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Institute News

Registration open for San Diego aging research meetings in March

AuthorGreg Calhoun
Date

March 12, 2025

abstract illustration of DNA and clocks

There are two exciting opportunities in March for individuals interested in learning more about aging research conducted in San Diego and across the country.

San Diego Nathan Shock Center Symposium

On Wednesday, March 26, 2025, the San Diego Nathan Shock Center will hold its annual symposium on “The Heterogeneity of Aging” at the Salk Institute in the Conrad T. Prebys Auditorium and on Zoom. Speakers and topics for the event include:

  • Hongkui Zeng, PhD, Allen Institute for Brain Science – “Dynamic changes of cell types in the aging brain” 
  • Tony Wyss-Coray, PhD, Stanford University – “Young blood for old brains and the quest to slow aging” 
  • Adam Salmon, PhD, Barshop Institute at UT Health San Antonio – “Understanding the translational potential of geroscience from cells to primates” 
  • Lingyan Shi, PhD, University of California San Diego – “Optical Metabolic Nanoscopy for Studying Aging and Diseases” 

More information is available on the symposium website.

Register online to attend by Monday, March 17, 2025.

La Jolla Aging Meeting

The La Jolla Aging Meeting follows the next day on Thursday, March 27, 2025. It also will be held at the Salk Institute in the Conrad T. Prebys Auditorium. The event will include scientific presentations and networking with a focus on postdoctoral researchers and students.  

Nathan Le Brasseur, PhD, director of the Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging at the Mayo Clinic, will present the keynote address. 

More information is available on the meeting website.  

Register online to attend by Monday, March 17, 2025.

Alessandra Sacco, PhD, professor in the Center for Cardiovascular and Muscular Diseases at Sanford Burnham Prebys, and dean of the institute’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, is a cohost for both events. Peter D. Adams, PhD, director and professor in the Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys, is a cohost for the La Jolla Aging Meeting.

About the San Diego Nathan Shock Center
The San Diego Nathan Shock Center (SD-NSC), led by Gerald Shadel, PhD, Audrey Geisel Chair in Biomedical Science and professor in the Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute, was established in the fall of 2020 with the overall goal of understanding the heterogeneity of aging in order to allow development of personalized interventions to increase the number of years of healthy life.

To this end, the center provides three novel scientific Research Resource Cores to develop new human cell models of aging and enable the integrated analysis of molecular, cellular and tissue heterogeneity. The SD-NSC also supports and advocates basic biology of aging research in general through the development, training and mentoring activities of a Research Development Core and robust outreach efforts. All of these activities are accomplished via a consortium of three premier research institutions on the La Jolla Research Mesa: the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Sanford Burnham Prebys and the University of California San Diego.

Alessandra Sacco serves as director of the SD-NSC Research Development Core and Peter Adams serves as codirector of the SD-NSC Heterogeneity of Aging Core.

Institute News

Science in Pictures

AuthorScott LaFee
Date

March 10, 2025

spider coated in gold

A spider is coated in gold to prepare it as a specimen for scanning electron microscopy. Gold is used because of its high electrical conductivity, which enables the electron beam to interact with a specimen more effectively.

Image courtesy of Steve Gschmeissner.

Institute News

Investigating individual immune responses to COVID-19 vaccination and infection

AuthorGreg Calhoun
Date

March 3, 2025

mRNA concept stock image

New study analyzes how the set of proteins in blood plasma changes following vaccination and infection, and may contribute to improving vaccine development

While many people have received similar mRNA vaccinations to protect against COVID-19, the strength and duration of the resulting immunity varies. It remains unclear exactly what causes individuals’ immune systems to react differently to the COVID-19 vaccine and other immunizations.

To get a better understanding of this phenomenon, scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys, Seer Inc. and Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul examined the type and amount of virtually all proteins in the blood plasma of 12 volunteers as they received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The research team published the results of this pilot study in the Journal of Proteome Research on February 4, 2025, detailing the first attempt to comprehensively explore how an mRNA vaccine changes the mix and concentration levels of proteins known as the proteome.

The scientists were able to study a set of more than 3,000 proteins, within which they found a set of proteins that changed following each dose of vaccine. The authors also found a set of proteins that could distinguish between research participants who had or had not tested positive for COVID-19 in the months after receiving the second dose of vaccine.

