David Brenner with panelists Ehtisham Mahmud, Sanjeev Ranade and Alexandre Colas. Kurt Marek moderated the discussion. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.
Event recording now available for panel discussion with scientists held on April 15, 2026
David Brenner, MD, president and CEO of Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, welcomed members of the San Diego community to the first “Inside the Science” event held on April 15, 2026. This Discovery Series community engagement program offered a behind-the-scenes look at cardiovascular research.
Attendees participated in an afternoon exploring exciting developments in translating science into heart health. Kurt Marek, PhD, the chief research development officer at Sanford Burnham Prebys, moderated the discussion among three featured panelists:
Alexandre Colas, PhD, associate professor in the Center for Cardiovascular and Muscular Diseases at Sanford Burnham Prebys and associate dean of admissions for the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Ehtisham Mahmud, MD, professor and division chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at UC San Diego Health and the Edith and William Perlman Chair in Cardiology and executive director of the University of California San Diego Cardiovascular Institute
Sanjeev Ranade, PhD, assistant professor in the Center for Cardiovascular and Muscular Diseases at Sanford Burnham Prebys
The program explored how heart disease develops across the lifespan from genetic and early-life factors to aging-related conditions. It also highlighted emerging research and new treatments to repair the heart and improve patient outcomes.
Ranade discussed his research regarding the causes of congenital heart defects. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.
While there is no cost to attend “Inside the Science” events, philanthropy is vital to advancing the institute’s mission of improving human health through bold, innovative science.
Please consider a gift to help extend the Sanford Burnham Prebys mission to drive discoveries that improve lives.
Institute News
Q & A with Postdoctoral Researcher Nilofer Sayed, PhD, from the Dhar Lab
Meet one of our early-career scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute: Nilofer Sayed, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Debanjan Dhar, PhD. Sayed studies the progression of fatty liver disease to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma to identify new potential treatments that could reverse or halt disease advancement.
When and how did you become interested in science? Empathy for the sick led me to pursue a career as a physician in India. However, during my medical practice, I came to a point of understanding that I cannot help patients when existing treatment options are insufficient.
That insight led me to shift my gears and move towards a career in research to help find new therapies.
What are the key areas of research you focus on? I work in a liver condition called metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH, which involves the liver getting fatty and inflamed. The problem with this condition is that if it’s not treated on time, then it can progress to a much more severe form.
At this stage, healthy liver tissue is replaced by scar tissue. This impairs the liver and can progress further into cancer.
I’m studying ways to stop this progression into more severe forms of liver disease. My major focus is on a particular immune cell population in the liver called macrophages. By manipulating this cell population, I’m trying to alter the immune landscape of this disease and inhibit its progression.
This is becoming increasingly important as the incidence of MASH continues to rise. We need to be able to prevent patients from developing cirrhosis, liver failure or hepatocellular carcinoma.
How do you think about translating your findings to advance human health? I believe that what I am researching has great potential to one day reach and help patients in the clinic. Once we can clarify the targets and the mechanisms, we will be able to test peptides or small molecules that modify the targets in order to inhibit the progression of the disease.
We’re fortunate to have drug screening capability here at the institute. This makes us more confident in our ability to move things forward when we identify promising druggable targets.
What motivates you about your research? The underlying motivation is to improve the lives of people that are sick. Because that is a long-term goal, though, I think it is important to have other sources of motivation that are more immediate.
Every day I wake up, I love heading to the lab to explore my ideas. As I plan and design my experiments, I’m excited to see what answers I get from them. Another fun part of being in the lab for me is troubleshooting. I enjoy figuring out what might be going wrong in experiments, not only for myself, but also for my fellow lab members or colleagues who are feeling stuck. I love the feeling of fixing something that isn’t working and getting the research back on track.
I also get motivated by attending as many of the scientific talks and seminars as I can. The speakers’ creativity and their meticulous experiments inspire me and provide insight into many areas of biomedical research.
