Panda, along with Salk Professor Alan Saghatelian and collaborators from UC San Diego, found that mice with microbiomes depleted by antibiotics had decreased levels of glucose in their blood and better insulin sensitivity. The research has implications for understanding the role of the microbiome in diabetes. It also may lead to better insight into the side effects of being treated with high levels of antibiotics.
Read News ReleaseResearch led by Professor Gerald Shadel suggests why, at a cellular level, the expression “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” might be true. His team reported that brief exposures to stressors can be beneficial by prompting the cell to trigger sustained production of antioxidants, molecules that help get rid of toxic cellular buildup related to normal cell metabolism.
In addition, Shadel, along with collaborators from Yale, Appalachian State University and other institutions, found that a protein called ATM (short for ataxia-telangiectasia mutated) can sense in normal cells the presence of harmful products called reactive oxygen species and responds by sounding the alarm to trigger the production of antioxidants. The work could have implications for a disease in which ATM is dysfunctional—and could also help reveal ways to boost cellular health overall.
Read News ReleaseProfessor Satchin Panda, first author Amandine Chaix and colleagues found that mice lacking the biological clocks thought to be necessary for healthy metabolism could still be protected against obesity and metabolic diseases by having their daily access to food restricted to a 10-hour window. The work suggests that the health problems associated with disruptions to animals’ 24-hour rhythms of activity and rest can be corrected by eating all calories within a 10-hour window.
Read News Release
Salk’s New ExplorersLike people, institutions move forward generation by generation. The Salk Institute’s first group of scientists included founder Jonas Salk, famous for developing the first effective and safe polio vaccine; and Renato Dulbecco, who demonstrated how viruses can cause cancer and who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1975.
A matter of timeSalk Professor Satchidananda (Satchin) Panda runs his life like clockwork. Most mornings, if he’s not traveling, he wakes up around 6 a.m. without an alarm. One of the first things he does is go out to his backyard to check on his provisions for wild birds.
Driven to SucceedFrom once being a schoolboy sitting on the floor of a rural classroom with no electricity, to now being a breast cancer researcher in the laboratory of Geoffrey Wahl, Raj Giraddi’s deep and abiding interest in biological research has always driven him forward.