While more research is needed with larger groups of research volunteers, this pilot study suggests that studying proteome changes can increase our understanding of how individuals’ immune systems react differently to immunization. Future findings from additional experiments may reveal methods for developing more effective vaccines.

Svetlana Maurya, PhD

Svetlana Maurya, PhD, is director of the Sanford Burnham Prebys Proteomics Shared Resource.

Lucélia Santi, PhD, professor adjunto at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, is the senior and corresponding author on the study.

Ting Huang, PhD, a scientist at Seer Inc. focused on data science and machine learning, is first author on the manuscript.

Additional authors include:

  • Alex Rosa Campos, Ramón Díaz and Svetlana Maurya, from Sanford Burnham Prebys
  • Jian Wang, Alexey Stukalov, Khatereh Motamedchaboki, Daniel Hornburg and Serafim Batzoglou, from Seer Inc.
  • Laura R. Saciloto-de-Oliveira, Camila Innocente-Alves, Yohana P. Calegari-Alves and Walter O. Beys-da-Silva, from Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
Institute News

Science in Pictures

AuthorScott LaFee
Date

March 3, 2025

sperm traveling through a fallopian tube - courtesy of Steve Gschmeissner

A colorized scanning electron micrograph reveals in fine detail human sperm traveling through a fallopian tube. Ciliated cells (purple with hairlike extensions) help move eggs from the ovary to the uterus and regulate flow of fluid. Secretory cells (green) produce a nutrient-rich fluid that bathes sperm and egg.

Image courtesy of Steve Gschmeissner.

Institute News

Science in Pictures

AuthorScott LaFee
Date

February 24, 2025

ifferential interference contrast image of an amoeba magnified 60 times

A differential interference contrast image of an amoeba magnified 60 times. Amoebas are a type of cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter their shape, primarily by extending and retracting pseudopods or “false feet.”

Image courtesy of Håkan Kvarnström, Stockholm, Sweden and Nikon.

Institute News

Science in Pictures

AuthorScott LaFee
Date

February 17, 2025

Melanoma or melanocyte skin cancer cells (orange) under microscope. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer, with rising prevalence. One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime. Because melanomas can develop anywhere in the body, they pose particular challenges for diagnoses and treatment.

Institute News

Curebound awards two grants to Sanford Burnham Prebys scientists

AuthorGreg Calhoun
Date

February 12, 2025

split photo of Brooke Emerling and Michael Jackson
Brooke Emerling, PhD, is director of the Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program. Michael Jackson, PhD, is senior vice president for Drug Discovery and Development in the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics.

The San Diego-based philanthropic organization has awarded $43 million in cancer research to date

Curebound recently announced the awarding of 17 grants in December 2024 for a total of $8.25 million in funding to advance cancer research in 2024.

Two new grants will support cancer research conducted by scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys. Since 2014, 32 Curebound grants have supported projects that included scientists at the institute.

A workaround for a tricky target

The TP53 gene contains the blueprint for constructing a protein called tumor protein p53. This protein is considered a tumor suppressor because it helps cells grow in a controlled manner.

When cell growth goes awry, however, the TP53 gene is a common culprit as the most frequently mutated gene in cancers. While this ubiquity has placed a bullseye on the mutated tumor protein p53 for aspiring drug developers, it has proven tricky to target directly.

Brooke Emerling, PhD, director of the Cancer Metabolism and Microenvironment Program, and her collaborators have shown that the growth of cancer cells with a mutated TP53 gene is dependent on lipid enzymes called phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphate 4-kinases (PI5P4K). Emerling and her collaborators have identified compounds that break down these enzymes.

The researchers have demonstrated the ability of these compounds to target and eliminate cancer cells with a mutated TP53 gene without harming normal cells. Curebound will support the team’s ongoing efforts to work around the difficult-to-target tumor protein p53 by instead targeting PI5P4K.

Next, the group plans to optimize the compounds that break down PI5P4K to develop cancer drugs that are strong candidates for future clinical trials.

Curebound collaborators: Patrick Kearney, PhD, director of Medicinal Chemistry in the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics, and Eric Wang, PhD, assistant professor in the Cancer Molecular Therapeutics Program.

Boosting the immune system against lung cancer

The immune system is one of the main defenses of the human body to fend off harmful pathogens and invasive cells such as cancer. Among all white blood cells, a particular cell type, called a T cell, can directly kill cancer cells and therefore plays an essential role in building anti-tumor immune responses.