What do you like about working here? The work environment here gives researchers what they need to thrive. Collaboration is encouraged and the support that I get for my experiments from core facilities is wonderful.
I think Sanford Burnham Prebys has talented principal investigators that excel at generating ideas and guiding emerging scientists in the right direction. Also, this is a very translational research institute, which excites me because I know that what I achieve during my postdoctoral research has the potential of going forward and reaching patients.
This pushes me to work hard and accomplish something that can have an impact beyond scholarly publications by benefiting people.
What are your career goals? I would like to stay in academic science and eventually run my own research lab that would focus on developing targeted immunotherapies for hepatocellular carcinoma.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not in the lab? I love going to church and visiting people who are sick in their hospital rooms or in their homes to try and bring some cheer and comfort.
I also enjoy cooking and going on long walks to admire nature.
Postdocs at Sanford Burnham Prebys are pushing the boundaries of science every day through curiosity, collaboration, and innovation. This series highlights their unique journeys, what inspires their work, and the impact they’re making across our labs.
Speakers and attendees at the fourth annual SoCal Metabolism Symposium.
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.
Institute News
Q & A with Postdoctoral Researcher Dominic Denk, MD, MHBA, from the Karin Lab
Meet one of our early-career scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute: Dominic Denk, MD, MHBA, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Michael Karin, PhD. Denk studies cancer and gastrointestinal malignancies with a focus on how the immune system reacts to tumors and how to improve immunotherapies.
When and how did you become interested in science? It was quite by chance. I’m a physician by trade in Germany, and the first way I got into science was through medical school. You learn about topics such as biochemistry and physiology, and it leads you to wonder about what processes behind the scenes. These subjects sparked my interest, and I started reading articles and books on my own time in the library.
And then the second reason is that, in Germany, you are expected to do research for a few months to earn your academic credentials. It naturally pushed me into the research world and made me realize how much I like running experiments and analyzing data.
What did you imagine you would be doing professionally, and how did it evolve? I had many ideas. For quite some time while I was younger, I wanted to be a sports journalist.
My mom is a physician’s assistant and was always watching medical shows on TV in the background when I was growing up. I was never pushed into healthcare, but it was always present. Once I got to high school and found I enjoyed health and science courses, I started to think about going to medical school.
And once I started, I never looked back because I love being a physician.
What are the key areas of research you focus on? I work on cancer and gastrointestinal malignancies. I want to better understand how the immune system reacts to tumors and how to improve immunotherapies. Immunotherapies have become the standard of care for many cancers, but not necessarily those in the gastrointestinal tract.
Back in Germany. I worked on colorectal cancer and now I’m looking at pancreatic cancer. We want to know what makes pancreatic cancer metastasize to the liver because it is a tumor that spreads to the liver quite often.
Once it does, the prognosis is much, much worse. If we can learn what attracts pancreatic cancer cells to the liver and why the disease becomes more malignant there, it may lead to methods for preventing the cancer from spreading and better treating it if it has spread.
What motivates you about your research? Ultimately, it is about improving patient care. I have had the privilege of working in a large academic center that takes care of a lot of GI cancer patients. I have seen many patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergo liver transplantation and experienced a cure in the end.
But for most patients, it’s not the case. I have seen patients who came to the hospital concerned about weight loss only to be diagnosed with advanced stage cancers. I’ve cared for people over months and seen them deteriorate. It’s terrible and makes me wonder if there is something more we can do.
We’ve had great advances for many malignancies, but not for every patient. And research is how we will get to a better place for more patients and their families.
What do you like about working here? There is a great sense of community, I think, and tons of scientific seminars across different fields. Everybody is very friendly and collaborative.
One thing that stands out is that there is very little red tape when it comes to solving problems. Recently, we had an incubator breaking down. We wrote one email and it was fixed within an hour or so. And that could have been catastrophicand led to months of delays for many projects in our lab.
