In Brief

Brian Lamb Captures First Place in Lighting Talk Competition, Ryan Hoffman Takes Second, Benjamin Leach, Third

Brian Lamb, research associate in The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) Romesberg lab, won the first place Jared F. Purton Memorial Award at the recent Second Annual Lightning Talk Competition, an event sponsored by the Scripps California Society of Fellows (SoF) challenging each participant to summarize his or her research in a clear, entertaining way in just three minutes, using only one slide. Lamb’s presentation was titled “Stabilizing the replication of DNA containing artificial genetic information in living organisms.”

Taking second place was Ryan Hoffman, research associate in the Ward lab, presenting “Visualization of a Biological Recognition Event.” In third place was Benjamin Leach, research associate in the Wright lab, presenting "Envisioning invisible amyloidogenic intermediates using NMR spectroscopy."

Other Lightning Talk finalists were Natalie de Val, Sunitha Rangaraju, Sucharita Somkuwar, Sheena Saayman, Elena Federzoni and Fernando Spiller.

The event’s keynote address was delivered by Ian Wilson, Hansen Professor of Structural Biology and chair of TSRI’s Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology. Other faculty members giving lightning talks were Donna Blackmond, Candice Contet, Yang Dai, Sandra Encalada, Elizabeth Getzoff, Barbara Mason, Anton Maximov, Floyd Romesberg, Gary Siuzdak, Andrew Su and Jamie Williamson.

Winners of the 2015 SoF Lightning Round Competition were Brian Lamb (center, back), Ryan Hoffman (left) and Ben Leach, here with Jessica Mayeux, event chair.

Academic Planning Committee Formed

TSRI’s CEO Peter Schultz has announced the formation of an Academic Planning Committee to augment the existing process of faculty involvement.

“The Planning Committee will provide additional input on the development of the five-year academic plan, as well as review future recruitment commitments and research infrastructure needs,” said Schultz in a memo to the TSRI community. “I appreciate the willingness of this group to invest their time and energy into further building TSRI’s academic excellence.”

Initial members of the committee are: Phil Baran, Holly Cline, Pat Griffin, Ardem Patapoutian, Hugh Rosen, Peter Vogt, Jamie Williamson and Steve Kay (ex officio).

Peiqing Sun to Open 2015-2016 Faculty Lecture Series

TSRI Associate Professor Peiqing Sun will open the institute’s 2015-2016 Faculty Lecture Series on Wednesday, October 14, 5 PM, with a talk titled “The role of the p38 MAPK pathway in cancer development.”

The event will be held in the Timken Amphitheater at Scripps Green Hospital. A reception will follow in the Arnold and Mabel Beckman building, first floor.

Upcoming lectures include:

November 11: Associate Professor Katrin Karbstein, Department of Cancer Biology, “Quality control in 40S ribosome assembly”
January 13; 2016: William Roush, professor, Department of Chemistry, associate dean of graduate students and executive director of medicinal chemistry, “Development of Proof-of-Concept Chemical Probes Targeting Novel Biological Targets”
February 10: Michael Farzan, vice-chair of the Department of Immunology and Microbial Science “An alternative approach to an HIV vaccine”
March 9: Ulrich Mueller, chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, “The Sound of Silence:Auditory Perception and Deafness”
April 13: Professor David Millar, Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, “Visualizing Protein Action One Molecule at a Time”
May 11: Professor Xiang-Lei Yang, Department of Chemical Physiology, “Discover new functions of tRNA synthetases with pathophysiological significance”

Members of the Faculty Lecture Series Committee are Professors Dennis R. Burton, Hollis Cline, Benjamin F. Cravatt and Larry Gerace, chairman. For further information, see the series website.

The Faculty Lecture Series is supported by an endowment from the Cochrane-Cartan families, established by TSRI Professor Emeritus Charles G. Cochrane.

CA Academic Careers Roundtable: Jason Young, UC San Diego

Jason Young, assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, will lead a discussion on “Biomedical informatics research, service and teaching in an academic setting” at the next Scripps California Academic Careers Roundtable event, scheduled for Monday, October 19, noon to 1 PM.

Young’s research focuses on the development of open-source informatics tools for clinical research/trials data management, visualization and mining. He is also a principal investigator for the California HIV/AIDS Research Program’s Data Repository and Sharing Collaboration.

The event will be held in the Graduate Office dining room, Hazen Theory building, first floor. Sponsored by TSRI Career and Postdoctoral Services, the Academic Careers Roundtable is a professional development series featuring guest faculty discussion leaders on a variety of topics. Reservations are required.

Cyber Awareness Workshop: Phishing

A training workshop to foil email “phishing” attacks—devious attempts to capture personal log-in credentials and infect computers with malicious software—will be offered at a bicoastal User Awareness training session presented by TSRI IT Services on Wednesday, October 7, noon to 1 PM Pacific time/3 to 4 PM Eastern time.

The session, conducted by Information Security Manager David Matusiak, will be held in the Keck Amphitheater, Beckman building, on the Scripps California campus and video live-streamed to the Scripps Florida campus in room B159. Light refreshments will be offered.

The workshop will be repeated Wednesday, October 14, at the same times, in the Keck Amphitheater in California and room B387 in Florida. In addition, IT Services will offer a related training session on password management on Wednesday, October 21, repeated on Wednesday, October 28.

Employee Benefits: Open Enrollment Begins October 26

Employee Benefits Open Enrollment begins on Monday, October 26, and runs through Friday, November 6, at 5 PM Pacific time. During this annual opportunity, participants can make changes to their TSRI benefit selections and, if eligible, enroll or re-enroll in the Health Care and/or Dependent Care Spending Accounts or the Health Savings Account (if applicable) for the 2016 plan year.

