In Brief

Donna Blackmond, Benjamin Cravatt, Jeffery Kelly Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Donna Blackmond, Benjamin Cravatt and Jeffery Kelly, professors at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research.

“It is an honor to welcome this new class of exceptional women and men as part of our distinguished membership,” said Don Randel, chair of the AAAS board of directors. “Their election affords us an invaluable opportunity to bring their expertise and knowledge to bear on some of the most significant challenges of our day. We look forward to engaging these new members in the work of the academy.”

Blackmond, a professor in the Department of Chemistry, conducts research on the mechanistic aspects of the synthesis of complex organic molecules by catalytic routes; her lab also investigates nonlinear effects of catalyst enantiopurity and studies the origin of biological homochirality.

Cravatt, chair of the Department of Chemical Physiology and a member of the Dorris Neuroscience Center and Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at TSRI, studies the action and regulation of chemical messengers, particularly bioactive lipids, which play important roles in neurobiology, immunology and cancer.

Kelly, who is Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Chemistry, chair of the TSRI Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine and a member of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, focuses his research on understanding the molecular mechanisms of protein misfolding diseases well enough to develop new small-molecule therapeutic strategies against these degenerative disorders.

Founded in 1790, AAAS has counted as members such notable figures as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster, Margaret Mead and Martin Luther King Jr. The organization’s current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

The new AAAS class will be inducted at a ceremony on October 8 at the academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Other AAAS members from TSRI include Phil Baran, Floyd E. Bloom, Dale L. Boger, Gerald Joyce, Richard A. Lerner, Julius Rebek, Jr., Paul Schimmel, Peter Schultz, K. Barry Sharpless, Peter K. Vogt, Charles Weissman, James R. Williamson, Ian W. Wilson, Chi-Huey Wong, Peter Wright and Kurt Wüthrich.

Golfers Tee Up for Scripps Florida Cancer Research Challenge

Braving gray skies and a threat of rain, nearly 200 golfers hit the links on Saturday, April 16, for the fifth annual PGA National–Scripps Florida Cancer Research Golf Challenge at the PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

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The threat of rain did not deter participants of the fundraising tournament for Scripps Florida.

Over the past half-decade, the event has raised more than $700,000 in support of cancer research at Scripps Florida.

The event kicked off Friday night with a party for the generous sponsors, followed by a full 18 holes on two courses at PGA, including the world-famous Champion course and the Fazio course for the Cancer Research Gold Challenge—which was lined with signs from various donors honoring loved ones and celebrating the event.

The day also included a dramatic helicopter ball drop—several dozen bright yellow golf balls falling from a hovering chopper onto a pristine 18^th hole green to the cheers of enthusiastic golfers—plus dinner and several auctions, all to raise money for Scripps Florida cancer research.

When asked to comment on the daylong event, Tom Kodadek, head of the Department of Cancer Biology, said: “The best words I can say to all of you is ‘Thank you!’”

Kodadek, who played the Champion course, was joined on the links by Scripps Florida’s Associate Professor Christoph Rader; Henry Wilson, a postdoctoral fellow in the Rader lab; and Peter Norris, Scripps Florida Environmental Health & Safety director, and his son.

SoF Announces Travel Award Winners

The Scripps California Society of Fellows (SoF) has announced the winners of its spring cycle of travel awards, which provide postdoctoral fellows an opportunity to present their work at a national or international conference.

Anne-Laure Huber of the Lamia lab will attend the Society of Research on Biochemical Rhythm in May in Palm Harbor, Florida. Her work is titled "Cry2 suppresses transformation by destabilizing c-Myc."
Joseph Cornella of the Baran lab will attend the Gordon Research Conference in Organic Reactions and Processes in July in Easton, Massachusetts. His research focuses on “Active Esters as Coupling Partners in Base Metal-catalyzed Cross-Couplings.”
Morten Nielsen of the Havran lab will attend the 7^th International Gamma Delta T-Cell Conference in June at Kings College, London, UK. His work is titled “Contributions of Skin-resident γδ T Cells to Psoriasis Formation and Accelerated Wound Healing."

The next award cycle application deadline will be in October. For further details, see the SoF website.

FL Career Workshop: Ace the Interview

Handling job interviews with confidence and ease is the topic of the next Scripps Florida career workshop, “Ace the Interview,” scheduled for Wednesday, May 4, from 3:30 to 4:30 PM.

Conducted by Briana Konnick, program coordinator for TSRI Career and Postdoctoral Services, the workshop will cover the basics of interviewing, including sample questions, response strategies, body language and interview etiquette.

Open to the entire Florida campus, the workshop will be held in classroom B159. Reservations are required.