What are your career goals? Ideally, I will continue being a physician-scientist using the expertise I’m building upon here in the Karin lab. I would like to start a small lab so that I could continue to care for patients while working with trainees and mentees to maintainresearch momentum.
As a practicing physician and a researcher, I would love to help bridge the gap between the basic science laboratory bench and the clinic. Too many promising projects never make it past the lab bench to actually be tested in the real world. We’ll never know if some of these ideas could help people if we don’t advance them from petri dishes and animal models to see how they perform in clinical trials.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not in the lab? I’m doing tons of hiking and enjoy exploring the area. I try to spend as much time as possible on the beach, so my big non-science goal for 2026 is to learn how to surf.
Postdocs at Sanford Burnham Prebys are pushing the boundaries of science every day through curiosity, collaboration, and innovation. This series highlights their unique journeys, what inspires their work, and the impact they’re making across our labs.
From left to right: physician-scientist Angela Liou, MD; public health and nutrition policy expert Cheryl A.M. Anderson, PhD, MPH, MS; and researcher Lukas Chavez, PhD, MS.
The series highlights the groundbreaking work and unique perspectives of women leaders in the biomedical sciences
On February 11, 2026, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute hosted the second event in the Women in Science Lecture Series. The occasion opened with a presentation by Cheryl A.M. Anderson, PhD, MPH, MS, professor and dean of the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at the University of California San Diego and director of the UCSD Center of Excellence in Health Promotion and Equity.
Anderson introduced attendees to some of the pivotal findings of her mentors studying the effects of nutrition on public health, including the landmark dietary approaches to stop hypertension (DASH) clinical trial. Because of the challenges in achieving significant heart disease prevention benefits outside of the controlled environments used in studies such as the DASH trial, Anderson was determined to explore other approaches.
“I put together this concept that instead of asking the individual to figure it all out from our dietary recommendations, maybe we could figure out how to have a healthy, sustainable food system,” said Anderson.
“I see a sustainable food system as one that maintains our ability to get lots and lots of nutrition and where you meet the current population’s needs without compromising what future generations might also need.”
In addition to discussing her scientific journey, Anderson provided insight into her experience serving with other experts to provide input into two different iterations of the federal government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans. These guidelines from the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Agriculture set the standards for food in federally funded programs such as public school and day care lunches as well as the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) special supplemental nutrition program. Anderson shared her experience working collaboratively to provide science-based counsel in an ecosystem that also contains political considerations such as the interests of industries involved in agriculture and food production.
Anderson (at right) opened the event discussing her career journey focused on how to develop a healthy, sustainable food system. The event also featured a fireside chat and audience question-and-answer session with Anderson and Liou.
Lukas Chavez, PhD, MS, associate professor in the Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys and scientific director of the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Molecular Tumor Board at Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine, then moderated a fireside chat and audience question-and-answer session with Anderson and Angela Liou, MD, physician-scientist and pediatric oncologist with a dual appointment at Rady Children’s Health and the Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program at Sanford Burnham Prebys. Topics included: how new scientific insights are translated to reduce population-level health risks or guide care for children facing serious illnesses; how new technologies change the way you conduct research and deliver patient care; what can be done to ensure that scientific discoveries can be equitably accessed and lead to better outcomes for all; and what do future clinicians and scientists need in terms of skills, mindset and institutional support to succeed as public health researchers and physician-scientists.
The Women in Science Lecture Series, featuring quarterly events that are free and open to the public, is part of broader efforts at Sanford Burnham Prebys to foster an environment that nurtures the success of individuals from all backgrounds. The series is hosted by the Office of Workforce Engagement & Belonging and highlights the groundbreaking work and unique perspectives of women leaders in the biomedical sciences, while fostering mentorship and collaboration across the Torrey Pines Mesa.
Sanford Burnham Prebys scientists Ani Deshpande and Pamela Itkin-Ansari recently released episode six of the Discovery Dialogues Podcast focused on Metformin and other medications with origins as plant poisons.