Immunotherapies that boost the anti-cancer capabilities of T cells have revolutionized the way we treat cancer, especially in blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. More recently, immunotherapies are rapidly advancing to become mainstream treatments for solid cancers as well.

Currently, however, less than a third of patients with lung cancer benefit from immunotherapies. Pandurangan Vijayanand, MD, PhD, the William K. Bowes Distinguished Professor at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, discovered that certain T cells called cytotoxic T lymphocytes have molecular features associated with a robust immune response against lung cancer tumors. His work has identified new targets for lung cancer immunotherapy.

Curebound will support Vijayanand’s collaboration with Michael Jackson, PhD, senior vice president for Drug Discovery and Development in the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics, to use this research to identify agents to boost tumor immune responses.

The research team’s work has the potential to identify a new class of immunotherapy drugs for patients with lung cancer.

Curebound collaborator: Changlu Liu, PhD, director of Receptor Pharmacology in the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics.

Pandurangan Vijayanand

Pandurangan Vijayanand, MD, PhD, is the William K. Bowes Distinguished Professor at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology.

Institute News

Science in Pictures

AuthorScott LaFee
Date

February 10, 2025

confocal micrograph depicts an embryonic mouse kidney showing the collecting duct (blue) and nephron progenitor (yellow) cells

A confocal micrograph depicts an embryonic mouse kidney showing the collecting duct (blue) and nephron progenitor (yellow) cells.

Image courtesy of Lori O’Brien, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Nikon.

Institute News

Theo Tzaridis named 2024 recipient of Eric Dudl Endowed Scholarship

AuthorGreg Calhoun
Date

February 6, 2025

Theophilos Tzaridis profile photo
Theo Tzaridis, MD, a postdoctoral fellow at Sanford Burnham Prebys, was named the 2024 recipient of The Eric Dudl Endowed Scholarship.

Tzaridis, a postdoctoral fellow at Sanford Burnham Prebys, received the honor in recognition of his achievements in research on pediatric brain cancer

Theo Tzaridis, MD, was named the 2024 recipient of The Eric Dudl Endowed Scholarship at Sanford Burnham Prebys.

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, 17 postdoctoral scientists have received support for their research from the endowed scholarship fund.

Tzaridis is a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Peter Adams, PhD, director of the Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys. He studies ways to enhance immunotherapy for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), the deadliest brain tumor in children.

Tzaridis found that targeting a checkpoint molecule called CD155 leads to an enhanced immune response and tumor control. He presented the work at the annual American Association for Cancer Research conference. There he established a collaboration with a company that produces the only available antibody against CD155, enabling Tzaridis to continue his research by testing the antibody’s potential efficacy for treating DIPG in order to pave the way for a clinical trial to improve survival for patients.

David Brenner, Kevin Yip, Theo Tzaridis, the Dudls and Peter Adams

David Brenner, MD, Kevin Yip, PhD, and Peter Adams, PhD, with Robert James and Barbara Dudl and scholarship recipient Theo Tzaridis, MD.

Eric Dudl

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.

Tzaridis has garnered recognition and extramural funding throughout his career as a physician-scientist, including the 2023 Lenka Finci and Erna Viterbi Fishman Fund Award from Sanford Burnham Prebys and the best oral presentation from the American Association of Immunologists during the 2024 La Jolla Immunology Conference. His career goal is to advance research findings into clinical trials that benefit patients, including trials regarding the effective use of immunotherapy as a treatment for brain cancer.

“I’m truly grateful for the support of The Eric Dudl Endowed Scholarship,” said Tzaridis. “Eric’s inspiring legacy as an immensely dedicated postdoctoral cancer researcher lives on through the important work the scholarship helps fund.”

“Theo is an outstanding physician and a superb scientist,” said Adams. “I have no doubt that he will advance the science of brain cancer while also contributing to meaningful improvements for patients and their families.” 

For more information on setting up a scholarship or to learn more about our philanthropy program, please contact giving@sbpdiscovery.org.

Institute News

Science in Pictures

AuthorScott LaFee
Date

February 3, 2025

breast tissue showing contractile myoepithelial cells wrapped around milk-producing alveoli

Using confocal microscopy, this image depicts breast tissue showing contractile myoepithelial cells wrapped around milk-producing alveoli.

Image courtesy of Caleb Dawson at Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia and Nikon.