In Brief

Professor Kirill Martemyanov receives ASPET award

Kirill Martemyanov, PhD, professor on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has received the 2018 John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET). The award recognizes Martemyanov’s research into how G protein signaling pathways—which are critical targets for many new therapies—are organized and regulated in the retina, heart and brain.

In their recent award announcement, ASPET highlighted Martemyanov’s recent advancements in understanding signaling in the visual system and the central nervous system. Nominator Richard Neubig, MD, PhD, of Michigan State University, calls Martemyanov “an outstanding young molecular pharmacologist and neuroscientist.”

“I am both proud and humbled at the same time. I am very happy that our work on basics of cellular signaling is recognized as important,” says Martemyanov.

The John J. Abel Award is named after the founder of ASPET. It was established in 1946 to stimulate fundamental research in pharmacology and experimental therapeutics. ASPET will present the award during the ASPET Annual Meeting at Experimental Biology 2018 in San Diego on April 21, and Martemyanov will deliver his John J. Abel Award in Pharmacology Lecture, titled “Molecular Control of G protein Signaling,” on April 22.

“What I want to emphasize above all is that all this work is built on contributions of many talented scientists working in the lab over the years—so it is really their accomplishments more than mine,” says Martemyanov. “It is certainly a motivation to keep going, making new discoveries, learning new biology and just having fun doing this.”

TSRI announces two new faculty promotions

The Scripps Research Institute is proud to announce two new faculty promotions:

Joseph Kissil, PhD (FL): Professor, Department of Molecular Medicine

Katja Lamia, PhD (CA): Associate Professor with tenure, Department of Molecular Medicine

CA Onsite Clinic scheduled for Jan. 31

The next onsite immunization clinic on the California campus will be held from 9:30 to 11 a.m., Wednesday, Jan. 31, 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.

CA Biosafety Committee meeting materials due Feb. 2

To receive consideration at the next TSRI Institutional Biosafety Committee, registration documents must be submitted to Environmental Health and Safety by Friday, Feb. 2, via email to rachellv@scripps.edu. The meeting will be held 2:30 to 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 14, building 3301, P2 conference room.

CA Blood Drive to be held Feb. 2

ScrippAssists will host a San Diego Blood Bank (SDBB) blood drive on the California campus from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 2.

Donors are asked to make an appointment on the SDBB website. Walk-in donors will be welcomed. Guidelines and eligibility requirements are also listed on the blood bank website. Donors should bring photo identification, a record of medications they currently take and a list of locations visited outside the United States in the past three years.

The SDBB bloodmobile will be located in the parking lot adjacent to the Skaggs/MBB building, 10596 N. Torrey Pines Road. All donors will automatically be entered into a prize raffle. For further information on the blood drive, contact project coordinator Leslie Madden at lmadden@scripps.edu.

Dixon Lecture featuring Robert Schreiber scheduled for Feb. 6

The 2018 Frank J. Dixon Memorial Lecture, featuring a presentation by immunologist Robert Schreiber, PhD, will be held at 4 PM, Tuesday, Feb. 6, at the Auditorium at TSRI.

Schreiber is the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Immunology, Director of the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs and co-leader of the Tumor Immunology Program of the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Schreiber is renowned for his contributions to our understanding of the role of the immune system in controlling and shaping cancer. His studies focus on elucidating the biochemistry and molecular cell biology of cytokines and defining the role they play in promoting immune responses to cancer. He has been honored with several awards, including the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology, the Charles Rodolphe Brupbacher Prize for Cancer Research, the Lloyd J. Old Prize in Cancer Immunology and the Balzan Prize (shared with James Allison). Schreiber is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences (USA), has served on various Scientific Advisory and Editorial Boards and has authored more than 300 research articles. Schreiber will speak on “Cancer neoantigens as targets for natural and therapeutic anti-tumor responses.”

The annual lecture honors Frank Dixon, MD, a pioneering immunologist who for many years led the research division of the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation (predecessor organization to TSRI). He passed away in 2008 at the age of 87.

For directions and inquiries, please contact vogtadm@scripps.edu.

TSRI hosts 29th Annual Frontiers in Chemistry Symposium Feb. 9

The 29th Annual Frontiers in Chemistry Symposium at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) will present four distinguished speakers on research covering diverse topics within the molecular sciences from 1 to 5:30 p.m, Friday, Feb. 9.

Symposium speakers and their lectures include:

Karen N. Allen, PhD, professor of chemistry and professor of material science and engineering, Boston University, “Form Follows Function: Evolution of Protein Scaffolds for Phosphoryl Group Transfer”
Robert G. Bergman, PhD, Gerald E. K. Branch Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley, “The Application of Physical Organic Methods to the Investigation of Organometallic Reaction Mechanisms: A Nostalgia Trip Through Organometallic Chemistry of the Late 20th Century”
Shinji Murai, PhD, professor, Nara Institute of Science & Technology, Japan, “C-H Functionalization. Early Days and Recent Advances”
John C. Martin, PhD, executive chairman, Gilead Sciences, Inc., “Reflections on the Impact of Nucleotide Antiviral Drugs”

Open to the public, the symposium enables TSRI faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and neighboring scientists to hear from some of the world’s best researchers. Since the first event in 1990, the TSRI Department of Chemistry has hosted 114 lectures (by 100 different distinguished scientists), including 13 Nobel laureates (many receiving the prize in the years since speaking here).

Sponsors include Abbvie, Abide Therapeutics, ActivX, Achaogen, Alkermes, Arcus Biosciences, Biogen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Genentech, Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline, Incyte, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, Merck, Lilly, Millipore Sigma, Pfizer and Wuxi AppTech.

While symposium admittance is free, attendance is limited to 300. Directions to the event, which will be held at The Auditorium at TSRI, and parking details are available at the symposium website or by contacting Mishelle McClanahan-Shinn at mshinn@scripps.edu or chemsem@scripps.edu.

TSRI to present the Bernard Fields Lectures Feb. 13

The TSRI California community is invited to attend the 2018 Bernard Fields Lectures on Microbial Pathogenesis from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 13, in the Committee Lecture Hall, Skaggs Institute/Molecular Biology Building.

Speaker Stephen Goff, PhD, Higgins Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Columbia University, will present “Transcriptional Silencing of Retroviral DNAs in Embryonic Cells.”

Speaker Michael Diamond, MD, PhD, the Herbert S. Gasser Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Molecular Microbiology, Pathology and Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine, will present “New Insights into Pathogenesis by Emerging RNA Viruses.”

The event will be hosted by TSRI professor Michael B.A. Oldstone, MD. A reception will follow in the TSRI Faculty Club immediately after the lectures. This lecture series is sponsored by the Bernard Fields Memorial Lecture Fund, The Ray A. and Robert L. Kroc Lecture Fund and the Pathogenesis Affinity Group.

Presidential Lecture to be held Feb. 16

Join visiting Nobel laureate Roderick MacKinnon, PhD, of The Rockefeller University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, for a special Presidential Lecture on Feb. 16. MacKinnon will present a lecture titled “Regulation of Ion Channel Gating.” The lecture will be held from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. at The Auditorium at TSRI and is open to the public. The lecture will be hosted by TSRI Professor Ardem Patapoutian, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

Send comments to: press[at]scripps.edu

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Professor Kirill Martemyanov, PhD (Photo by James McEntee)

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