Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a blood clot, with red blood cells tangled in fibrin, a tough, insoluble fibrous protein that acts like a molecular glue and is essential for clotting and wound healing.
Image courtesy of Thomas Deerinck, UC San Diego.
The fourth annual SoCal Metabolism Symposium brought together hundreds of experts and trainees to share the latest advances
SoCal Metabolism Symposium co-organizer Brooke Emerling, PhD, opened the meeting held at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute on Friday, March 20, 2026, by celebrating the event’s momentum.
“In 2023, when it started, we had about 12 talks, 28 posters, about 120 attendees and three sponsors, and now we’re up to 18 talks, 64 posters, more than 200 attendees and six sponsors,” said Emerling, director of and associate professor in the Sanford Burnham Prebys Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program.
Speakers were mostly postdoctoral researchers and graduate students from Sanford Burnham Prebys, the Salk Institute, the University of California Irvine, the University of Southern California, the University of California Los Angeles and the University of California San Diego.
The event began with a session of scientific talks focused on the theme of cancer metabolism. Aaliyah Balagtas, a graduate student in the lab of Cosimo Commisso, PhD, at Sanford Burnham Prebys, discussed her research on a cellular scavenging process known as macropinocytosis that pancreatic tumors use to survive and grow when resources are scarce. The morning continued with a second thematic session focused on metabolism in aging and cell fate.
Before the event’s lunch break and poster viewing, Emerling introduced the symposium’s first-ever guest speaker from outside Southern California, Navdeep Chandel, PhD, the David W. Cugell, MD, Professor and professor of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care), Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at Northwestern University.
Chandel began by sharing his delight that the speakers in the morning sessions showed genuine enthusiasm and interest in studying mitochondria and targeting metabolism to improve human health and treat disease. He thinks there is a significant opportunity to use the fundamental knowledge we’re learning about intermediary metabolism in mitochondria and translate it into concrete advances for human health.
Brooke Emerling, PhD, is director of and associate professor in the Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.
Chandel focused on one of his lab’s translational projects studying metformin, a longstanding, widely used, cheap and safe drug for treating high blood sugar in prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. Various studies have suggested that metformin also has anti-cancer effects and may reduce inflammation, but it was not clear how the drug worked in our bodies or cells to cause any of this to occur. Chandel shared soon-to-be-published data regarding how metformin builds up in the gut after being taken as a pill, and how it influences mitochondria there to systemically lower blood sugar.
The afternoon opened with a third set of thematic podium presentations centered on the topic of physiological metabolism and new techniques. The fourth and final session of scientific talks were grouped around the theme of immunometabolism.
Cosimo Commisso, PhD, is the deputy director of the institute’s NCI-Designated Cancer Center and a professor in the Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.
The symposium’s closing podium talk was the Gina Lee Memorial Keynote, a lecture honoring cancer signaling and metabolism expert Gina Lee, PhD, an assistant professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of California Irvine, who passed away on June 23, 2024, at the age of 39.
Cosimo Commisso, PhD, the deputy director of the institute’s NCI-Designated Cancer Center and a professor in the Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program, delivered the 2026 Gina Lee Memorial Keynote and focused on a new direction for his lab. Aging is a major risk factor for pancreatic cancer that also can limit treatment options if a patient is too frail to be safely treated with surgery or other alternatives.
The average age of a patient diagnosed with pancreatic cancer is 70, and nearly two-thirds of cases are in people over the age of 65. Commisso and his lab members are rethinking how therapies in development will work for a frail and aging population that represents the majority of patients.
Following Commisso’s keynote address, the 2026 SoCal Metabolism Symposium concluded with a reception and second poster session. The next SoCal Metabolism Symposium will be held in March 2027 at the University of California Irvine.
Emerling organized the event in partnership with Peter James Mullen, PhD, assistant professor of Microbiology and Immunology in the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, and Cholsoon Jang, PhD, assistant professor of Biological Chemistry at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine.
False color scanning electron micrograph of a single human ovum or egg cell. Human ova are among the largest cells in the human body and are visible to the naked eye, roughly the size of a single, small grain of sand.
Image courtesy of SPG.
Scientists gathered at the 9th annual La Jolla Aging Meeting on Thursday, March 19, 2026, in the Salk Institute’s Conrad T. Prebys Auditorium
The event brought together 286 attendees and featured short talks from San Diego-based postdoctoral researchers and students studying the biology of aging.
Anamika Yadav, a research assistant in the lab of Sanju Sinha, PhD, at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, discussed her work studying aging by detecting structural alterations in cells and tissues over time captured in images taken of routine medical biopsies. She used data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression Project, a major National Institutes of Health Common Fund initiative that gathered samples from 970 non-diseased individuals aged 20 to 70. Yadav trained a computational model on more than 25,000 histopathology slides from 40 tissue types to define aging patterns in different tissues. By this approach, Yadav defined distinct patterns of aging in different tissues which ultimately can help to predict specific diseases of aging.
