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THE SALKINSTITUTE FOR
BIOLOGICALSTUDIES0804 | 10

Chihuly at the Salk!

Reflections on the Institute’s 50th Anniversary Celebration

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE» Nomis Foundation Gifts Additional $6.5 Million» Zebrafish Heart Cells Regenerate» Meet Salk's Biophotonics Assistant Professor

August 2010

Inside Salk

4

18

Chihuly at the Salk, Float Boat (detail)One-on-One with … Clodagh O’Shea

EXECUTIVE MESSAGE

3 Institute Gains Visibility During
Chihuly at the SalkC O V E R S T O RY

4 -15 Chihuly at the Salk

Art and Science Inspire
Community to Celebrate
Institute’s 50th Anniversary

28 Nomis Foundation Gifts Additional$6.5 Million to Salk Center,
Establishes Endowed Chair

28 Palo Alto Meeting
29 Back to Basics Lecture Draws
Friends Back to the Salk

29 New Mobile Science Lab Van
Takes the Road

INSTITUTE NEWS16 Salk Institute Board of Trustees Elects
William R. Brody, M.D., Ph.D.
President
Marsha A. Chandler, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President
Rebecca Newman
Vice President,
Development and Communications
Susan Trebach
Senior Director,
Communications
Mauricio Minotta
Director, Communications
Editor, Inside Salk
Gina Kirchweger
Director,
Scientific Communications
Sarah Loffler
Design and Production Coordinator
Liz Hincks
Web Editor
Photography:
Joe Belcovson and Kent Schnoeker
and the Salk Community
Kat Kearney
Circulation Manager

Leaders in Business, Innovation andPhilanthropy to its Membership

30 A Taste of Discovery
32 Friends Make Donations inMemory of Longtime Co-Worker
and Volunteer JoAnn Faust

17 Deciphering the Glial Code
18 One on One with … Clodagh O’Shea

33 Maestro Thomas Wilkins
Anticipates ‘Electric’
Performance from the
Legendary Liza Minnelli

22 Researchers Elected to Prestigious
Organizations for Contributions
to Science

23 New Salk Researcher Named2010 Rita Allen Scholar

NEWS BRIEFS

34 Researcher to Serve on Advisory
Panel for Top Breast Cancer
Organization

24 Discovery Roundup
25 Salk Colleagues Remember Former
Chairman Frederick Rentschler

25 Researchers in Systems Neurobiology

34 Education Outreach Program

Receives Award of Excellence

and Plant Biology Receive Promotions

35 John Hopkins University Honors

PHILANTHROPY

35 Wireless Sensor Startup

27 Annual Foundation Seminar and Golf

Brodys with Learning Commons

Tournament Bring Out the Best of
Salk’s Supporters

studio L.
Graphic Design

Wins UC San Diego
Entrepreneur Challenge
CALENDAR

Back Cover

InsideSalk is published by the
Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
We welcome your input. Please sendcomments to communications@salk.edu
or contact the Communications
department at 858.453.4100 x1226.

ON THE COVER

InsideSalk is printed on recycled paper

Dale Chihuly’s Float Boat. Photo by Joe Belcovson

EXECUTIVE MESSAGE

Institute Gains Visibility During
Chihuly at the Salk

Dear Friends,
What an EXTRAORDINARY CELEBRATION WE enjoyedin April to herald the Salk Institute’s 50th anniversary year. If
you took part in one of the sold-out tours we offered during
Chihuly at the Salk, I suspect you would agree that the wildly
colorful glass installation by renowned artist Dale Chihuly wasa tremendous success.
The event paid homage to Jonas Salk, who was fervently
committed to both science and art. It also gave visitors the
chance to experience the Institute’s inspiring architecture andlearn a bit about the groundbreaking research taking place
inside these legendary walls.
More than 5,000 people joined us for the arts events, many ofwhom expressed curiosity about our research. Some have already
returned to the campus to learn more about Salk science, mostrecently for our reinvigorated Back to Basics lecture series.
Attendees of that May 25 Back to Basics event have alreadyshown great interest in our next lecture. Scheduled for Nov. 3, it
will highlight Associate Professor Andy Dillin’s research on aging.
Recently, Dillin’s team slowed the aging process in miceengineered to develop Alzheimer’s disease and discovered thatthey could prevent the mice from developing the disease. Worthnoting, the genes that were perturbed to acquire the age-slowing
effect are the same genes that other studies have found are
mutated in centenarians.
Dillin believes his latest finding may open the door to thedevelopment of drugs that target this genetic pathway to keep
Alzheimer’s disease at bay.
Another apparent outcome of Chihuly at the Salk and theassociated strong media coverage is that we are seeing increased
participation in our daily architectural tours. This offers us
another opportunity to expose a larger number of visitors to theimportant work that takes place in the labs and to convey a senseof the Institute’s rich 50-year history in La Jolla.
While the Salk is recognized by scientists around the world forits superb research contributions, the Institute’s impact in stem
cell, molecular biology, neurobiology and plant biology research
is far less apparent to our hometown neighbors.

Inside Salk August 2010

William R. Brody“

Chihuly at the Salk helped sheda postive spotlight that raised”

our profile in the community.

		– William R. Brody

Chihuly at the Salk raised our profile in the community. Fourmonths later, we are still reaping the benefits of our public celebrationof five decades of Salk discoveries. The 15th annual Symphony at
Salk with Liza Minnelli on August 28th, and a high-profile scientificsymposium in late October will round out our special programs
marking the 50th anniversary. We intend to build on the momentumof these activities for many years to come.

William R. Brody, M.D., Ph.D.
Irwin M. Jacobs Presidential Chairwww.salk.edu

3COVER STORY

Chihuly at the Salk
Art and Science Inspire Community
to Celebrate Institute’s 50th Anniversary

4 Inside Salk August 2010www.salk.edu

COVER STORY

Float Boat, The Sun, Red ReedsI

t’s no secret Jonas Salk strongly believedthat art and science go hand-in-hand.
But would he have imagined the dramatic
display of vibrant colored glass in the same
iconic courtyard that serves to inspire Salk
researchers in search of their next major
scientific discoveries?

“I have no doubt Jonas would have been very pleased
with the entire event because it was part of his original concept for
the Institute,” suggested Tom Albright, professor and director of
Salk’s Vision Center Laboratory, speaking of Chihuly at the Salk,
the installation of wildly expressive glass sculpture by artist Dale
Chihuly. “It brought such large crowds of people to the Institute,
I’ve never seen that courtyard so populated in the 23 years that
I’ve been here.”In all, more than 5,000 people visited the Salk Institute between April 22-28 during sold-out day and evening tours, experiencing Chihuly’s magnificent glass sculpture set against the Institute’s
stark architecture. The scale and magnitude of the event was a firstfor the Salk, yet fitting for its 50th anniversary celebration, saidInder Verma, professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory.
“We had an artist at the cutting edge of his field in an institution
where the science is also at the cutting edge,” Verma said. “It wasa meeting of two superb components of art and science that was a

Inside Salk August 2010www.salk.edu

5COVER STORYThe Sun during installation“

The installation was visually striking, and it wasn’t just that the pieces
were beautiful, but there was also the engineering aspect of it.
It was neat to see the whole process rather thanjust seeing the finished piece.
– Rich Krauzlis
Professor, systems neurobiology lab”

wonderful success. What I particularly liked about it was that the art was very accessible,
it wasn’t so abstract that you couldn’t figure it out. It was clear what the artist was trying
to do and it was exciting to see that it melded so well with the Salk Institute.”
Chihuly at the Salk featured several signature pieces located in the Institute’s Theodore
Gildred Courtyard, where visitors were also awed by the sweeping view of the Pacific Ocean.
The stunning items on display included The Sun, a 15-foot-tall sculpture made of 1,100
tentacle-like glass pieces of vibrant yellow, red and orange hues.
Float Boat was also a crowd pleaser. It featured a 17-foot restored wooden craft that
had been filled with intensely colorful glass spheres, or Floats, some measuring up to
40 inches in diameter and weighing 60 pounds.
“They looked like candy,” said Senior Director, Information Technology Frank Dwyer.
“My favorite Float was the one that had squiggly brown lines. It looked like someone had
drizzled chocolate syrup all over it.”Two Chandeliers, specially designed for Chihuly at the Salk, hung overhead between
towers, flanking the courtyard. Each measuring about 6 feet tall but offering two very different color schemes (one with brown, pale yellow and black tones, the other with blue, green
and yellow), the pieces were assembled from hundreds of hand-blown glass components.
kebana Drawing 2008
Photo by Teresa Nouri Rishel

6 Inside Salk August 2010www.salk.edu

COVER STORY

Clockwise from top: Salk Board Chairman Irwin Jacobs with artist Dale Chihuly; a variety of colorful glass spheres filled Chihuly’s Float Boat; Amber Chandelier hangs high above the courtyard.