Scientists and science communicators detail how caustic compounds meant to deter eaters of plants were harnessed to treat diabetes
The US Food and Drug Administration approved Metformin for use as a diabetes drug more than 30 years ago. This medicinal compound—prescribed to patients to help control high blood sugar—was discovered in nature through a toxic herb found in a variety of medieval remedies.
Sanford Burnham Prebys scientists Ani Deshpande, PhD, and Pamela Itkin-Ansari, PhD, recently released episode six of the Discovery Dialogues Podcast focused on Metformin and other medications with origins as plant poisons. The podcast features surgeon and writer Ambarish Satwik, MD, as well as endocrinologist David Nathan, MD, and Nir Barzilai, MD, a geneticist and longevity researcher.
Meet one of our early-career scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute: Ambroise Manceau, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Cosimo Commisso, PhD. Manceau studies pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma — the most common form of pancreatic cancer with only a 13% five-year survival rate.
When and how did you become interested in science? When I was very young, I was a bit of a nerd when it came to reading reviews of new scientific studies written for kids. Especially anything related to biology.
I lost sight of that interest at some point in my teenage years. I tried going into computer science, but I realized very quickly that it wasn’t a good fit for me. That forced me to do some deeper self-reflection about what I really wanted to do, and that brought me back to biology.
I started studying biology at college, and everything just clicked into place. I really found my way when I went to college.
What brought you to the Commisso lab at Sanford Burnham Prebys? I have an uncle that I always admired who is a researcher here in California. From talking with him, it sounded like a great place to work and live as a scientist. When I was an undergraduate in France, I decided to do a four-month internship abroad in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California.
I absolutely loved it, and I knew I wanted to return when I could. Because you can finish your graduate school program a bit faster in France, I decided to go back to France to earn my doctorate and then apply for postdoctoral positions in Southern California.
I was looking for labs conducting interesting research in the region, and that is when I found the Commisso lab. It has been a terrific fit for me.
What are the key areas of research you focus on? My broad focus is on metabolism and organelle biology in pancreatic cancer. My main project looks at macropinocytosis, which is a cellular process that allows cells to gather extra resources from their surrounding environments. Pancreatic cancer cells use this process as an adaptation because they exist in an environment where resources are scarce, and they need to find fuel for their expansion.
I study the contents taken in when pancreatic cancer cells contort their cell surfaces to create pockets called macropinosomes. By analyzing every single protein located on macropinosomes, I found that calcium and zinc transporter proteins present in macropinosomes also are required for macropinocytosis.
These proteins have never been targeted before in pancreatic cancer. By continuing to research them, our long-term goal is to use this strategy to cut the nutrient supply to tumors and see if we can inhibit tumor growth.
What motivates you about your research? One thing I enjoy is how you adjust your hypothesis based on what you are learning from the experiments. You need to adapt your hypothesis as you gain knowledge, but you don’t always realize it because it can happen one little step at a time.
Then you look at your project a year later, and it is very satisfying to see how much it evolved and how much you changed your mind by following the data.
Also, now that I have attended pancreatic cancer conferences and met with physicians and patients, I have more appreciation for the need to improve upon available therapies.
What do you like about working here? The people at Sanford Burnham Prebys embrace collaboration. They also are very curious, knowledgeable and kind. With the core facilities, workshops and other opportunities for learning and networking, we have so many resources available to us.
Then add on top of that the location in San Diego, which is a great hub for biomedical research and the biotech industry. And we have the Southern California coast, culture and weather for when we aren’t working.
Have you had an influential mentor? In addition to my uncle, my thesis mentor and principal investigator back in France were very influential in my professional development. Here, I feel like Cosimo is doing everything he can to get the best out of me, including supporting me to go to workshops and conferences.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not in the lab? I’m a bit addicted to rock climbing, and San Diego is a great place to be a climber. I have access to an incredible indoor climbing gym, but I also can go climbing outdoors within a 15-minute drive from where I live.