Funding Fest: Grant Writing, Fellowship Opportunities

The Spring 2016 Funding Fest, a series of workshops on the “how-to” of grants and fellowships, offers two upcoming sessions:

Friday May 6: Basics of Mentored Grant Writing

University of California (UC) San Diego Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Bioengineering Peter Wagner will discuss types of grants, their structures and components (abstract, aims, method and budget), as well as strategies to write them. The session will be held from 1 to 3 PM on the UC San Diego campus in the Leichtag Building, room 107. Register online.

Monday, May 16: Fellowship Opportunities from Non-Federal Sources

A series of speakers from funding agencies will share their organizations’ current funding priorities, grant/fellowship opportunities, grant review processes and grant-writing tips. This first session in the series will present representatives from the American Heart Association. The workshop will be held at the TSRI Graduate Office, first floor, the Hazen Theory building. Register online.

Other agencies and workshop in the series include the American Cancer Society, Tuesday, June 7; the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, Thursday, June 17; and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Tuesday, June 21.

Open to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, the Funding Fest is sponsored by the Torrey Pines Training Consortium, a collaboration of TSRI, the Salk Institute, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and UC San Diego.

CA Meet the Alumni: Petra Pavlickova of Hologic

Petra Pavlickova, regulatory affairs manager at Hologic, a global healthcare and diagnostics company, is the featured guest at the next Scripps California Meet the Alumni event, to be held Monday, April 25, from 4 to 5 PM.

After earning a PhD in biochemistry from Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic, Pavlickova was a postdoctoral fellow in the Vogt lab from 2007 to 2010 studying oncogenic mechanisms of Class 1 P13-kinase regulation.

Each Meet the Alumni event features a guest speaker from TSRI’s alumni network, presented in a relaxed, informal discussion setting and open to postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. The event will be held in the Graduate Studies Office dining room, first floor, the Hazen Theory building. Light refreshments will be served. Reservations are required.

Lunch & Learn: Intuitive Eating

Options to maintain wellness without dieting will be explored at the next Lunch & Learn presentation, “Intuitive Eating: Cultivating a Healthy Relationship with Food and Your Body,” scheduled for Friday, April 29, noon to 1 PM.

Megan Holt, coordinator of nutrition and wellness at Potentia Family Therapy in San Diego, will share the benefits of “intuitive eating” in her presentation. She will discuss research findings on the effectiveness of diets and dieting, weight and health management and head/emotional hunger versus physical hunger.

The event, arranged by TSRI’s Office of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), will be held in the Beckman building’s Keck Amphitheater. For information on other CAPS services and resources, visit the department’s website.

CA Biosafety Committee Meeting Materials Due April 29

To receive consideration at the next TSRI Institutional Biosafety Committee, registration documents must be submitted to Environmental Health and Safety by Friday, April 29, via email to rachellv@scripps.edu. The meeting will be held Wednesday, May 11, 2:30 to 3:30 PM, in the P2 conference room, 3301 building.

Onsite Clinic May 4 on CA Campus

The next onsite immunization clinic on the California campus will be held Wednesday, May 4, from 9:30 to 11 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.

At the Auditorium: Chamber Music, Solo Violin

Mainly Mozart’s Spotlight Series offers an evening of chamber music on Saturday, April 30, featuring violinist Steven Copes, violist Hsin-Yun Huang, cellist Peter Wiley and clarinetist David Shifrin with David Jolley on the French horn and Anne-Marie McDermott on piano. Their program will include Beethoven’s Clarinet Trio in B-Flat Major, Op. 11 and Hungarian composer Ernö Dohnányi’s Sextet in C Major, Op. 37. A 6:30 PM wine reception will precede the 7:30 PM concert. For ticket information, visit the Mainly Mozart website.

The La Jolla Music Society’s 2016 Discovery Series concludes Sunday, May 8, 3 PM, with a solo program featuring award-winning Czech violinist Josef Špaček performing works by Bach, Prokofiev, Saint-Saëns and more. For additional program and ticket information, visit the society’s website.

The Auditorium at TSRI is located at 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, San Diego 92121.

Send comments to: mikaono[at]scripps.edu

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The newest American Academy of Arts and Sciences members from TSRI are (top to bottom) Donna Blackmond, Ben Cravatt and Jeffery Kelly.

Reaching Out to Citizen Scientists
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Jennifer Fouquier (left) and Max Nanis, programmers in the Su lab at TSRI, staffed a booth at the San Diego Citizen Science Day Expo at the La Jolla Library on April 16. The lab’s Mark2Cure project has inspired hundreds of “citizen scientist” volunteers to comb through biomedical research to help advance science. (Photo by Madeline McCurry-Schmidt.)

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