A variety of red, orange, blue and purple Garden Glass – ranging from
6-foot-tall spears jutting from the ground, and twisted, cylindrical forms
called Cattails – was nestled in the Salk’s eucalyptus grove. The crowning
jewel of the grove was the White Tower, a 16-foot-tall structure with paleto-neon pink, and white needle-like glass pieces. Bringing their researchexperience to bear on the exhibit, many of the scientists jokingly referredto the White Tower as the “bottle washer,” a reference to similarly shaped
brushes used to clean lab glass.
Like most of the sculpture on display during Chihuly at the Salk,
White Tower was assembled on site, which many at the Institute foundto be among the most fascinating aspects of the celebratory event.
Although he has followed Chihuly’s work for more than a decade(and once spoke at a conference on creativity where the artist was also

Inside Salk August 2010

a guest speaker), Charles Stevens, professor in the Molecular Neurobiology
Laboratory, had never seen the sculpture being assembled.
“I didn’t know how they packed and shipped the pieces. I didn’t knowwhat the armatures looked like,” he said. “So it was really interesting forme to see the exhibit being set up. I was just fascinated by the process.”
Rich Krauzlis, a professor in the Systems Neurobiology Lab andartist, agreed.
“The installation was visually striking, and it wasn’t just that thepieces were beautiful, but there was also the engineering aspect of it,”he said. “It was neat to see the whole process rather than just seeing
the finished piece.”
Some of the community guests had the chance to experience theprocess during the installation tours, which took place on April 22-23.

www.salk.edu

7COVER STORY

Chihuly Studio team member Thomas Gray fields questions during the installation of the Aqua Chandelier.

“

What I particularly liked about it was that the art was very accessible … it was
clear what the artist was trying to do and it was exciting to see that it melded”

so well with the Salk Institute.

8 Inside Salk August 2010

– INDER VERMA

Professor, Gene expression laboratorywww.salk.edu

COVER STORY

They not only had the opportunity to see how the glass components are individually hand-wired into place, but they had
the benefit of asking questions of the installation team fromthe Chihuly Studio.
One fact Stevens and the others uncovered? The installers
normally pack 10 percent more glass than they need for eachsculpture in case they break some, which they occasionally do.
As impressive as the installation was during the day, it
took on new life and offered a breath-taking experience atnight when each of the pieces was lit for the evening tours.
The Sun, for example, seemed to radiate with powerfulintensity after dark. It was by far the most photographed
piece at night. Jonas Salk’s son, Peter, visited Chihuly at
the Salk on several occasions, but none had quite the effecton him as seeing the installation in the evening, he said.
“Seeing people strolling through the courtyard at night
and looking at the sculptures in wonderment reminded meof the warm feeling of people walking hand in hand during
the evening in European plazas,” Peter Salk said.
“I don’t think a day went by that my father didn’t walkthrough the courtyard and interact with whoever was there.
It was part of his nature,” he said. “So if he could haveseen how this event affected not just those who work at theInstitute but also those who came to visit, I think he would
have been very pleased.”
For some Salk scientists who have great interest in art, it
was the similarity they recognized between their work in thelab and the sculpture on display that drew them out of theiroffices and into the courtyard.
“People who work in Neurobiology are keenly aware of therelationship between the form of neurons and their function,”
said Stevens. “And so neurobiologists like it, aside from its
artistic value, because it reminds them of that. To see theway these glass sculptures were designed to give rise tocomplicated form is very interesting to us.”

Inside Salk August 2010www.salk.edu

9COVER STORY

Cattails and White Tower

Thomas Albright, who studies vision and whose lab discovered in 2007
that the brain’s visual cortex also receives input from memory banks to derive meaning from what we see, compared Chihuly’s work to impressionism.
“Symbols or shapes on a canvas elicit an impression of an image andyour brain fills in the rest,” he explained. “That’s the beauty of impressionism. It’s not entirely dependent on the physical stimulus that’s out there
in the world. It’s a stimulus that enables your brain to conjure up all sortsof things that can be unique to your own personal experience.
“Chihuly’s tangled-glass sculpture is about as characteristically
impressionistic as you can imagine,” Albright continued. “So when you

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Inside Salk August 2010

look at The Sun, it’s not veridically like a sun, but it conjures up all kindsof things when you look at it. You can ask, ‘What’s happening?’ The thingthat’s happening is your brain, based on prior experiences of the world,is complementing the input that’s coming up from the retina.
“In the end, I thought it was a fabulous event,” he said.
“It was definitely valuable for the Institute from a public relations standpoint, and I was able to see a lot of my colleagues on the courtyard.
I kept thinking, ‘We need more of this’.”www.salk.edu

COVER STORY

Chihuly at the Salk underwriters Irwin and Joan Jacobs at the Black Tie Gala where guests enjoyed an evening of first-rate entertainment and superb food.

Black Tie Gala, Chihuly at the Salk Raise $350K
for Basic Research
The who’s who of San Diego and beyond
gathered at the Institute for a glorious evening ofbeautifully sculptured glass, first-rate entertainmentand superb food during the Chihuly at the Salk Black
Tie Gala on April 24.
Graciously hosted and generously underwritten
by Joan and Irwin Jacobs, the entire Chihuly
event helped raise more than $350,000 (netting$235,000 from the Gala alone) in unrestricted funds
in support of the Salk Institute’s groundbreaking
basic scientific research.
Guests of the Gala were greeted by the celestial
sounds of String Theory, a Los Angeles-based ensemble best known for its signature handmade harps
featuring long wires that are clamped on elevatedpoints of the venue where the group performs. On
this occasion, the golden wires stretched from the
instrument to the top of the Salk’s East Building,while guests enjoyed the elegant al fresco reception.

Inside Salk August 2010

As the music played in the background, guests
mingled and freely strolled through the Salk’s
eucalyptus grove and the Theodore Gildred Courtyard
admiring the wildly colorful and expressive glass
sculpture by artist Dale Chihuly, who was also
in attendance.
Chihuly’s gorgeous glass pieces weren’t limited
to the grounds of the Institute. Each of the 20 tablesin the elegantly decorated foyer where the dinner took
place featured a Chihuly Macchia as a centerpiece.
Gala attendees promptly purchased 19 of them.
Salk Institute Executive Vice President Marsha
Chandler served as the evening’s emcee, sharing thestage with Salk President William R. Brody and Salk
Professor Ron Evans, who each addressed the audience.
The Black Tie Gala featured a delectable mealcatered by Pamplemousse, and entertainment by
Daniel Reichard, a member of the original cast from
Broadway’s Jersey Boys. He was accompanied on pianoby Cris O’Bryon as they performed old standards, andsongs from the 1960s and ’70s.

Gala
Committee
Joan Jacobs (Chair)
Wendy Brody
Linda Chester
Olivia Farrell
Robin Parsky
Mary Jane Salk
Darlene Shiley
Sheryl White
Faye Wilson
Marsha Chandler
Rebecca Newman

www.salk.edu

11COVER STORY

Chihuly at the Salk

Photographs from the Salk Community

GRAND PRIZE WINNER: MO LI, Gene Expression Laboratory

runners up

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SANDRA GUERRA

ANDREA CARRANOFLORIAN SWEENEY

Peptide Biology Laboratory

Molecular Cell Biology Laboratory

Transgenic CoreFIRST RUNNER-UP

SECOND RUNNER-UP

THIRD RUNNER-UP

Inside Salk August 2010www.salk.edu

COVER STORY

April 22-28, 2010

honorable mention

STAN HELMS

Animal Resources Department

MO LI

Facilities Services

Molecular Cell Biology Laboratory

STAN HELMSULLAS PEDMALE

Facilities Services

Plant Biology Laboratory

DEREK JOYCEREUBEN RODRIGUEZ

Molecular Cell Biology Laboratory

Laboratory of Genetics

MICHAL KRAWCZYKREUBEN RODRIGUEZ

Regulatory Biology Laboratory

LEO KURIAN

Laboratory of Genetics

JESSE VARGAS

Gene Expression Laboratory

Molecular Cell Biology Laboratory

ANN KUWAHARASUNNIE YOH

Purchasing

Inside Salk August 2010

DEBBY LATTERICH

Regulatory Biology Laboratorywww.salk.edu

13COVER STORY
Members of the President's Club admire images from the Chihuly at the Salk Photo Exhibit.

