SBP’s annual Faculty Retreat was held May 30–31 in beautiful Carlsbad, California.

This year’s theme was “Fundamental Cellular Processes in Health and Disease,” and featured 20 speakers from SBP areas of expertise:

·         Development and Aging — Malene Hansen, PhD, Lorenzo Puri, MD, PhD, Karen Ocorr, PhD, Alexey Terskikh, PhD, and Rolf Bodmer, PhD

·         Immunity and Inflammation — Rob Weschler-Reya, PhD, Linda Bradley, PhD, Scott Peterson, PhD, and Jeff Smith, PhD

·         Technology Platforms — Dorit Hanein, PhD, Sumit Chanda, PhD, and Niels Volkmann, PhD

·         Drug and Disease Targets — Michael Jackson, PhD, Garth Powis, PhD, Wanda Reynolds, PhD, Elena Pasquale, PhD, and Matt Peroski, PhD

·         Share Resources Update — Craig Hauser, PhD

Special congratulations to Duc Dong, PhD, and Crystal Zhao, PhD, both of whom were officially promoted to associate professors.

​

Dong, in the Human Genetics Program, is advancing research in cell/organ replacement therapy that may ultimately benefit patients with diabetes and Alagille syndrome—a genetic disorder that can affect the liver, heart and other parts of the body.

Zhao, in the Tumor Initiation and Maintenance Program, is studying the regulation of neural stem cells—research that may lead to therapies for neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and mental health disorders that affect cognitive abilities.

A highlight of the annual retreat is the presentation of the “WOW” award, which stands for Wonderful Original Work. This year, the WOW was given to Robert Wechsler-Reya, PhD, who won for his presentation titled “Overcoming Immune Evasion in Pediatric Brain Tumors.”

Wechsler-Reya’s research goal is to advance immunotherapy for medulloblastoma tumors—the most common malignant brain tumor in children. By increasing certain cell surface molecules called MHC on these cancer cells, he believes he can improve the ability of T cells to recognize the tumors and kill them.

Wechsler-Reya is a professor in the Tumor Initiation and Maintenance Program at SBP and is also the program director for the Joseph Clayes III Research Center for Neuro-Oncology and Genomics at Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine.

Cosimo Commisso, PhD, and Crystal Zhao, PhD, served as faculty organizers.

And many thanks to Wendy Lyon and Nelson, the research administrative specialists who organized the event.

The 2017 Faculty Retreat, held May 10-11, gave Institute researchers a chance to present their latest discoveries, share ideas, and socialize in beautiful Carlsbad, CA.

The two-day event, organized by Bas Baaten and Cosimo Commisso, included scientific sessions on:

• Epigenetics and Immunity—Chair: Max D’Angelo
• Neurological Disorders—Chair: Jerold Chun
• Metabolism/Development and Regeneration—Chair: Alex Colas
• Cancer—Chair: Brooke Emerling
• SBP’s Drug Discovery Portfolio—Chair: Michael Jackson

CEO Perry Nisen chaired a session on “Partnering to Accelerate Research” that covered SBP’s intellectual property resources and guidelines, how to work with Business Development, and the role of philanthropy in supporting our Institute.

A major highlight of the retreat was the presentation of the “WOW” award to Alessandra Sacco, PhD, associate professor in the Development and Aging Research Center. The “WOW” award stands for Wonderful Original Work and is awarded based on votes by scientists attending the retreat. This was the second time in six years that Alessandra has been named the recipient. Her presentation titled, “Dynamics of muscle stem cell expansion during tissue repair and maintenance” gave important insights for pharmacological treatments for age-related muscle wasting diseases.

Congratulations were also in order for Malene Hansen, PhD, who was promoted to professor in the Development, Aging and Regeneration Program.

Finally, two special presentations were given by recent recipients of NIH R35 Outstanding Investigator Awards:

• Ze’ev Ronai presented “Improvidus, apto, quod victum,” a glimpse of his stellar career as a leader in the field of melanoma research.

• Francesca Marassi presented “Structual analysis of Yersinia-host interactions,” a summary of her work to understand how the organism that causes bubonic plague infect humans cells

And the retreat was outstandingly organized by Esther Minotti, research administrative specialist.