Beatrice Silvestri, PhD, a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Yu Xin (Will) Wang, PhD, at Sanford Burnham Prebys, shared findings from her work on an enzyme called 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH). Researchers have defined 15-PGDH as a gerontological enzyme or “gerozyme” due its connection with aging in multiple tissues. Silvestri presented results from studying the effects of blocking 15-PGDH to ameliorate the degeneration of the connection between motor neurons and skeletal muscle fibers. Inhibition of this gerozyme might have potential for healthy aging and prevention of many diseases of aging.
In addition to these podium presentations, four Sanford Burnham Prebys scientists shared their research results during the meeting’s poster sessions:
The 2026 La Jolla Aging Meeting concluded with a keynote address by Ana Maria Cuervo, MD, PhD, Distinguished Professor and Robert and Renée Belfer Chair for the Study of Neurodegenerative Diseases at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Peter Adams, PhD, director of the Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys, co-organized the La Jolla Aging Meeting with Alessandra Sacco, PhD, dean of the Sanford Burnham Prebys Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and a professor in the Center for Cardiovascular and Muscular Diseases, and Salk Institute faculty members Jan Karlseder, PhD, and Gerald Shadel, PhD.
Yin, a postdoctoral associate at Sanford Burnham Prebys, received the honor in recognition of her achievements in research on cancer and aging
Shanshan Yin, PhD, was named the 2025 recipient of The Eric Dudl Endowed Scholarship at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute.
The scholarship fund was established at the institute to remember Eric Dudl, a postdoctoral researcher whose life was tragically cut short by cancer at the age of 33. Since 2007, 18 postdoctoral scientists have received support for their research from the endowed scholarship fund.
Yin is a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Peter Adams, PhD, director of the Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys. She wants to understand why the incidence of cancer increases with age. Yin studies changes in gene expression and immune system activity in breast cancer tumors as mice age.
Her research has shown that part of the reason that breast cancer is more common with age is because of an impaired immune system. Immune dysfunction due to aging allows the tumors to grow more frequently and more rapidly. Additional research on these findings may guide future preventive treatments.
Yin has garnered recognition throughout her scientific career, including the 2022 Lenka Finci and Erna Viterbi Fishman Fund Award from Sanford Burnham Prebys.
“I’m grateful for the Dudl family’s kindness and generosity,” said Yin. “I am moved by Eric’s determination, bravery and love for life and for science, and I would like to carry his example with me going forward and do my best to honor his legacy.”
“It’s been a real pleasure working with Shanshan over the years,” said Adams. “She truly does embody Eric Dudl’s commitment to and passion for science which is expressed so well by this inspirational award.”
The Eric Dudl Endowed Scholarship at Sanford Burnham Prebys was established at the institute to remember Eric, a postdoctoral researcher whose life was tragically cut short by cancer at the age of 33.
For more information on setting up a scholarship or to learn more about our philanthropy program, please contact giving@sbpdiscovery.org.
Colorized scanning electron micrograph of surface of human skin. The outermost layer of skin is called the stratum corneum and is composed primarily of keratinocytes, living and dead. Dead cells form horny scales, and release peptides called defensins, which are part of the first line of immune defense mechanisms.
Image courtesy of Eye of Science/SPL.
Colorized scanning electron micrograph depicts normal red blood cells (red, concave) with elongated blood cells indicative of sickle-cell disease (pink).
Image courtesy of Eye of Science/SPL.
Colorized scanning electron micrograph of human lung tissue, depicting alveoli and bronchus. Lung alveoli are tiny, grape-like sacs, numbering in the millions, where essential gas exchange (oxygen/carbon dioxide) occurs. The bronchus is a major airway that branches from the trachea to conduct air into the lungs.
Image courtesy of Dennis Kunkel/SPL.
The Sanford Burnham Prebys Center for Cardiovascular and Muscular Diseases recently announced that Jimmy Massenet, PhD, is a recipient of a 2026 Science in Motion Travel Award.
Massenet, a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Pier Lorenzo Puri, MD, was selected to attend the 2026 Muscle Stem Cells and Regeneration Meeting held from July 19-24, 2026, in Victoria, the capital of the Canadian province of British Columbia.
The goal of the Science in Motion Travel Award is to support conference participation for emerging researchers in labs with a primary affiliation in the Center for Cardiovascular and Muscular Diseases.
Applications will open again on July 15, 2026.
Colorized scanning electron microscope composition of human sperm traveling through a fallopian tube.
Image courtesy of Steve Gschmeissner/Getty.