Art and Our Brains:
Recognizing the Familiar is Key to Visual Perception
What is it about art that draws ourattention and stirs our emotions? The beauty of thepiece itself is only part of the answer. The familiar
patterns we recall when we look at the artwork provide a context that deeply influences our reaction,says Thomas Albright, professor and director of the
Salk Institute’s Vision Center Laboratory.
Albright spoke to nearly 100 members of the
President’s Club and other friends of the Institute
who attended a Chihuly at the Salk Photo Exhibit
and Lecture on June 17, featuring 34 vivid
photographic images of the renowned artist’s
glass sculpture taken by Salk staff members.
Albright’s presentation followed the reception.
Although for centuries artists have been
known to use certain techniques in their work
to manipulate perceptual experiences, Albrightsaid discoveries in neuroscience over the last 50
years help better explain how the brain processes
the information it receives through our eyes.
Vision begins in the retina, which breaks down
the incoming signal into smaller elements of information (color, motion and form), before sending it
down the optic nerve to the visual cortex area ofthe brain. Here, the information is processed andreconstructed to achieve an internal representationof what is being perceived.
But the story doesn’t end there. Albright’s lab
discovered two years ago that the brain’s memorybanks also contribute to the perceptual process.

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Inside Salk August 2010

This is best illustrated when we observe abstract
forms or art that is not precisely representational.
A Renoir Impressionist painting or a Chihuly
glass sculpture may not be an exact representationof a particular object or scene, but the colored
dots, or the tangled glass may provide the impression of that object or scene, Albright explained.
The impression serves as a spark for recognizing
patterns stored in our memory that help us,
individually, complete the picture.
“This is the nature of all visual experience.
As you go around the world, your perceptual
experience is a combination of the stimulus andmemory,” Albright said. “As we look at magnificent
Chihuly images around us, what we do is take theimpressionist patterns of light in the retina and wecomplement them with a life’s worth of experiencesthat are stored in memory.
“The undeniable pleasure that we get fromlooking at these Chihuly pieces is an example
of what the 19th century psychologist William
James called, ‘The victorious assimilation of thenew,’ meaning we interpret the art in the context
of things familiar. This is in essence why we findthese things so appealing.”
The beautiful collection of photos of Chihuly at the
Salk in the Foyer will remain on display through themonth of August. Visitors are welcome, weekdays,
during normal business hours. Call Gena Hamme
at ext 1262 to arrange for parking.

www.salk.edu

COVER STORY

Experience Chihuly
All Over Again
If you didn’t have a chance to experience Chihuly at
the Salk in April or want to see it again, you can still
do so. Several pieces of the glass sculpture from theinstallation will remain on display at the Institutethrough September 2010.
White Tower, the two Chandeliers, and a variety of
the Garden Glass (including the Cattails and Spears)
are among them. Standing 16 feet tall, White Tower
features blown-glass pieces ranging from white tolight and neon pink and was personally chosen byDale Chihuly to serve as the introductory sculpture
for the installation.
You can also view a dazzling Chihuly photo exhibit
and several of the artist’s macchia, large bowl-shaped
glass pieces, in the Salk’s foyer. For more information,
contact Geña Hamme, 858-453-4100 x1262 or email:hamme@salk.edu.
The outdoor installation can be viewed for free
Monday through Friday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. You can also
register online for a free architectural tour that includes
information of the Chihuly pieces on display. To register,
visit salk.edu/tours. The Salk Institute’s gift shop, whichsells several Chihuly at the Salk items such as tee-shirts,
books and DVDs, is open daily from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Tabac and Onyx Chandelier, and Macchia

Blue Marlins (detail)Inside Salk August 2010www.salk.edu

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INSTITUTE NEWS
Ralph S. O’Connor

Conrad T. Prebys

Dean L. Kamen

Margaret Faye Wilson

Salk Institute Board of Trustees Elects Leaders in
Business, Innovation and Philanthropy to its Membership
The Board of Trustees of the Salk Institute unanimously
voted to elect four new members with records of extraordinary entrepreneurial success and expertise in business, innovation, real estate andphilanthropy during its April meeting in La Jolla.
“These four individuals exemplify uniquely American success stories
of innovation, entrepreneurial acumen and the desire to give back to theircommunities and the world,” said Salk Board Chairman Irwin M. Jacobs.
“I am confident that their considerable business expertise, overall good
sense and generosity will make them invaluable colleagues and assets to
the Institute.”
Jacobs said the four new board members are joining the Salk leadershipat a moment of both impressive research productivity and a growing publicawareness of the small but internationally renowned non-profit institutein La Jolla.
Dean L. Kamen, of New Hampshire, is a vastly successful inventor
best known for designing the Segway, the two-wheeled, upright scooter
he unveiled in December 2001. He holds more than 440 U.S. and foreign
patents, many of them for innovative medical devices that have expanded
the frontiers of health care worldwide.
While still a college undergraduate, he invented the first wearable
infusion pump, which rapidly gained acceptance from such diverse
medical specialties as chemotherapy, neonatology and endocrinology.
In 1976 he founded his first medical device company, AutoSyringe, Inc.,to manufacture and market the pumps. At age 30, he sold that company
to Baxter International Corporation. By then, he had added a numberof other infusion devices, including the first insulin pump for diabetics.
His most recent project, the “Luke Arm,” is a state-of-the-art roboticarm for amputees, funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Departmentof Defense.
Kamen has won numerous awards for his contributions to science andtechnology. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in
1997 for his biomedical devices and for making engineering more popularamong high school students. In 2000 he was awarded the National Medalof Technology by President Bill Clinton. Two years later he received theLemelson-MIT Prize for inventors for his invention of the Segway and theinfusion pump for diabetics. Kamen was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his invention of the AutoSyringe the following year.
Ralph S. O’Connor has served as chairman and CEO of the private
investment firm of Ralph S. O’Connor & Associates since 1987, when heformed the company. Previously he was corporate director for Texas Eastern

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Inside Salk August 2010

Corporation (1963-1989). O’Connor was among the four original partners
who acquired the NBA’s San Diego Rockets and took them to Texas as
the Houston Rockets. He is Chairman of Arnaud’s Restaurant, a landmark
New Orleans eatery.
He is also Trustee Emeritus of Johns Hopkins University, having
served from 1969 to 1975 and again in 1981. His exceptional generosity
at Hopkins helped fund scholarships for undergraduates at the Krieger
School for Arts and Sciences, a named professorship in biology, andthe creation of the Walter J. Stark Chair in Ophthalmology in the Schoolof Medicine.
He is also a Trustee Emeritus of Rice University; and former presidentof the Marian and Speros Martel Foundation of Houston (1983-2003),
the organization that funded Martel College at Rice University.
Conrad T. Prebys built a real estate empire after founding Progress
Construction and Management Company in 1966 in El Cajon, Calif.
With a network of buildings and single-family homes spread across San
Diego County, Prebys is among the region's 20 largest property tax payers.
Since 2004 he has been broadening his legacy as a philanthropist,
giving away nearly $50 million to San Diego organizations. His philanthropy has had a significant positive impact on a number of areaorganizations, including the Boys & Girls Club of East County, the Scripps
Mercy Medical Group, UC San Diego and the Sanford-Burnham Institutefor Medical Research (which renamed its genomics facility the Conrad
Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics).
Margaret Faye Wilson, a leader in the banking and retail industries
with more than 25 years of executive experience, currently serves as
principal and co-founder of Wilson Boyles & Company, a business
management and strategic planning consulting firm with offices in
San Diego and Chicago.
She previously held the position of senior vice president of the Risk
Management Group for The Home Depot, also serving on that boardof directors.
Wilson spent 21 years at Bank of America, where she flourished asa top-level executive and manager, including executive vice president,
and chairman and president of Security Pacific Financial Services (awholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America Corporation).
During her career at Bank of America, Wilson was responsible
for several successful initiatives: She led the turnaround and sale ofa $2.4 billion consumer finance business; and created new corporate
advisory services, debt restructuring products, and a mergers andacquisition division for the company’s European and U.S. entities.

