Salk Non-Resident Fellow Wins Nobel Prize
Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Ph.D., a professor at the University of California in San Francisco and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies since 2001, will receive this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology for "the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase," the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden announced today.
The Nobel Foundation will present its prestigious prize to Dr. Blackburn in Stockholm during a formal ceremony on December 10. Blackburn shares the award with Carol W. Greider, Ph.D., a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Investigator Jack W. Szostak, Ph.D., a professor at Harvard Medical School.
"The discovery of telomerase and the role telomeres play in human biology by Salk Non-Resident Fellow Elizabeth Blackburn and her colleagues undoubtedly opened a new door for cancer research while also deepening our understanding of the aging process," said Salk President William R. Brody. "We applaud their contributions and the impact they are having today toward the development of treatments to improve the human condition."
12th Annual Coverage, Reimbursement and Health Policy Conference
Madison Hotel, Washington DC
November 9-10, 2009
Expert speakers will address the impact on reimbursement within the context of current reform proposals. Attendees will learn about current reimbursement trends in both the private and public healthcare systems. And while trends are always in flux, attendees will also have the chance to discuss forthcoming changes in reimbursement including greater use of evidence-based medicine and comparative effectiveness; new coding trends and international trends.
The program will begin with an afternoon dedicated to Reimbursement Basics and Strategy. Attendees will learn the basics of the reimbursement process and how to develop a reimbursement strategy. In addition, participants will be able to work on hypothetical case examples utilizing lessons learned from the instructive session.
Who Should Attend? Reimbursement Specialists, Quality Assurance, Sales & Marketing, Compliance Officers and Research & Development
Fees and Registration: MDMA Members: $695 / Non members: $895
(Additional $100 for reimbursement 101)
VIEW AGENDA & REGISTER
Researchers Identify Gene Variant Linked to Glaucoma
An international team, led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the National Eye Institute, has discovered gene variants for glaucoma in a black population. The finding could lead to future treatments or a cure for this disease, which leads to blindness in two million Americans each year.
The study by Kang Zhang, MD, PhD, Director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine and professor of ophthalmology and human genetics at the Shiley Eye Center at UC San Diego and J. Fielding Hejtmancik, MD, PhD, medical officer and chief of the Ophthalmic Molecular Genetics Section at the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, along with the Barbados Family Study Group and colleagues in the United States, China and Barbados, will be published in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) the week of September 21.
Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness among blacks, affecting close to five percent of the population. The researchers chose to conduct the study in the Afro-Caribbean population of Barbados, where the incidence of glaucoma is double that figure – nearly 10 percent of all residents of the island – and where there is a strong genetic predisposition.
Five UCSD Researchers Recipients of NIH Awards to Encourage High-Risk Research and Innovation
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today that it is awarding $348 million nationwide to encourage investigators to explore bold ideas that have the potential to catapult fields forward and speed the translation of research into improved health. Five researchers from the University of California, San Diego have been awarded grants totaling $8.5 million for their innovative research.
The UC San Diego award winners include:
- Pioneer Award-winner Sylvia M. Evans, PhD, Professor of Pharmacology at UCSD’s Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
($2.5 million over five years)
and New Innovator award winners ($1.5 million each, over five years):
- Adah Almutairi, PhD, assistant professor, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Adam Engler, assistant professor of bioengineering, UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering
- Alysson R. Muotri, PhD, assistant professor in the Departments of Pediatrics at UCSD and Rady Children’s Hospital and UCSD’s Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine
- Leor Weinberger, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, Division of Physical Sciences
“We are extremely proud to have five researchers from UC San Diego selected for these prestigious awards,” said Arthur B. Ellis, UC San Diego Vice Chancellor for Research. “Dr. Evans was one of only 18 Pioneer Award winners, and UCSD researchers were selected for four out of a total of 55 Innovator Awards given nationally by the NIH. This is an affirmation of the cutting-edge work being done at UC San Diego to transform biomedical discoveries into therapies to improve human health.” Read more about the award recipients.
Scripps Team Finds Missing Puzzle Piece of Powerful DNA Repair Complex
Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have found, crystallized, and biologically characterized a poorly defined component of a key molecular complex that helps people to avoid cancer, but that also helps cancer cells resist chemotherapy.
The research was published in the October 2, 2009 issue of the journal Cell.
This biological machine—the Mre11-Rad50-Nbs1 (MRN) complex—senses and repairs serious forms of DNA damage, the kind that occur when both strands of the DNA helix are severed. In the new study, the scientists show how the Nbs1 component—the last major component of the complex to be described—acts like flexible arms on an octopus, reaching out and grabbing molecules needed to help in the active repair of these double-strand breaks.
Scientists believe such breaks (DNA double strand breaks, or DSBs) occur normally about 10 times a day per cell, due to normal DNA processes including replication as well as hazards such as sun exposure, etc. If these breaks are not fixed, dangerous chromosomal rearrangements occur that can lead to cancer.
Mechanism for Potential Friedreich's Ataxia Drug Uncovered
Using clever chemistry, a Scripps Research team has pinpointed the enzyme target of a drug group that stops the progression of the devastating disease Friedreich's ataxia in mice and may do the same for humans. The findings, developed in collaboration with scientists from Repligen Corporation, help advance this treatment approach one step closer toward human clinical trials, which will be a welcome event for disease sufferers who currently have few treatment options.
