Etcetera

Jennifer Bray Wins Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award
Jennifer Bray, research associate in the Gruol lab, has won a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Kirschstein, for whom the award was named, was the first woman director of an NIH institute and a strong advocate for research training.

The fellowship is intended to provide support to promising scientists with the potential to become productive, independent investigators in scientific health-related research fields relevant to participating NIH institutes and centers.

Bray's project, titled "Alcohol and Chemokine Interactions," will investigate potential alterations in CNS function resulting from elevated levels of neuroimmune factors and how these changes affect the actions of alcohol on the central nervous system (CNS) during adolescence. Drinking during adolescence can result in serious deficits in both cognitive function and neuronal development. Recent studies have demonstrated that neuroimmune factors are upregulated in the CNS following alcohol use and may contribute to the cognitive deficits often seen with adolescent drinking.

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Reception Fetes New Noble Laureate
A reception at The Scripps Research Institute October 10 feted new Nobel Laureate Bruce Beutler (right), chair of the Department of Genetics at Scripps Research and director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Beutler received many well wishes from his Scripps Research colleagues. Among them, Professor Don Mosier, who is also mayor of the City of Del Mar, presented Beutler with an official City proclamation acknowledging his many accomplishments. (Photo by Cindy Brauer.)