www.salk.edu

INSTITUTE NEWS

Deciphering the Glial Code
Physicist/Neuroscientist Axel Nimmerjahn
to join Salk’s Waitt Advanced Biophotonics CenterA group of cells living in the same “neighborhood”
do not necessarily speak the same “language.” Such is the case in
our brains, between neurons, the cells that electrically transmit
information, and their supportive neighbors, glial cells. Yet, glia
intricately communicate with neurons to somehow ensure that ournervous system functions properly. So just how do glia function?
Physicist-turned-neuroscientist Axel Nimmerjahn has been
intrigued by this scientific problem since first encountering glial
cells during his graduate studies at the Max Planck Institute for
Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany. Deciphering glial cells’
enigmatic language, and their role in contributing to a functioning
brain, both in its healthy and diseased states, will be his lab’s aim
when he joins the Salk Institute as assistant professor in the Waitt
Advanced Biophotonics Center, funded by a $20 million grant fromthe Waitt Foundation, on Nov. 1.
Nimmerjahn will use the latest in light microscopic tools, someof which he developed during his postdoctoral studies at Stanford,
to dive deep into tissue of lab models to visualize glia and othercells in action. The results of his research could have implications
in developing possible treatments for many diseases, he says.
“We know that glial cells are critically involved in many injuries
and diseases, but it’s unclear at this point what their specificcontribution is to each one of them, Nimmerjahn says. “In somecases like glioma (tumors in the nervous system), they appear causal,
yet in others they undergo reactive changes. But even if they are not
the source of the actual disease, given their essential supportiverole and potential to undergo reactive changes, glia can profoundly
influence disease progression and regeneration.
“So this is why it is critically important to define the role of glial
cells in health and disease. If we better understand these cells, thenhopefully we can come up with a treatment that targets and tweaks
them,” he says. “In a number of diseases, protecting or restoring
glial cells’ supportive function may turn out to be a more effective
neuroprotective strategy than targeting neurons itself.”
Among the important discoveries his group made was demonstrating that microglia, a type of glial cell that protects our brains fromforeign material, don’t stand idly by, as was once thought. They
found that in healthy brains the cells are in fact continually on
patrol to remove potentially harmful substances and react instantly
to disruptions of the blood-brain barrier.
With a multidisciplinary team at Stanford he developed miniatureepifluorescence microscopes, measuring about 1 cubic centimeterin size and weighing less than 2 grams, that enabled him to take thefirst-ever optical recordings from glia and neurons in freely behaving
mice. Using his novel techniques, he also provided evidence thatglial cells might be more than just support cells.

Inside Salk August 2010“

Salk is a highly collaborative place,which makes for a perfect scientificenvironment, and, of course, thesupport of the new Waitt Advanced
Biophotonics Center is just amazing.
– Axel Nimmerjahn”

Nimmerjahn’s work will lend itself to collaborations with a wide
range of scientists at the Salk Institute. “Salk is a highly collaborative
place, which makes for a perfect scientific environment, and, of course,
the support of the new Waitt Advanced Biophotonics Center is justamazing,” Nimmerjahn says. “This is a great opportunity to add a newlevel to the biological projects that are really excellent at the Salk.”

www.salk.edu

17

INSTITUTE NEWSOne on
One with …

Clodagh O’Shea16
18

Inside Salk August 2010www.salk.edu

INSTITUTE NEWSFor years scientists have been working to re-engineer the human adenovirus,
which in its normal state causes acute respiratory distress syndrome, as a potential tool to wipe out
cancerous tumors. Clodagh O’Shea, assistant professor in the Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory, is at
the forefront of this bold technology. Her lab has developed a new generation of the engineered adenovirus
to more effectively seek out and burst cancer cells, while leaving healthy cells intact. But her lab’s story
doesn’t end there. She and her team are also working in parallel on novel, multi-pronged strategies ranging
from arming her tumor-seeking viruses with toxic proteins, to re-engineering their outer “coat” so they canhome in on tissue-specific targets.

Explain how your lab is developing viruses that target specifictissues in the body.
The virus is an incredible nano machine that can be re-engineered on
several levels for cancer. One way is to manipulate how the virus binds
to a cell. If you can imagine the virus as a rocket ship with spikes, it
uses these points to make contact with the cell’s surface and thereby
enters specific cells. The virus that’s been used in research naturally
enters the cells in our airways. But there are 52 human adenoviruses andeach targets different tissues. If you’re going to treat cancer in the colon,
we believe you should use a virus that has evolved to target that tissue.
And now that’s what we’re doing for the first time, and which no one has
been able to do.

How are you doing this?
We’re asking whether we can direct the virus that normally infects thecells in the lung to other cells by changing the “coat” or the surface ofthe virus so that it binds to tumor blood vessels or the colon, for example.
The idea is not to change the regulatory component, but to use what wealready know. The “coat” is a defined point in the virus’ genome, so
we’re just swapping that out.
To do this, we looked at the evolution of the genome – from fishadenovirus, to chicken adenovirus and snake adenovirus, the whole
way up – and we identified which parts of the genome have stayed very
constant. We found that the evolution has taken place on the ends, whichmeans the entire middle core is where the coat proteins are. So what
we’ve been able to do is come up with a way to manipulate the genome

and swap the part of the genome that encodes the coat from thesedifferent viruses into my lab’s virus. So I think within the next year
we’ll know whether these synthetically engineered viruses can be used
to target tissue-specific tumors.

How did you become interested in this area of research?
I did my Ph.D. in Immunology in London’s Imperial Cancer ResearchInstitute and was pursuing a career in tumor immunology. But as a
student I heard (UCSF cancer researcher) Frank McCormick, who I did
my postdoc with, come through and give a talk on this idea of making amutant virus that can activate p53 and then kill tumor cells. (Called the“Guardian of the Genome,” the p53 gene is almost always found to beinactive in all human cancers.) The idea that you depend on the loss ofthe p53 gene just fascinated me. How do you activate something that isjust gone? I just thought, “I’ve got to work on this.”What has been the scientific discovery that’s fascinated you the mostduring your career?
The cell is a scale-free network, which is like the World Wide Web. By that
I mean that not all nodes or points of contact in a network have the same
number of connections. Some nodes, for example, are hubs, they havethousands of connections, but many others have only a few. This explains
many things. Think about a tumor. There have now been 100,000 mutations identified in cancer. Many of them are probably irrelevant. You canlose about five percent of the genes in your cell and your cell will be fine.
And that’s because they’re not connected to major processes. But somecontinued on page 20

Inside Salk August 2010www.salk.edu

19

INSTITUTE NEWS“For me, it’s about that one moment when you know you’re the only
person who has ever discovered this one thing – it’s extraordinary.
– Clodagh o’shea”of these genes are hubs, which is why they haveprofound effects in so many pathways.
That for me explained why the genetic targets
the virus is hitting and why the ones the tumor
is hitting are the same. Even though there are
26,000 genes in a cell, the virus has just 20,
so that’s probably the number you need to hit tocontrol the cell. If you can control the hub you
can control many different processes. The same
holds true for cancer. You can take all thesemutations and still survive. But if you hit just thecritical target, that’s it. And that’s what we needto understand in cancer. We need to understandthose (genetic) hubs and how those connections
have been perturbed.

What keeps you passionate about science?
Science is knowledge and knowledge improves
the human condition in its purest sense. It’s
not so much about being published in scientificjournals. For me, it’s about that one moment
when you know you’re the only person who
has ever discovered this one thing – it’s
extraordinary. It’s a celebration of life at its
deepest level. To understand even a fractionof how it can be and then to share it with others
is really just amazing.
It can never be negative because you can
only add to knowledge, and for me that’s avery powerful thing. Also knowing that I canactually help someone beyond me by wieldingthat knowledge to alleviate suffering throughtherapies keeps me passionate about science.
And finally, just seeing that joy of knowledge inmy postdocs is also extraordinary.

