SEARCH NEWS & VIEWS


Scientists Find Protein 'Talks' to Wrong Partners in Cystic Fibrosis
Team Prolongs 'Young Adult' State in Worms
Study Reveals Potential Treatment for Life-Threatening Viral Infections
Researchers Win $2.8 Million to Unravel Cell Basics Linked to Disease
NEWS & VIEWS HOME
PAST ISSUES
KUDOS
SCIENTIFIC CALENDAR
CA AUDITORIUM EVENTS
CONTACT

FOLLOW US

Of Note


Julius Rebek Receives Honorary Doctorate from Spanish University

Julius Rebek, professor and director of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), has received an honorary doctorate in recognition of important contributions to the fields of science and technology from the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló de la Plana, Spain.

A Guggenheim Fellow at the Universitat Jaume I in 1985, Rebek maintains several collaborations with the university’s faculty and with other Spanish research institutions. Additionally, his lab has hosted 17 postdoctoral fellows from Spain, many of whom are now professors.

Rebek’s research examines the basic questions of molecular recognition, self-assembly, catalysis and complementarity by designing novel organic molecular nanocapsules and synthetic receptors. Additional information is available on Rebek’s faculty page and lab website.


Sandra Encalada and Michael Petrascheck Win Glenn Award

TSRI’s Sandra Encalada, the Arlene and Arnold Goldstein Assistant Professor, and Michael Petrascheck, assistant professor, have received the Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging, merit awards from the Glenn Foundation For Medical Research that provide unsolicited funds to researchers investigating the biology of aging.

Using a variety of approaches, Encalada studies the mechanisms of intracellular transport in aging neurons, as well as how defective intracellular transport leads to neurodegeneration in models of aging diseases such as Alzheimer’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), prion diseases and transthyretin amyloidosis. More information on Encalada’s research is available on her faculty webpage and lab website.

The Petrascheck lab uses a diverse toolbox of genetics, drug screening, imaging and study of the Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) nematode to determine the mechanisms underlying the aging process, focusing on how the nervous system modulates aging and how the nervous system itself is affected by aging. For further information on his research, visit the Petrascheck faculty webpage and laboratory website.


Salome Murinello Awarded American Diabetes Association Fellowship

Salome Murinello, research associate in the Friedlander lab, has won an American Diabetes Association (ADA) Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, designed to support high-quality training for early-career researchers in disciplines and topics relevant to diabetes.

The highly competitive, three-year ADA fellowship also includes an invitation to the organization’s annual two-day Career Development Symposium for scientists, which offers peer-to-peer learning and a forum for open communication between young professionals and senior scientists/clinicians in diabetes research and clinical care.

Murinello’s research focuses on diabetic retinopathy, a complication of both type I and type II diabetes and the leading cause of blindness in working-age American adults. Specifically, her project, “FAAH and NAAA regulation of erucamide-mediated retinal neuroprotection and angiogenesis in diabetic retinopathy,” seeks to elucidate the regulation of retinal levels of a molecule—erucamide—important for proper blood vessel health in the retina.


Three TSRI Graduate Students Named ARCS Scholars

TSRI graduate students Rigo Citron-Colon, Danielle Grotjahn and Daisy Johnson have received Scholar Awards from the San Diego chapter of the Achievement Rewards for College Students (ARCS) Foundation, a national nonprofit organization advancing science and American competitiveness through grants to academically outstanding students pursuing degrees in science, engineering or medical research.

Citron-Colon, a second-year graduate student in the Conti lab, is working on a physiology research project titled “Nutrient and Temperature Homeostatis.”

Grotjahn, a third-year graduate student in the Lander and Encalada labs, focuses her research at the intersection of cell biology and structural biology; her project is titled “Ultrastructural analysis of motor protein conformations and regulation.”

Johnson, a second-year graduate student in the Havran lab, is pursuing a research project in immunology titled “Enhancing wound healing through the activation of γδ T cells.”

ARCS Scholars are selected annually by qualifying departments of science, engineering and medical research within the ARCS Foundation's 54 academic partner universities.





Send comments to: mikaono[at]scripps.edu

rebek
Professor Julius Rebek has received an honorary doctorate from the Universitat Jaume I in Spain recognizing his contributions to science and technology.