Pain and anxiety impact breathing on a cellular level
Assistant Professor Sung Han has uncovered a neural network in the brain that coordinates breathing rhythm with feelings of pain and fear. Along with contributions to the fields of pain management and psychological theories of anxiety, his findings could lead to development of an analgesic that would prevent opioid-induced respiratory depression (OIRD), the disrupted breathing that causes overdose deaths.
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Irwin and Joan Jacobs are challenging Salk supporters to join them in raising $300 million for Salk’s five-year, $500 million philanthropic and scientific Campaign for the Future. With this challenge, the Jacobs will contribute $1 for every $2 donated—up to $100 million—for gifts or pledges made toward the capital construction between now and June 30, 2022.
SCIENTIFIC UPDATES
Improving drug options for colorectal cancer patients
Credit: Cell Reports and the Salk Institute

Some colorectal cancer patients are not eligible for targeted therapies because they have cancer-promoting mutations that are believed to cause resistance to these drugs. Now, Assistant Professor and physician-scientist Edward Stites has used computer modeling and cell studies to discover that up to 12,000 patients may be helped by a common class of targeted therapies every year.
Which side is which? How the brain perceives borders
From left: John Reynolds and Tom Franken

Professor John Reynolds has made headway into understanding how the brain decides which side of a visual border is a foreground object and which is background. The research sheds light on how areas of the brain communicate to interpret sensory information and build a picture of the world around us.
IN THE NEWS
Curebound launches and commits to invest $100 million into cancer research

Early-stage diabetes treatment wows patients and clinicians alike

Scientists can now hack the brains of worms to check what they are smelling

How to cope with SAD, or seasonal affective disorder

Asia's 2021 heroes of philanthropy

FACULTY FOCUS
Salk scientists receive the 2021 ASPIRE award to study pancreatic cancer
Professor Ronald Evans and Assistant Professor Dannielle Engle have been granted a 2021 ASPIRE (Accelerating Scientific Platforms and Innovative Research) award to study the cellular and molecular drivers of pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancers with few effective treatment options. The $250,000 award, supported by the Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, enables innovative approaches to solving impactful problems in cancer research.
SPOTLIGHT
2021 Salk Women & Science Special Awards
From left: Ying Sun, Helen McRae, Veronica Scerra, Xiaochun Cai, Wen Mai Wong, Katia Troha, Nuttida Rungratsameetaweemana, Payel Mondal and Suzanne Dufresne.

Salk Women & Science celebrated its 10-year anniversary of engaging women in the community with leaders in biological science and technology.

The program's awards provide crucial support to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to pursue high-risk, high-reward research in stages too early to attract traditional funding. The awards are targeted towards supporting future scientific leaders who will also actively foster the increased participation of women and girls in science.

This year’s event was in honor of Swati Tyagi, a postdoctoral researcher in the Hetzer lab, who was tragically killed last June. A Women & Science endowed fund has been established in her name.
Shefali Krishna
San Diego Nathan Shock Center announces pilot grant awardees
The San Diego Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, a consortium between the Salk Institute, Sanford Burnham Prebys and the University of California San Diego, has announced its second-year class of pilot grant awardees. Recipients from six different institutions will receive up to $15,000 to pursue research that advances our understanding of how humans age, with the ultimate goal of extending health span, the number of years of healthy, disease-free life.

Shefali Krishna, staff scientist at the Salk Institute, was named one of the six pilot grant awardees. Other awardees are Leena Bharath, assistant professor at Merrimack College, Gargi Mahapatra, postdoctoral fellow at Wake Forest School of Medicine, Chiara Nicoletti, postdoctoral fellow at Sanford Burnham Prebys, Anastasia Shindyapina, instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and Xu Zhang, research associate at the Mayo Clinic.
Minerva Contreras receives 2021-2022 ARCS Scholar award
Congratulations to graduate student Minerva Contreras from Nicola Allen's lab on being named a recipient of the 2021-2022 Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation (ARCS) Scholar award. The award recognizes outstanding students in science, engineering and medical research.
QUIZ
How many scientific manuscripts were published in 2021 with a Salk first or last author?
110
151
75
Last Month's Results
The Irwin and Joan Jacobs Science and Technology Center will be home to which Science Centers?
Answer: All of the above
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This month's image comes from a recent press release from the lab of Sung Han. The image shows shell neurons (green) that project to the breathing center and core neurons (red) that project to the pain/emotion center.
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