At what point in your life did you know you
wanted to become a scientist?
I was quite young. I grew up in Ireland and went
to a convent school where the environment wasvery rigid and conservative, and you would beseverely punished if you asked the teacher thereasoning behind an idea. So for me, I think

20

Inside Salk August 2010www.salk.edu

Did you have family members or others in particular who encouraged
you to pursue a career in science? If so, who?
Not really. I was the first in my family to go to college. I had a great
biology teacher in secondary school, but my family believes that theultimate success for anyone is achieving happiness. And for me, science
makes me deeply happy. So they encouraged me to find something thatmade me feel fulfilled.
They actually discouraged me to become a doctor because they
thought I’d have a dreadful bedside manner. (laughs) They know I havea tendency to want to understand how things work and I wouldn’t havebeen satisfied applying cures that don’t make sense to me. So I thinkthey thought science would be where not only I’d be happier, but thepeople I work with. (laughs)

INSTITUTE NEWSscience gave me a license to ask questions. It’s a requirement. In many
ways it was the idea that there’s so much more to learn, and not justaccept, that led me to this field.

What’s the one scientific question you’d like to answer
in your lifetime?
I’d like to know if we could ever understand molecular details enoughand actually translate that into more selective and potent therapies
that can alleviate the suffering of patients. That’s what gets me out of
bed in the morning. You only really understand that which you can buildfrom scratch. So with viruses, I can only really understand them if I canbuild them from their components and predict the outcome.
For me, that’s the kind of knowledge that we need for cancer. I
mean it’s a crazy question, but you have to aim high, right? It’s a hugeproblem to tackle and I don’t even care if we’re going to be foot soldiers
or captains. That’s not what’s important to me. It’s the battle itself, andprobably more so that we win it. And if we contribute in any way I’ll feelthat it’s been worth it.

Clodagh O’Shea braves the peaks of Cerro Torreduring an ice climbing trip to the Patagonia regionof South America prior to starting her cancer researchat the Salk Institute.
Inside Salk August 2010www.salk.edu

21

INSTITUTE NEWS

Terry Sejnowski (left) and Fred H. “Rusty” Gage

Researchers Elected to Prestigious Organizations for Contributions to Science
There was plenty of cause for celebration at the Salk
Institute in April with the announcement that two senior scientists hadreceived major honors on the same day for their contributions to science.
Announcements came on April 27 that Terry Sejnowski, whose work
helped spark the neural networks revolution in computing in the 1980s,
had been elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS),and Fred H. “Rusty” Gage, one of the most highly cited neuroscientists inthe world, had been inducted to the American Philosophical Society (APS).
Election into each of these prestigious organizations is among thehighest honors bestowed upon scientists. Members of the NAS arerecognized for their distinguished and continuing achievements in original
research. Founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin and modeled after theRoyal Society of London, the APS was the first organization in America topromote scientific endeavors and knowledge.
“Both Terry and Rusty are exceptional scientists,” said Salk President
William R. Brody. “Their latest honors are a testament to their pioneeringresearch that is helping to answer important questions in neuroscience.”
A Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, Sejnowski tries tounderstand the computational resources of brains, and to build linking
principles from brain to behavior using computational models. He pursues
his goal by combining both experimental and modeling techniques to study
the biophysical properties of synapses -- the connections between brain
cells -- and the population dynamics of large networks of neurons.
Sejnowski’s election raises the number of Salk scientists who aremembers of the NAS to 16 (about 27 percent of the faculty). He is also amember of the Institute of Medicine and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Gage joins a distinguished group of former APS members who include
Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, past and present Salk
faculty members Renato Dulbecco, Sydney Brenner, Francis H. C. Crick,

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Inside Salk August 2010

Ronald M. Evans, Inder Verma, Tony Hunter and former Salk president
Augustus B. Kinzel.
Gage’s laboratory concentrates on the adult central nervous system andunexpected plasticity and adaptability to environmental stimulation thatremains throughout the life of all mammals. He and his colleagues showed
that, contrary to accepted dogma, human beings are capable of growing
new nerve cells throughout life.
His lab also showed that environmental enrichment and physicalexercise can enhance the growth of new brain cells. His team is studying
the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms that may be harnessed
to repair the aged and damaged brain and spinal cord.
Gage has been elected to the National Academy of Science, theInstitute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He is also the past recipient of the Bristol-Myers Squibb NeuroscienceAward, the Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Award, the Max-Planck
Research Award, and the Keio Medical Science Prize.

“

Both Terry and Rusty are exceptional
scientists. Their latest honors are atestament to their pioneering researchthat is helping to answer importantquestions in neuroscience.

”– William R. Brody
Salk President

www.salk.edu

INSTITUTE NEWSNew Salk Researcher
Named 2010 Rita Allen
ScholarLess than six months AFTER HE joined
the Salk’s faculty, assistant professor Ye Zheng
was named a 2010 Rita Allen Scholar. He
will receive $500,000 over a five-year period
to study how regulatory T cells prevent theimmune system from attacking the body’s
own tissue and causing autoimmune disease.
“It is really an honor for me to have beenchosen as a Rita Allen Scholar. I feel I'mfollowing the footsteps of some of the top
scientists today, including Salk faculty member
Greg Lemke and non-resident fellow Tom
Jessell,” Zheng said. “One of the obstacles in
the process of starting a lab is the difficulty
to obtain external funding, especially grants
from NIH. This award will significantly boost
the bottom line of my nascent lab and put
my research program on the fast lane.”
Scholars are nominated by premierinstitutions and then selected by the Rita
Allen Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee
and ratified by the organization’s Board of
Directors. Out of 40 applicants reviewed
this year, only seven were designated Rita
Allen Scholars.
“Anyone aware of the caliber of themembers serving on our Scientific Advisory
Committee and Board of Directors knows thevetting process for Scholars is a rigorous one,”said Elizabeth G. Christopherson, president
and CEO of the Rita Allen Foundation.
“A significant part of our mission is topromote the common good through the workof our Scholars. The Scholars Program concentrates on medical research, and we also
hope to advance understanding of the humancondition,” she said.
Zheng joined the Salk’s Nomis Center for
Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
in November 2009 after spending four years at
the University of Washington and a short stint
at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
His lab’s goal is to tease apart how the
body’s regulatory T-cells are generated andmaintained so that new therapeutic
approaches can be developed for a wide
range of autoimmune diseases such as type 1
diabetes, Crohn’s disease, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Inside Salk August 2010

Ye Zheng

Zheng will use the support from the Rita
Allen Foundation to generate an autoimmune
mouse model that will him allow to dissect thecellular and molecular mechanisms. In addition
to providing a better understanding of regulatory T cells, his experiments will suggest new
therapeutic approaches, how to improve organtransplant survival, and boost the immune
system’s response to tumors.

A native of China, Zheng is a graduate of
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Peking
University. He received is master’s degree anddoctorate in Biological Sciences from Columbia
University before completing a postdoctoral
fellowship at the University of Washington in
Seattle. He is the recipient of the Cancer
Research Institute Fellowship and the John S.
Newberry Prize.

www.salk.edu

23

INSTITUTE NEWS

Discovery Roundup
Computer Modeling Yields Clues to How the Brain Works
A computer simulation developed by
Salk researchers led by investigator Terrence J.
Sejnowski reveals that neurons in the thalamus,
the central switchboard that processes anddistributes incoming sensory information to allparts of the visual cortex, engage in a coordinated effort to get their message out loud and clear.
Their findings, published in Science, holdimportant clues to how the brain encodes andprocesses information, which can be applied toa wide variety of applications, from understanding psychiatric disorders to the developmentof novel pharmaceuticals and new ways ofhandling information by computers orcommunication networks.
Historically, neuroscientists have been limited to recording the activity of single brain cells,
but communication between neurons is not
limited to one-on-one interactions. Instead, any

given cell receives signals from hundreds ofother cells, which send their messages throughthousands of synapses.
For this reason, nobody could answer a very
basic question: How many neurons or synapses
does it take to reliably send a signal from point A
to point B? This question is particularly pressing
for the thalamus. Thalamic input only accounts
for five percent of the signals that
so-called spiny stellate cells in the cortex
receive, even though they drive a good portionof activity throughout the cerebral cortex.
“That is a paradox,” says Sejnowski, a
Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigatorand professor and head of the Computational
Neurobiology Laboratory. “How can so few
synapses have such a big impact? If theaverage spiking rate were the determining
factor, thalamic input would be drowned out

by the other 95 percent of the inputs fromother cortical cells.”
Based on the assumption that the brain
cares about the reliability and precision of
spikes, Sejnowki's team developed a realistic
computer model of a spiny stellate cell and thesignals it receives through its roughly 6,000
synapses. They found that it is not the numberof spikes that’s relevant but rather how many
spikes arrive at the same time.
The team’s model predicted that it only
takes about 30 synapses out of 6,000 firing
simultaneously to create extremely reliable
signaling. And the prediction lined up withcurrently available in vivo measurements.
The researchers hope that their findings will
give them new insight into the holy grail ofneurobiology: decoding the neural code or
language of the brain.