I also play a bit of tennis, go running and relax at the beach. And I’m painting some, which is something I used to do on rainy days in France. We don’t have many rainy days here, though, so I always want to be outside.
Postdocs at Sanford Burnham Prebys are pushing the boundaries of science every day through curiosity, collaboration, and innovation. This series highlights their unique journeys, what inspires their work, and the impact they’re making across our labs.
Meet one of our early-career scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute: Dana Mamriev, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Maximiliano D’Angelo, PhD. Mamriev studies the gateway between the DNA stored in the cell’s nucleus and the rest of the cell to better understand how changes in this junction contribute to cancer development.
When and how did you become interested in science? As a teenager, I was very into sports, and I was endlessly fascinated by the human body. I wondered what makes an athlete faster, stronger or better able to perform under pressure.
I started digging a bit into aspects of athletic performance and realized how much depth there is to molecular biology. I began to see that there are different types of muscle cells, how food is broken down to lipids, carbohydrates and amino acids, and that we have different metabolic pathways.
That was the beginning of my interest in science. When I started college, I took a few courses in biology and chemistry. I was immediately hooked. Before long, I knew I wanted to get some hands-on experience in research.
What did you imagine you would be doing professionally, and how did it evolve? Growing up, I was an athlete on the Israeli national team. I started racing kayaks. Later, I transferred to sailing in a two-person boat called a 470 because it is 470 centimeters long.
I raced in world championships, European championships, world cups and other events. It was fun, and I was quite serious about it until the age of 21 or so.
But even while training and competing, I was equally drawn to science. As an undergraduate, I joined a lab for what I thought would be a one-year research project on cancer and programmed cell death (apoptosis). I loved it so much that I stayed through my undergraduate studies, my master’s degree, and eventually my doctoral training. That experience cemented my commitment to a career in cancer research.
What brought you to the D’Angelo lab at Sanford Burnham Prebys? What drew me to the D’Angelo lab was its focus on fundamental mechanisms that drive cancer. Nuclear pore complexes are central to so many cellular processes and understanding how they go wrong in cancer has the potential to open new paths for treatment. That combination of basic science and translational impact made the lab the right fit for me.
During my PhD studies, my main project focused on breast cancer. So, I thought it could be a nice transition to study nuclear pore complexes in breast cancer. That ended up becoming my first project at Sanford Burnham Prebys.
What are the key areas of research you focus on? Our lab studies the nuclear pore complex. It’s basically a grouping of 32 proteins that are embedded in the nuclear envelope dividing the nucleus from the rest of the cell.
It is shaped like a pore and acts as a gate that controls what molecules come in and out of the nucleus where we store our DNA. In addition to this role in transport, the nuclear pore complex has many other functions, including in the cell cycle, gene expression and chromatin organization, and more.
The levels of some of the proteins in the nuclear pore complex are known to be elevated in different types of cancer. I focus on studying these changes in the nuclear pore complex in breast cancer and in lung cancer. I’m trying to understand how these changes are contributing to cancer developing and spreading to other parts of the body.
Middle image: Confocal image of an H1437 lung cancer cell showing nuclear pore staining (red) and mitochondria staining (green). Image credit: Dana Mamriev from the D’Angelo lab | Sanford Burnham Prebys.
What motivates you about your research? I think my main motivation is that I really like what I’m doing It’s the thrill of discovery and the challenge of solving difficult problems. Research often feels like piecing together a complex puzzle. When the data finally come together, it’s deeply rewarding. I especially enjoy the moments when a stubborn experiment finally reveals something new; those breakthroughs make all the effort worthwhile and inspire me to keep pushing forward.
What do you like about working here? We have a friendly and collaborative environment at Sanford Burnham Prebys. And we have many seminars that people attend and get to know each other, which helps with building collaborations. Also, the core research facilities here are top-tier and enable cutting-edge research.
