In Brief

Erica Ollmann Saphire Elected AAAS Fellow

Erica Ollmann Saphire, professor at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a distinction that recognizes scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

Saphire was cited for work that “has transformed our understanding of viral proteins and provided new insights into how viruses assault human health and into strategies for medical defense,” according to the AAAS announcement.

Election as an AAAS fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. This year’s 401 new fellows were announced in the November 24 edition of the journal Science.

Saphire joins 31 other AAAS fellows among TSRI faculty (see Faculty Honors). This year’s class of AAAS fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin during the 2015 AAAS Annual Meeting in San Jose, California in February.

For more information on Saphire’s work, which focuses on hemorrhagic fever pathogens such as the Ebola and Lassa viruses, see her faculty web page and News&Views stores including “Team Reveals Weak Spots in Ebola’s Defenses”, “Outsmarting Viruses: A Profile of Erica Ollmann Saphire” and “Consortium Wins Up to $28 Million to Find Best Ebola Treatment”.

Liron Bar-Peled Wins Grand Prize in Science & SciLifeLab Competition

Liron Bar-Peled, research associate in the Cravatt lab and the Lallage Feazel Wall Fellow of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, is the grand prize winner of the 2014 Science & SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists, a $25,000 prize to one young scientist for outstanding graduate research in the life sciences.

In his grand-prize winning essay, published in the December 5 issue of the journal Science, Bar-Peled tries to answer a fundamental question in the area of cell and development biology: how eukaryotic cell growth is regulated by the environment. He highlights how multicellular organisms rely on cues from the environment to dictate cell size, and he describes how his graduate studies in the lab of David Sabatini at MIT uncovered ways that the mTORC1 signaling pathway—a master regulator of eukaryotic cell growth—can sense can sense different environmental stimuli.

Science/AAAS and SciLifeLab, a coordinated effort of four universities, sponsors the young scientists competition to recognize that global economic health depends upon a vibrant research community and to highlight the need to incent the best and brightest to continue in their chosen fields of research.

Alumni on Air Debuts

Streaming live from his office at Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development facilities in Groton, Connecticut, David Lin, TSRI Class of 2010, shared career advice during the first installment of Alumni on Air, a new interactive online program from TSRI Career and Postdoctoral Services to connect postdoctoral fellows and graduate students on both campuses with institute alumni.

Lin, who studied in the Baran and Yu labs, fielded questions from Career and Postdoctoral Services Director Ryan Wheeler and Program Coordinator Jean Branan.

He said he found the ability to collaborate an important professional skill. “You need to articulate the details of your research, make a case for it,” he said, adding that problem-solving, time-management and social skills were also essential.

He also made the case for attending professional conferences and gatherings, such as American Chemical Society chapter meetings, to get to know pharma scientists in the local area. In addition, he recommended participating in the mock job interviews offered at TSRI. “Interviews are not spontaneous,” he pointed out. “It’s important to prepare answers to the most common interview questions and to present your science well—to quickly summarize research and describe results, conclusions and the next steps.”

The next presentation in the Alumni on Air series is scheduled for March 2015. The half-hour sessions are open to the public and accessible via Google+. Each session will be recorded and uploaded to YouTube. Lin’s Alumni on Air interview is now available.

ScrippsAssists Collects Toys for San Diego Children

To help brighten the holidays for San Diego families struggling to meet their children’s most basic needs, ScrippsAssists invites Scripps California faculty, students and staff to donate to a Holiday Toy Drive, held with community partner Home Start, a local family resources nonprofit organization.

The toy drive accepts new and unwrapped toys for children of all ages. The donation deadline is Monday, December 15. Drop boxes for toys are located in the lobbies of the Skaggs/MB, Immunology and MEM buildings, in the graduate student lounge area in the Beckman building and in front of the graduate office in the Hazen building. Donations will be collected every other day.

For a list of suggested age-appropriate gifts contact ScrippsAssists project lead Jess Gruttadauria at jgruttad@scripps.edu or x4-7569.

ScrippsAssists Craft Fair: December 11

Offering unique handcrafted gifts for sale and raffle prizes including a new 128 Gb iPad Air2, the California ScrippsAssists annual Craft Fair and Raffle will be held Thursday, December 11, from 11 AM to 2 PM, in the Immunology building’s galleria and exterior breezeway. A list of registered exhibitors can be found on the ScrippsAssists website.

Raffle tickets are sold for $1 each (no purchase limit and winner need not be present) at the fair and in advance at a few selected locations to be announced soon on the ScrippsAssists website. Proceeds from the fair’s exhibitor fees and raffle are used for ScrippsAssists donations to charitable organizations serving the San Diego community. For additional information, contact Committee Chair Mishelle McClanahan-Shinn at mshinn@scripps.edu or x4-2738

CA Blood Donors for Research Offered Cash Compensation

TSRI’s Normal Blood Donor Service (NBDS) seeks new donors to meet an urgent need for normal human blood products used by institute investigators on the California campus. Donors are immediately compensated $25 to $100 for a single blood draw.

The NBDS donor pool is open to all healthy individuals in the TSRI community who are readily available during working hours. Potential donors must meet the following criteria:

Age: 18 to 65 years.
Weight: at least 110 pounds (50 kg).
Blood pressure: between 90 to 180 mm Hg systolic and 50 to 100 mm Hg diastolic.
No major surgery within the past six months.
Adequate hemoglobin test scores.
Negative screening for HIV and Hepatitis B and C, upon entry to the program and every subsequent year.
No daily use of aspirin or anti-inflammatory medication.

Further details, including applications to become a paid donor, are available at the NBDS website. NBDS Coordinator Priscilla Crisler can be reached at (858) 784-5418; by fax, (858) 652-5556; or email, corelab@scripps.edu.

At the Auditorium: Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev

The San Diego Symphony Orchestra (SDSO) Chamber Series presents an all-Russian program featuring special guest artist violinist Philippe Quint and pianist Jeeyoon Kim performing with SDSO musicians Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70, and two Prokofiev works: Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34, and Violin Sonata in D Major No. 2, Op.94bis. Ticket and additional program information is available on the SDSO website.

Send comments to: mikaono[at]scripps.edu

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Professor Erica Ollmann Saphire is the newest among TSRI’s AAAS fellows.

Liron Bar-Peled, research associate in the Cravatt lab, is the grand prize winner in the Science & SciLifeLab competition for young scientists. He speaks about the essay and his work on this video.

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