Zebrafish Studywith Human Heart Implications
Researchers led by Salk professor
Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte have identified
a population of heart cells in zebrafish withthe amazing ability to regenerate within amonth after 20 percent of the tissue has been
destroyed. The finding, published in Nature,
could provide insight into how mammalian hearts
might be coaxed into repairing themselves after
injury brought on by heart attack.
Interestingly, it is not stem cells that repair
the injured fish hearts. Instead, the patch-up
work is done by differentiated cardiac muscle
cells known as cardiomyocytes, the cells whose
normal job is to supply the contractile force ofthe heart.
“What the results of our study show is thatmother nature utilizes other ways besides going
all the way back to pluripotent stem cells to

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Inside Salk August 2010

regenerate tissues and organs,” says Izpisúa
Belmonte, noting that, at least in fish, thebody may have evolved surprising repair
strategies driven by cell types moreseasoned than stem cells.
Human hearts cannot undergo these typesof regenerative changes on their own. Whendamaged by heart attack, our heart muscle
is replaced by scar tissue incapable of contracting. However, prior to heart failure, damaged
mammalian heart muscle cells enter a saveyourself state known as “hibernation,” in which
they cease contracting in an effort to survive.
Chris Jopling, a postdoctoral fellow of
Izpisúa Belmonte’s at the Center for Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona who worked withresearchers at the Salk, sees human heart“hibernation” as significant. “During heart

regeneration in the zebrafish, we found thatcardiomyocytes displayed structural changes
similar to those observed in hibernating cardiomyocytes,” he said, noting that those changes wereactually necessary before the fish cardiomyoctes
could start dividing. “Because of these similarities, we hypothesize that hibernating mammaliancardiomyocytes may represent cells that areattempting to proliferate.”
So the good news is that mammalian hearts
can undergo a kind of metabolic “downsizing”
that is a prelude to cell division. “This idea
fits nicely with the findings from a number ofgroups – that forced expression of cell cycle
regulators can induce cardiomyocyte proliferationin mammals,” says Jopling. “Maybe all they needis a bit of a push in the right direction.”

www.salk.edu

INSTITUTE NEWSHow Light Receptors
Get Their Message Across
A team of researchers from the Salk Institute andDuke University have identified the courier that gives the signal torevamp a plant's gene expression pattern after photoreceptors havebeen activated by light. Their findings, which are published in theJune 25 issue of Cell, bring scientists closer to being able to harness
plants’ phenotypic plasticity to help boost agricultural yields andmanage weeds under challenging growing conditions.
“Light is probably the most important environmental cue
for a plant,” says Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator
Joanne Chory, professor and director of the Plant Molecular andCellular Biology Laboratory. “Understanding how light signaling
triggers morphological changes in the plant will have a really big
impact on every facet of plant biology.”
Because plants are so reliant on light, they have evolved anumber of different photoreceptors that are defined by the color oflight they absorb. For example, photoreceptors absorbing in the red/
far-red spectral range, also known as phytochromes, help sense thepresence of other plants in their neighborhood by detecting changes
in the color of light.
Other studies had shown that light directly regulates the relocation of phytochrome A (PHYA) and phytochrome B (PHYB) from thecytoplasm to the nucleus, where they congregate in distinct foci thatare commonly referred to as phytochrome nuclear bodies. Sitting at
the microscope for hundreds of hours allowed first author Meng Chen
to identify a new gene based on his observation that PHYB could
not be found in large nuclear bodies. When HEMERA was missing,plants were unable to respond to light, Chen explains, and grew into
spindly, albino seedlings that died before they could make flowers.
Chen and his collaborators then found that in HEMERA mutants,
key proteins that must be degraded by cells responding to light
were still present, thereby making the seedling believe it was still inthe dark. Digging deeper, they found striking structural similarities
between HEMERA and the yeast protein RAD23, whose job it is
to shuttle proteins flagged for destruction to the cellular junkyard.
Thus, these nuclear bodies appear to be sites where key regulatory
proteins go when they need to be removed from cells.
But Chen discovered that HEMERA does something else: It also
slips into chloroplasts, small compartments that contain chlorophyll
and are in charge of photosynthesis, which could explain the paleappearance of hemera mutants.
Although chloroplasts contain their own tiny genome, mostproteins necessary for chloroplast maturation are encoded in the
nucleus and need to be directed to their final destination. In
order to ensure proper chloroplast differentiation, gene expression
in the nucleus needs to be coordinated with gene expression in
the chloroplast.

Inside Salk August 2010

Plants without a functional HMR gene (shown on the right) areunable to respond to light. They fail to produce chlorophyll andgrow into spindly albino seedlings that die young. Phytochrome
nuclear bodies, which contain activated phytochrome and
HEMERA are shown in the background (blue dots).
Image courtesy of Dr. Meng Chen, Duke University“A protein that travels to both organelles could serve as a simple
yet elegant solution to ensure coordinated gene activity in both locales,”says Chory, holder of the Howard H. and Maryam R. Newman Chair.
“Although we do not know what HEMERA is doing in the chloroplast,its presence in both the nucleus and chloroplast would ensure that theseedling has a rapid and appropriate response to light when it emerges
from the soil.”www.salk.edu

25

INSTITUTE NEWS

Richard Krauzlis

Jeff Long

Researchers in Systems
Neurobiology and Plant
Biology Receive Promotions

Colleagues Remember Former Salk Chairman
Frederick Rentschler
Frederick B. Rentschler, 70, a
corporate leader and longtime Salk Trustee
who served as Chairman and Vice Chairman of
the Board, and briefly as Salk Chief Executive
Officer, died July 6 in Scottsdale, AZ.
Salk colleagues expressed deep sadness
at the news of his passing, observing that he
was a great friend to the Institute, providing
his generous support and leadership when it
was most needed.
“Fred loved the Institute, loved the faculty
and loved to be around the science,” saidInder Verma. “He was a friendly, warm, bigbear of a man.”“He was generous with his time…andwhen we needed his leadership he provided
it,” said Fred H. Gage. When Rentschler
served as Salk CEO, he would fly in to San
Diego on a weekly basis. “We were gratefulto Pam (his spouse) for allowing him to do
this – it was a sacrifice.”
During his highly-successful businesscareer, Rentschler was the President andCEO of the Beatrice Companies, Northwest
Airlines, and Hunt-Wesson. A native ofCincinnati, he earned a B.A. in Economics
and History from Vanderbilt University, andan MBA in Marketing from Harvard Business
School. He was a Captain in the U.S. Marine
Corps in the 1960s and served as Deputy
Director of the White House Fellows Programin the 1970s.

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Inside Salk August 2010

Rentschler, who with his wife, Pam,
split their time between cattle ranchingin Cameron, Montana, and a home in
Scottsdale, Arizona, provided nearly 20 yearsof service to the Institute. His relationshipwith the Salk began in 1986 when he joined
the International Council. In 1988 he joined
the Board of Trustees, serving until Novemberof 2005 when he stepped down and becamea Trustee Emeritus.
During a period of leadership transition,
Rentschler served as the Salk’s CEO, hislarge frame and booming voice a majorpresence in the Institute’s North Tower. “He
was a former Marine, and occasionally had
the personality of a Marine,” recalled Verma.
“He was passionate about Salk science andwas always happy to be around here.”“He was in command of every situationand knew instinctively the right thing todo,” agreed Salk CFO Kim Witmer. “Fredreally connected with the science and the
Salk’s mission.”
Rentschler’s legacy to the Salk included
sponsoring the Institute’s first developmental
chair, saying it gave him great pleasure tohelp advance the careers of young scientists.
(The Frederick B. Rentschler Developmental
Chair is currently held by Lei Wang.)
Memorial contributions may be made to
Madison Valley Medical Center, 305 N.
Main St., Ennis, MT, 59729.