In the continued effort to be environmentally friendly and to reduce mailing costs, all Open Enrollment communications, including the new 2016 plan information, is being sent via email and is available on the Open Enrollment website. It is important to review the information provided in the Open Enrollment booklet regarding changes for the 2016 plan year. The booklet will be available for review by Monday, October 5.

Healthcare costs continue to be a challenge in the current funding environment. Therefore, TSRI has chosen to implement a few changes to the health plan designs this year, which include:

The HDHP Aetna Choice POS II Plan will see separate out-of-pocket maximums for In- and Out-of-Network benefits in compliance with Health Care Reform.
The pharmacy administrator for the Comprehensive Choice PPO, HDHP PPO and Graduate Student PPO Plans will transition from to OptumRx from CVS Caremark. Most existing open mail-order prescriptions currently with CVS Caremark should be transferred automatically to OptumRx. Exceptions are outlined further in the information booklet.
The Basic Group Life/AD&D benefit through Prudential will now offer a choice of a flat $50,000 benefit, two times base annual salary or three times base annual salary benefit.
Lastly, the Voluntary Life/AD&D carrier will transition from Adams Group Insurance to Prudential.

Every effort has been made to keep the increases as low as possible. Greater detail regarding the changes will be included in the information booklet.

Participants are cautioned to be aware the maximum dollar amount for the Health Care Spending Account is limited to $2,550. Eligible participants, who took part in the Health Care and/or Dependent Care Spending Accounts or the Health Savings Account in 2015, must log on again and elect a new deferral amount to participate in 2016. A 2015 election WILL NOT roll over to 2016.

Participants with questions regarding Open Enrollment should contact Benefits Administration at (858) 784-8487 or benefits@scripps.edu.

Jared Purton Foundation to Hold Sixth Annual 5K Charity Run/Walk

The sixth annual "Good On You 5K Charity Run/Walk," presented by the Jared F. Purton Foundation and sponsored by Scripps California’s Society of Fellows (SoF), will be held Saturday, October 10, at Crown Point Park (Mission Bay), San Diego.

The online event preregistration deadline is Sunday, October 7, midnight. Event fees are $25 with online preregistration (includes an event t-shirt) and $35 for race-day registration.

Jared Purton was a promising young Scripps Research postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Immunology and Microbial Sciences killed by a drunk driver in 2009. The foundation established in his memory aims to promote local volunteerism and raise awareness about important social issues.

Representatives from a variety of local charities will be available at the event finish line to explain their missions and activities.

Participants in this year's run/walk are encouraged to run in Halloween costumes. Medals will be presented to the top three male and female finishers, and prizes will be awarded for the best individual male/female costume and best group costume.

For further event details, visit the Jared F. Purton Foundation website.

Scripps California Takes the Rideshare Challenge

Scripps California faculty, staff and students are encouraged to become part of the institute’s team in the iCommute Rideshare 2015 Corporate Challenge, competing against other San Diego organizations during October, designated National Rideshare Month. TSRI has won the challenge for the past three years.

Participants can carpool, bike, walk or take public transit to and from campus October 1 to 31 and log their trips on iCommute’s TripTracker website. Commuters who log eligible trips online are automatically entered in a drawing to win prizes each week, including two Zipcar memberships and driving credits, $100 Bicycle Warehouse gift cards, a $100 eLiveLife.com gift certificate and car2go and DecoBike memberships. The grand prize—a $450 adult bike from Bicycle Warehouse—will be awarded at the conclusion of the challenge.

The Rideshare Corporate Challenge is a program of the San Diego Association of Governments to promote work-commute alternatives.

ScrippsAssists Supports Small-Animal Care Group

The next ScrippsAssists California volunteer opportunity with Wee Companions, a small-animal care and rescue agency, is available at the agency’s Adoption Center, 3368 Governor Dr., Suite F, San Diego, on Wednesday, October 7, from 6 to 8 PM.

Every first Wednesday of the month, ScrippsAssists volunteers help clean and set up guinea pig cages; no animal handling is involved with the tasks.

Wee Companions offers other volunteer opportunities, including serving as foster homes for small animals (rats, guinea pigs or other animals) and providing adoption counseling or brief clerical and staff work.

To volunteer or for more information, contact ScrippsAssists Project Lead Sasha Moola at smoola@scripps.edu.

Onsite Clinic October 14 on CA Campus

The next onsite immunization clinic on the California campus will be held Wednesday, October 14, from 9:30 to 11:30 AM, in the Hazen Theory building, rooms 203/205. Appointments are not needed.

Conducted by Sharp Rees-Stealy staff, the clinic will provide hepatitis B vaccination free of charge to all TSRI employees. Environmental Health & Safety Occupational Medicine must pre-authorize all other procedures based on the employee's working conditions. These procedures include tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (Tdap) vaccines and other titers, immunizations and procedures.

Send comments to: mikaono[at]scripps.edu

Popular Thriller References Romesberg Lab Work
rollins
The Romesberg lab’s groundbreaking research in engineering a live bacterium with an expanded DNA code is referenced (page 381) in New York Times best-selling author James Rollins’ thriller The Sixth Extinction: A Sigma Force Novel. One reviewer called the book a “perfect mix of science fact and fiction.”

SEARCH NEWS & VIEWS

Team Identifies Potential Target for Individualized Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Researchers Identify Promising Drug Candidate to Treat Chronic Itch that Avoids Side Effects

Michael Oldstone, Courtney Miller Named 2015 TSRI Outstanding Mentors

Scientists Win $1.5 Million to Investigate Sense of Smell