Then you have San Diego as a hub for research, and especially here in La Jolla with all the great institutes around us. And we have all these biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies nearby as well. It is an outstanding place for scientists.
Have you had an influential mentor? Throughout my training, I’ve had, and still have, the privilege of working with mentors who are not only accomplished scientists but also generous teachers. Each brought something different: dedication, curiosity, discipline and patience. Their examples have been a constant source of motivation in my career.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not in the lab? I took up cycling after moving here and joined the San Diego Bicycle Club. I like to join their weekly rides, and sometimes I bike to work.
I started racing here as a cyclist. I’m familiar with racing in other sports, but racing in cycling was completely new for me. And I found it a bit funny that all the racing experience I have in kayaking and sailing is not helping.
I had to learn new strategies for when to conserve energy and when to go all out. I even got dropped from the peloton of competitors in my first race, so I’m learning the hard way. It just motivates me to better understand the sport, and to keep training and get better.
Postdocs at Sanford Burnham Prebys are pushing the boundaries of science every day through curiosity, collaboration, and innovation. This series highlights their unique journeys, what inspires their work, and the impact they’re making across our labs.
Meet one of our early-career scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys: Alexandra Houser, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Shengjie Feng, PhD. Houser is a structural biologist studying ion channels to better understand how the brain works.
When and how did you become interested in science? A family friend of ours was a scientist. When I was younger, she would take me to the woods near where my dad worked as a mechanic to look for owl pellets and put the tiny skeletons inside the pellets back together.
When I ended up going to community college, I found the science courses were the most interesting. I earned my associate’s degree in biology and then transferred to a university.
What did you imagine you would be doing professionally, and how did it evolve? I am always in awe of people that knew what they wanted to do their entire lives because I had no idea.
I remember back when I didn’t even know that research happened on university campuses. I was really surprised when people told me I could go work in a lab. I remember asking what class to sign up for and they said I could just go talk to a scientist if I was interested in what they were doing.
Soon after that, I started working in a lab on motor proteins such as kinesin, which I found fascinating. When I was getting closer to graduating with my bachelor’s degree, my mentor said I had a lot of potential as a scientist and that I should go to graduate school.
I told her that I couldn’t afford grad school, and she told me about tuition remission and getting paid a living stipend. I thought, “Oh, my god, I have to do this!”
Over time, I’ve gotten more and more into biochemistry, and now I’m here working as a biochemist.
What brought you to the Feng lab at Sanford Burnham Prebys? I learned about her research because we were working in similar fields. In grad school, I worked on sodium ion channels. Shengjie works on potassium ion channels.
I used to host an ion channel journal club in graduate school. I gave a presentation on one of her papers and loved it and then saw that she was starting a lab.
Sodium and potassium ion channels play a big role in the brain. What generates the electrical signal is the difference between sodium and potassium inside and outside the cell. It’s the balance of those two ion channels that turn neurons on or off.
In graduate school, I basically looked at how neurons turn on through sodium ion channels, and now I’m looking at how they turn off via potassium ion channels.
What are the key areas of research you focus on? Someone once told me that some people prefer areas of science that are broad in scope and where you have to make more generalized assumptions, and others like areas of science where you can unequivocally determine if something is this or that.
I am in the unequivocally this or that camp. I do what I like to call protein selfies. When you take a selfie, you take a bunch of pictures and pick the best one. With a protein selfie, I take more than a bunch. A few million more.
Because proteins are so small, I need to average these millions of pictures together to see what it looks like. And then with an image of the structure, we can get ideas of what the protein does and how.
What motivates you about your research? I’ve worked a lot of jobs in my life, but this feels different. Sometimes I just stay late because I’m excited and it’s fun. I may be seeing something for the first time that no one else has ever seen.
When you’re doing basic research, sometimes you just find really cool stuff!
What do you like about working here? I love the support that’s here for postdoctoral researchers. Honestly, it’s been almost universally positive. I don’t think that is true everywhere.