Salk Institute scientists
Richard Krauzlis and Jeff Long have eachbeen promoted to full professor and associate
professor, respectively, in the latest round of
faculty reviews that took place in March.
The promotions were based on recommendations by the Salk faculty and non-resident
fellows, then approved by President Bill Brody
and the Institute’s Board of Trustees.
Krauzlis is interested in understanding thebrain mechanisms that link motor control tosensory and cognitive processing. The long-termgoal of his research is to understand how
neural circuits distributed across multiple
brain regions coordinate even simple motor
outputs like eye movements to higher-orderprocesses, such as attention, perception andexecutive control.
This information is a fundamental step
toward developing better clinical approaches
to complex disorders of attention and impulse
control, such as attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder and autism. A graduate of Princeton
University and the University of California at
San Francisco, the latter being where hereceived his doctorate, Krauzlis joined the
Salk Institute in 1997.
Long, who conducts his research in the
Salk’s Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology
Laboratory, studies embryogenesis inarabidopsis, the lab rat for plant biologists.
His lab focuses on the TOPLESS gene, so
named because of its power to regulate thedevelopment of a shoot or a root structurefrom a seedling. His team has learned how
to control the function of this gene, which
ultimately can serve to manipulate plantstructure and agricultural output.
A recipient of the Ray Thomas Edwards
Foundation Career Development Award andgraduate of the University of Wisconsin–
Madison, where he received his doctoral
degree, Long conducted his postdoctoral
research at the California Institute of Technology before joining the Salk in 2003.
www.salk.edu

PHILANTHROPY

Golfers from left: nbbj architects Jean Claude Constadse, Brian Mumford, Thomas Clyman, Lillian Asperin-Clyman

Annual Foundation Seminar and Golf Tournament
Bring Out the Best of Salk’s Supporters
Prominent ATTORNEYS from some of
the country’s top law firms and consultantsin the non-profit field were among the featured
speakers during the Salk Institute’s 38th
annual Tax & Management Seminar on Private
Foundations in May.
Chaired by Edwin K. Hunter, an attorneywith the firm of Hunter, Hunter & Sonnier (LLC)in Lake Charles, LA., and trustee for the Joe W.
and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation, among
other charitable foundations, the event drew
representatives from national and internationalfoundations who spent three days in La Jolla
for an update on the latest developments in
tax laws and regulations, as well as foundation
management and governance issues.
New to this year’s seminar was the additionof a second track of discussions focused specifically on management and governance. Guest

Inside Salk August 2010

speakers such as Valerie Jacobs, founderof Valerie Jacobs Consulting, provided an
insightful talk on succession planning, while
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors covered
impactful investing issues.
“The second track proved popular. Most of
the foundations with multiple attendees split
their personnel between parallel presentations.
This gave them a more efficient experience,”
Hunter said. “We also witnessed significantly
more interactions between presenters andaudience, probably attributable to the smaller
break-out groupings.”
Since its inception in 1972, the tax seminarhas provided an invaluable service to foundation
managers. What started out as an intimate
gathering has steadily grown into a highly
informative and comprehensive tax briefing
for the non-profit community.

Some of the many foundations represented at
this year’s seminar included: the Leona H. andHarry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust; the Guenther
Foundation, and the Conrad Hilton Foundation.
The seminar was preceded on May 11 by
the Salk Institute’s 1st annual Golf Tournament,
which drew more than 100 golfers— both Tax
Seminar attendees and corporate sponsors fromthe local community.
Held at the Del Mar Country Club, the Golf
Tournament helped raise funds for the Salk
Institute’s basic biological research. Everyone
enjoyed a relaxing day of golf, a delicious dinner,and raffle prizes. Up for grabs was a Mercedes
Benz to the golfer who could make a hole-in-one
at the 12th hole; but no one was lucky enough totake home the luxury sedan.

www.salk.edu

27

PHILANTHROPY

Nomis Foundation Gifts Additional$6.5 Million to Salk Center,
Establishes Endowed Chair
Two years since its initial $11.5 million
contribution to launch the Nomis Center for Immunobiology
and Microbial Pathogenesis, the Switzerland-based Nomis
Foundation has gifted an additional $6.5 million in support ofcontinued research efforts in understanding infectious disease.
Two million of the $6.5 million gift will establish the Nomis
Foundation Chair, a senior scientist endowed chair that will beawarded to the Center’s director, John A. T. Young. The fundwill be augmented with an additional $1 million in accordancewith the Joan Klein Jacobs and Irwin Mark Jacobs Senior
Scientist Endowed Chair Challenge. Launched in 2008, theChallenge is intended to create 10 new permanent chairs insupport of senior faculty members.
An additional $2.5 million of the most recent Nomis gift
will fund a comprehensive fellowship program to train andsupport 10 promising scientists to become leading researchers
in the field. The remaining $2 million will establish an
endowment to fund the purchase of cutting-edge technology
and equipment to ensure the NCIMP remains at the forefrontof research in Immunobiology.
“We are enormously grateful for the Nomis Foundation’s
continued commitment and generosity toward this very
important area of biological research,” said Salk Executive
Vice President Marsha A. Chandler.
Salk President Willima R. Brody observed: “The work thatwill continue as a result of this latest contribution will help
scientists decipher the underpinnings of immunologicaldeficiencies and the inflammatory process associated withmajor acquired disease, while endowed chairs created throughthe Jacobs Chair Challenge ensures the Salk Institute retains
some of the world’s brightest senior scientists.”
The overarching goal of the Nomis Center is to take a multipronged approach toward research on the pathophysiology
of disease that develops from chronic infections. In addition
to Young, who studies the cell biology of virus infection andanthrax intoxication, the Center includes assistant professors

John A. T. Young

Björn Lillemeier and Ye Zheng. Both joined the Salk facultyin November 2009 and conduct complementary research on
T-cells,which play an important role in regulating the body’s
immune system.
The Young lab has made significant discoveries over the last
two years, particularly in understanding details associated withthe early stages of AIDS infection. His team’s findings regarding
the virus-host interaction are pointing scientists toward possible
new therapeutic strategies to combat infection.

Palo Alto Meeting
The Institute hosted a scientific talk in Palo Alto,
Calif., where Salk Associate Professor Andy Dillin (center, right)
gave a presentation titled Aging and Alzheimer’s: New Approachto an Old Problem in March. Pictured with Dillin is philanthropist
Vincent Coates (seated) with his wife, Stella, Salk President
Bill Brody and Salk Board of Trustee member Fred Dotzler.

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Inside Salk August 2010www.salk.edu

PHILANTHROPY

Back to Basics Lecture Draws Friends Back to the Salk
donors gathered at the Salk Instituteto hear the answer to a question that one of its
senior faculty members has investigated for the
better part of his 30-year career: Is it possible
to mimic the positive effects of exercise witha pill?
The answer is yes, said Ron Evans, aprofessor in the Gene Expression Laboratory and a Howard Hughes Medical Instituteinvestigator. In a study that made international
headlines, his team of scientists showed thatthe investigational drug, AICAR, revved up
the metabolic master switch in the genes ofsedentary mice, resulting in enhanced muscle
tone and endurance when the animals wereplaced on treadmills.
Evans’ presentation in May was part ofthe Back to Basics program, which returned
after an extended hiatus. The popular event,organized by Salk’s Planned Giving office, also

featured a presentation by Mary Van Nostrand,a certified financial planner with more than
27 years of investment experience.
Evans explained in detail how the drug,
made up of molecules naturally produced in
the body, works at the genetic level to trigger
an increase in metabolic activity, essentially
mimicking exercise. While AICAR and a second
drug produced in his lab, GW1516, immediately caught the attention of athletes looking
for an edge in their performance, Evans said
the drugs could have much broader medical
applications.
“These drugs are not for athletes, but they
have the potential to treat a number of serious
medical problems, such as frailty, obesity –essentially anyone who cannot physically
exercise as a result of disease or injury.”
Van Nostrand preceded Evans with apresentation on the latest rules and regulations

and wealth-building benefits associated with
Roth IRAs. In most cases, she said, donating
traditional IRAs to charity is the best option to
maximize their funding impact since they are
taxed heavily upon the owner’s demise.
On the contrary, Van Nostrand explainedthat Roth IRAs are never taxed since contributions you make have already been taxed,
and they don’t have minimum required
distributions. Also, if a Roth IRA is willed to ayounger member of the family, the interest it
earns, as well as additional contributions to
the account, continue to compound year after
year tax-free, making it an effective estateplanning tool.
“I like to think of Roth IRAs as the giftthat keeps on giving,” Von Nostrand said.
For more information on Back to Basics and/or
planned giving, please contact Cheryl Dean,
Senior Director, Planned Giving at 858.453.4100
x1228 or e-mail cdean@salk.edu.

