In Brief

Farzan Lab HIV Study Ranks in Discover’s Top Stories of 2015

A study led by Michael Farzan, professor at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) Florida campus, is ranked among Discover magazine’s top 100 stories of 2015. The study, published in the journal Nature, described the Farzan lab’s creation of a drug candidate that neutralizes a wide variety of HIV virus strains and provides vaccine-like protection in animal models.

Featured in Discover’s January/February 2016 issue, the ranking represents the best in science from the past year, according to the editors.

For further information on the study, see the News&Views article “Scientists Announce Anti-HIV Agent So Powerful It Can Work in a Vaccine.” To see the complete Discover top 100 stories of 2015, visit the publication’s website to view the entry on the Farzan study, see “Technique Blocks HIV Invasion.”

Ron Davis Elected AAAS Council Delegate

Ron Davis, professor and chair of TSRI’s Department of Neuroscience on the Florida campus, has been elected a council delegate from the Section on Neuroscience of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Davis’s responsibilities during his three-year term, which begins February 2016, include participating in AAAS organizational, electoral, procedural and policy matters.

Founded in 1848 and based in New York City, the 120,000-member AAAS is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing science.

Editors Council Offers Manuscript Peer Review, Editing Services

The TSRI Council of Scientific Editors offers unbiased manuscript and proposal peer review and copyediting to research associates and graduate students on both Scripps California and Scripps Florida campuses.

Designed as an additional review option, the council comprises volunteer editors representing all TSRI scientific departments. TSRI’s Career and Postdoctoral Services matches editing requests according to scientific field and reviewer availability. All submissions are kept confidential.

Instructions on how to request the service and the required Mentor Approval Form are available on the Career and Postdoctoral Services website.

Volunteering on the council also is an excellent resume-builder for postdoctoral fellows and senior graduate students and a great opportunity to share skills in scientific writing and editing. Editors and reviewers are expected to provide various levels of feedback, from general copyediting to scientific peer review, depending on the time available and manuscript requirements. To participate as a volunteer editor/reviewer, contact Career and Postdoctoral Services at cpso@scripps.edu.

Ten Tips: Surviving the Holidays

For anyone struggling with loneliness, loss and family tension, the joyful celebrations of the holiday season are often difficult times. Daphne Lurie, director of TSRI’s Counseling and Psychological Services, provides suggestions in her Ten Tips article to help survive the season with some peace and perhaps a little joy as well.

Lurie’s suggestions include:

Reach out to others. When sad or lonely, people tend to become isolated. To avoid this tendency, connect with others in your workplace, faith community or neighborhood and accept people’s generosity of spirit in getting together.
Honor your losses. For those reminded of someone dear during the holidays, now may be the right time to acknowledge that person. Rituals—like memories—matter, and there is no better way to acknowledge the pain of loss than to honor the memory of those who are gone.
Volunteer. Helping others in your community through local nonprofit organizations not only gets you out and about, but also generates happy, fulfilled feelings.

Lurie’s complete list of Ten Tips to Survive the Holidays is available on the Counseling and Psychological Services website.

Beware of Holiday “Phishing”!

According to David Matusiak, TSRI information security manager, the holiday season is a busy time for unscrupulous individuals who send fraudulent emails to trick computer users into clicking on a link, downloading file or responding to the message, thereby allowing the “phisher” to steal information such as TSRI login credentials.

Sample phishing message types include:

“Your email or TSRI credential is in peril. Respond immediately to confirm your login credentials.”
“Open enrollment for health benefits is happening now. Please click here or download this file.”
“Your Amazon account has been compromised. Please provide your credentials or log into your account.”
“We need to expedite a wire transfer of funds. Please reply with banking details.”
“Someone sent you an e-Card. Please click here to download or access the card.”
“A purchase order is waiting for your approval. Please click to submit this order.”
“Your package (via DHL, FedEx, UPS, USPS) is ready to pick up. Please click to see attached invoice.”
“Click here to receive huge discounts on popular gift items (such as a TV, watch or game system).”

All of these enticements and more attempt to trick computer users by conveying a sense of urgency, to prompt people to act quickly without considering the message’s legitimacy. End users are the first line of defense in protecting TSRI from these attacks.

Matusiak advises that when receiving these types of messages, consider if they actually apply to you and look for clues such as strange or unfamiliar To/From addresses, bad grammar, misspellings or generic greetings (such as “Dear customer,").

If you receive a suspicious message, take the following steps:

For obvious spam messages, simply delete as usual.
If you discover a well-crafted phishing message, then forward that message to nospam@scripps.edu so it can be added to filters on the mail server. Make sure to delete this message after forwarding it to IT Services.

If it looks legitimate, but you are not sure, call your campus Help Desk for assistance. The Help Desk regularly fields these reports and will know quickly if the message is legitimate. (In California, call 858-784-9369. In Florida, call 561-228-2850.)

IT Services wishes happy, safe holidays to all!

ScrippsAssists’ Holiday Toy Drive Deadline: December 14

The deadline to drop off donations for the CA ScrippsAssists annual Holiday Toy Drive is Monday, December 14. Donations of new and unwrapped toys for children of all ages will be delivered to ScrippsAssists community partner Home Start for distribution to local families in need.

Gifts may be dropped off in specially indicated boxes in the lobbies of the Molecular Biology, Immunology, Beckman (in the graduate lounge area), MEM and Hazen buildings.

Home Start is a San Diego nonprofit agency dedicated to child abuse prevention and family strengthening services.

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

CA Onsite Clinic: December 16

The next onsite immunization clinic on the California campus will be held Wednesday, December 16, 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

Professor Michael Farzan’s advance against HIV is ranked among Discover magazine’s top stories of 2015. (Photo by James McEntee.)

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