statistics weigh heavily on Salk cancer researcher Dannielle Engle, PhD.  Engle is constantly asking what drives the disease and how to stop it, with the aim of tackling pancreatic cancer and improving patient lives. But making a real change often means taking significant risks—risks that most funders are not willing to take.  “Working in a field with very poor patient outcomes, you want to chase transformative ideas. But there’s a constant pressure to stay safe and incremental in order to secure federal grants, which are continually more and more challenging to get,” says Engle.  The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary funder…

Lucia Burrafato – Finding a home for art and science

Lucia Burrafato feels at home around art. She was born in New Jersey, spent her tweens and teens bopping around Pennsylvania, went to college in Queens, returned to New Jersey, moved back into the city, then finally took one long trip from Manhattan to San Diego. Through it all, she drew, painted, and captured life around her.  Burrafato brought her artistic eye and myriad talents to Salk in October of 2025. She serves as one of the Institute’s gift officers, communicating the importance of Salk science to help build relationships with new donors. One uniquely Burrafato dimension to her role is Salk’s new Discovery Society, an exclusive donor community she founded and continues to lead.  But before stepping onto Salk’s iconic midcentury campus, Burrafato took an impassioned path through art school and museum galleries. As the latest addition to Salk’s Advancement team, she embodies the fusion of science and art that Jonas Salk held so dear.  From fine art to fresh start  Pursuing her lifelong interest in the arts, Burrafato earned a bachelor’s degree in fine and studio arts from St. John’s University.  “One of my dreams was to work in a museum—I just didn’t know in what capacity,” says…

Ankita Chadda – The mechanics of moving forward

Postdoctoral researcher Ankita Chadda, PhD, is enjoying a new sense of security in the lab of Agnieszka Kendrick, PhD, at Salk.  “She’s very straightforward and very planned, which I like,” Chadda says of her faculty advisor. “We meet every week to discuss my plan for experiments and troubleshoot any issues that are coming up.”  Chadda is similar in nature, composed and pragmatic. But “straightforward” isn’t the word she’d use to describe her journey here.  Chadda grew up in Northwestern India in the rugged landscape of the Thar Desert. “I lived between camels and sand dunes,” she says. “It was a small town, and very, very dry.”  Her parents were both doctors and assumed she would follow in their footsteps, but Chadda was cautious about joining the family practice.  “My father was a psychiatrist, so there were always patients visiting the house, and that was hard to see at times,” she says. “But it did make me curious about the human mind and body and interested to understand what goes on inside us on a biochemical level.”  Chadda studied biology in college but didn’t have a clear plan for her career yet. In the years that followed, her personal life took…