The work, reported as the cover article of the September 25, 2009 issue of the journal Chemistry & Biology, could also lead to treatments for related conditions such as Huntington's disease and the spinocerebellar ataxias.
"It will be very rewarding if our work actually leads to a therapy for Friedreich’s," says Joel Gottesfeld, a professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and leader of the Scripps Research team that discovered the potential treatment. "This is a horrible disease."
Departing MediVas Selling Equipment
MediVas is closing its San Diego operation. It plans to sell as much of the equipment in its 50,000 square-foot R&D facility directly to local life science companies at as little as 25 percent to 35 percent of its original value. Their wares include lab equipment, office equipment, furniture and fixtures, unopened lab supplies, etc. Ken Carpenter said they will accept interested buyers only through appointment on Oct. 6, 7, and 8. To set an appointment to view the available materials, interested buyers should contact MediVas at 858-622-2005.
The high-value equipment being sold at steep discounts includes a BD Canto I Flow Cytometer with two computers and software, a Nikon TE2000S inverted microscope with color digital camera and a Beckman Coulter Optima MAX Ultracentrifuge.
Scripps Research and GNF Scientists Make Advance Against Melanoma
A team of researchers at The Scripps Research Institute and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) has identified a potential new drug target for malignant melanoma, a deadly type of skin cancer that kills thousands of people in the United States every year.
This new target is a protein called TYRO3, and its discovery may lead to new treatments for melanoma. In an upcoming issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists describe how the gene works and show how blocking it affects cancer cells.
"Knocking down this gene [altering it to decrease its expression] inhibits tumor formation in mice," explains the paper's first author Shoutian Zhu, Ph.D., who conducted the research with Heiko Wurdak, Ph.D., and their colleagues at Scripps Research and GNF. The work was led by Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D., who is the Scripps Family Chair Professor of Chemistry and director of GNF, and Xu Wu, Ph.D., adjunct assistant professor at Scripps Research and associate director of biological chemistry at GNF.
Meg Whitman Campaigns During Visit at Gen-Probe
Gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO, made a campaign story at Gen-Probe.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman said during a visit to Gen-Probe in San Diego last month that she would suspend Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature environmental initiative if elected.
The former eBay CEO told an audience at the diagnostics company that she would issue an executive order suspending the law that restricts emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, until its long-term economic consequences are better understood.
The landmark bill, AB 32, was passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor in 2006.
“As governor, I would work hard to protect our environment,” she said. “But the needs of our environment have to be balanced with the needs of our people and the needs of our economy,” the Union Tribune reported. “We have too many overreaching environmental regulations that have left us at an economic disadvantage to our neighboring states, and AB 32 is a prime example.”
Whitman, 53, a billionaire who has been campaigning for governor since February, formally announced her candidacy Tuesday in Fullerton.
Also seeking the 2010 Republican nomination for governor are state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former Rep. Tom Campbell. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is the only announced major Democratic candidate for governor, although state Attorney General Jerry Brown is expected to join him.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Holds Its First Day of Service
San Diego employees of Vertex Pharmaceuticals spend their first Day of Service helping with a Habitat for Humanity home under construction.
About 800 employees of Vertex Pharmaceuticals took part in the first company-wide Day of Service on Friday, September 18. About 100 of those people work for Vertex in San Diego, where the science for the company’s promising cystic fibrosis drug originated. The event is now expected to become annual, and will be known as the Joshua Boger Day of Service in honor of the company’s founder and longtime CEO, who retired earlier this year.
In San Diego, the San Diego Science Festival and the BioBridge initiative of the University of California San Diego provided company scientists the opportunity to visit 10 area schools to talk about science, give hands-on presentations on recent Vertex projects and answer students’ questions about scientific careers.
The Scientist Conducting Best Place to Work Survey
The Scientist's Best Places to Work survey is back for the 8th year. It’s a little different this time. For 2010, all three surveys - Academia, Industry and Postdocs - all opened at once.
Complete the survey and have a chance to win one of three $250 Amazon.com gift cards. The link to the survey is www.bptw.org and www.the-scientist.com/bptw for past year's results.
Salk Team Turns Cord Blood Cells into Stem Cells
Researchers at the Salk Institute say they've been able to reprogram cord blood cells to make them very similar to embryonic stem cells.
Stem cells can potentially become any tissue in the body, and their therapeutic promise is great. But embryonic stem cells are controversial because you have to destroy embryos to harvest them. And using reprogrammed adult stem cells is not ideal, given the many mutations those mature cells have undergone.
That's why scientists at Salk Institute say their success in reprogramming umbilical cord blood cells into stem cells is significant. Dr. Izpisua Belmonte describes cord blood cells as primitive cells with no mutations. He says they are unique in their ability to be transplanted without being rejected by the person's immune system.
Furthermore, cord blood banks could provide a potentially unlimited supply. Belmonte says this process will require more testing to make sure the stem cells are safe and effective in practice. KPBS radio featured the news.