The postdoc community here is so active organizing standout events such as family day and holiday gatherings. We have tremendous opportunities for workshops and industry tours.
I’ve also enjoyed events put on by the Workforce Engagement & Belonging team, especially this summer’s book club. It was great getting to meet people from administrative offices and other labs, all the different people that make up Sanford Burnham Prebys.
How do you hope your work will advance science and/or improve health? As a basic scientist, I feel like my research will help other researchers make an impact in the future.
I’m doing everything I can to explain a protein’s structure and how it influences function. I imagine someone years from now will use my science to develop a new drug for this protein target. My work can help them understand areas where a drug could bind the protein, for example.
What are your hopes for the next stage in your career? I’d really like to go into industry. It often goes that the more successful you are as a principal investigator, the less time you can spend at the laboratory bench conducting experiments.
And I love being at the bench.
Have you had an influential mentor? My undergraduate mentor made a major difference in my career. I had a lot to learn. I didn’t know anything about academic science. He was really good at pushing me but also giving me room to fail.
He taught me so many things that I use all the time, such as how to focus on the big picture of your science. In structural biology, you can analyze your data for five years. Understanding your big question helps you know when you’ve reached the resolution needed to answer this question. Then you can move forward with the next question.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not in the lab? I’m a big reader. I read books all the time. My fellow lab members make fun of me because even when I’m eating lunch, I’m always there with my books.
I also like cooking dinner together with friends and going to the beach with my son and my dog.
Postdocs at Sanford Burnham Prebys are pushing the boundaries of science every day through curiosity, collaboration, and innovation. This series highlights their unique journeys, what inspires their work, and the impact they’re making across our labs.
Alexandra Houser, PhD, a postdoctoral associate at Sanford Burnham Prebys in the Feng lab, with Mesa-wide Postdoc Pitch Competition emcee R. Luke Wiseman, PhD, a professor at Scripps Research. Image Credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.
Feng lab member Alexandra Houser impressed the judges with her pitch on the importance of turning off brain cells
Turning off neurons in our brain is just as important as turning them on, according to third-place Postdoc Pitch Competition contestant Alexandra Houser, PhD.
Houser, a postdoctoral associate at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in the Feng lab, discussed how our ability to have complex thoughts is due to a sequence of on and off signals—akin to a version of Morse code—that neurons use to communicate to one another. She studies proteins called voltage-gated potassium channels that are an important facilitator of these neuron-to-neuron interactions.
Better understanding of the structure of these proteins—and how it changes in aging or in diseases such as epilepsy—may help future scientists develop new treatments.
Joining Houser at the contest was fellow Sanford Burnham Prebys scientist Jessica Proulx, PhD, a postdoctoral associate in the Adams lab. She presented her work regarding how aging interferes with the harmonious balance of transcription factors and chromatin regulators that control which genes are turned on or off in different types of cells.
Proulx shared the team’s success in restoring the activity of a master transcriptional regulator of liver cell identity—HNF4 alpha—using viral-mediated gene delivery tools. This approach may underpin future treatments for age-associated liver dysfunction.
Houser and Proulx were selected to participate in the inaugural Mesa-wide Postdoc Pitch Competition held at Sanford Burnham Prebys on October 23, 2025, after being named the two best presenters at the qualifying event for the institute’s postdoctoral researchers on September 30.
Jessica Proulx, PhD, a postdoctoral associate in the Adams lab at Sanford Burnham Prebys. Image credit: Sanford Burnham Prebys.
The Postdoc Pitch Competition was hosted by the Torrey Pines Training Consortium and sponsored by local companies Yamay Bio, BD, Complete Genomics, Hamilton, TriLink Biotechnologies and Wilson Sonsini. The event featured scientists from Sanford Burnham Prebys, Scripps Research, the Salk Institute and the University of California San Diego. Participants were asked to present their work in a compelling, accessible and engaging pitch—and in three minutes or less.