Mobile Science Lab Van Road-Ready
Members of Las Patronas joined Salk Institute staff in
March for a ceremony to unveil the new Mobile Science Lab van. The
all-volunteer, non-profit fundraising organization donated $25,000 topurchase the vehicle, its wrap-around exterior graphics and interior
shelving for Salk’s educational outreach program, which annually visits
Inside Salk August 2010at least 18 schools in the San Diego region to provide more than 2,200
middle school students with hands-on science experience. Las Patronas
representatives pictured here are Lise Wilson, 2010 Ball Chair (from left),
Sallie Warren, vice president of Grants, and Tracy Lyon, president.

www.salk.edu

29

PHILANTHROPY

Researchers Share Stories of Latest Breakthroughs
in New York City
Two special events in New York City on April 13th
introduced East Coast friends to some of the Institute’s latest and most
exciting research.
The New York Salkexcellerators held its inaugural meeting in theoffices of Covington and Burling LLP in The New York Times building.
More than 50 people attended to hear a fascinatingpresentation by Inder Verma, a senior scientist in the Salk’sLaboratory of Genetics and an American Cancer Society
Professor, who discussed the steady development of genetherapy – a field in which he pioneered the use of stripped-down versionsof viruses, in particular HIV, to ferry intact versions of genes that are
defective or missing to cells throughout the body.

A TASTEof DISCOVERY
Non-Resident Fellow Thomas M. Jessell, Ph.D. (left) and Inder Verma

30

Inside Salk August 2010www.salk.edu

PHILANTHROPY

Most recently, the lenti virus engineered in
his lab in the 1990s was successfully used inclinical trials to arrest a genetic brain diseasein two boys from Spain. The news has since
sparked a renaissance in gene therapy.
“Dr. Verma’s delivery made even the mostcomplex research accessible to an audience witha generally non-science background,” said Lena
Evans, a founding cabinet member of the New
York Salkexcellerators. “Many were impressedby the incredible strides made at the Salk overthe last 20 years. For those in the audience
who were interested in a particular disease or
therapeutic target, it was clear that gene therapy
applies to so many of their concerns, whichstressed the broad impact of basic research.”
The New York group is spearheaded by
Evans and fellow cabinet members Carrie
Hammerslag, Mark Kronfeld, Mary Jane Salkand Sara Tirschwell. Its West Coast counterpart,which held a meeting May 3 with guest speaker
and Salk scientist Fred H. “Rusty” Gage, formed
in 2008.
More than 80 friends of the Instituteattended the Taste of Discovery luncheon, which
was held at the 21 Club. Verma and Salk’s
Joanne Chory, professor and director of the Plant
Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, eachgave brief talks from their respective fields in apresentation titled The Broad Reach of Salk
Science: From Plants to Cancer.
A world-leading plant biologist, Chory
explained her lab’s interest in the mechanisms
governing how plants respond to light and her
discovery of brassinolide, a steroid hormone that
controls plant development. It is her lab’s goal
to help solve the world’s food supply shortage
with this and other findings. Mary Jane Salk
underwrote the event.

Kenneth Rind, Ph.D.

Irwin Mark Jacobs, Sc.D. (Chair, Salk Board of Trustees)

For more information on attending Salk events,
please contact Betsy Reis, director of Donor
Relations and Stewardship, at 858-453-4100
x1426 or e-mail: breis@salk.edu.

Inside Salk August 2010

Morleen Rouse (left) and Françoise Gilot

www.salk.edu

31

PHILANTHROPY

Jo

t
aus
Ann F

2
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in h

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Salk volunteers Jane Spahn (from left), JoAnn Faust, Ottilie Baer, Ellen Zimmerman and Jeannie Robert during the Salk’s unveilingof the March of Dimes plaque in 2005.

Friends Make Donations in Memory of Longtime Co-Worker and Volunteer JoAnn Faust
Former Salk receptionist JoAnn Faust may have retired
from the Institute 17 years ago, but her endless supply of laughter andher fun-loving personality are still fondly remembered by close friends
and colleagues.
She worked at the Institute from 1975-1993, after which she remained
closely involved as a volunteer – first with the Women’s Association of
the Salk Institute (WASI) and later as a member of the Salk Institute
Associates (SIA).
If you couldn’t catch her at the front desk, you would likely find JoAnn
passing the time during her lunch break knitting in the WASI meetingroom. This is where fellow knitter and Salk Administrative Assistant
Cindy Doane says that, despite their 36-year age difference, she developed
a deep friendship with JoAnn that lasted 22 years.
“She was my best friend in San Diego. We were always talking aboutknitting and exchanging patterns,” says Doane, who is among a group offriends who made contributions to the Salk in JoAnn’s memory. “We’doften go to the knitting shop together and, of course, do lunch in theprocess. She had four great-grandchildren she would knit for, but
she would also knit baby caps and booties for preemies and donate
them to the hospital.”
Others like Project Coordinator Betsy Pené remember JoAnn’s penchantfor laughter and how she could find amusement in some of the simplest
things. She was particularly fond of JoAnn’s adolescent side.
“We used to have secret Santa gift exchanges in our department and
one year I drew her name,” Pené says. “I went to a street fair and picked
up some toys, and she loved them. She was just like a big kid.”
For her 75th birthday, JoAnn announced that she wanted to spend
the night at the San Diego Wild Animal Park for its Roar & Snore sleepoverprogram. It was the first time she ever slept in a tent, and she fulfilled herbirthday wish with her family in tow.

32

Inside Salk Augustl 2010

“She said the snore came from her cousin who shared her tent andsnored all night,” Doane says with a laugh.
JoAnn may have been a child at heart, but her friends say she was aserious collaborator when it came to her work at the Salk. Originally hired
as a receptionist after moving to California from the East Coast with her
three children, she regularly volunteered to take on extra duties whenever
she was needed.
“She was really so much more than a receptionist,” Pené says. “JoAnn
served as the Institute’s events coordinator because we didn’t have one
at the time. She was always running around picking up food and anythingelse that was needed for an event. JoAnn also managed all volunteer coordination for mailings and tours. She was very dedicated to the Institute.”
After retiring, JoAnn spent more time on the golf course, where
Doane says she would join her for a round almost every Friday morning.
She continued volunteering at the Institute until the fall of 2009 when
JoAnn was diagnosed with a brain tumor after the Thanksgiving holiday.
The news shocked her close friends since she had never had any major
health problems until that point, Doane says. By December of last year,
JoAnn went into hospice, choosing to no longer see her friends. Doane kept
in touch with her best friend by sending letters until just before JoAnn
passed away on Jan. 16. She was 84 years old.
“My guess is that she didn’t want people blubbering over her,” says
Doane of JoAnn’s decision not to take visitors. “I miss talking with her
about anything and everything. She was very special.”
If you would like to learn more about making a donation to the Salk Institutein memory of a loved one, please visit: www.salk.edu/plannedgiving.

www.salk.edu

PHILANTHROPY

Maestro Thomas Wilkins at the helm during last year's Symphony at Salk. He returns in August for the sixth consecutive year.

Symphony’s Maestro Wilkins Anticipates ‘Electric’ Performancefrom the Legendary Liza Minnelli
It was impossible for Maestro
Thomas Wilkins and his colleagues not totalk about Liza Minnelli over dinner. They had
witnessed a performance by the stage andscreen legend to commemorate her induction
into the Hollywood Bowl’s Hall of Fame andwere still electrified by what they had seen
two hours earlier.
“I’ll tell you, when Liza steps out on thestage she has the energy of a 14 year-old. I
mean she just does not surrender,” says Wilkins,
principal guest conductor for the Hollywood
Bowl Orchestra. “She pours all of her heartand soul into her performance. It’s really
electric and mesmerizing all at the same time.”
Friends of the Salk Institute will have theopportunity to experience Minnelli’s pizzazz
firsthand when she headlines the 15th annual Symphony at Salk – A Concert Under theStars on Aug. 28. For one night only, Minnelli
will bring her larger-than-life spectacle to theInstitute’s intimate Theodore Gildred Courtyard
where she will share the stage with the San
Diego Symphony Orchestra, which Wilkins willconduct for the sixth consecutive year.
Aside from the music and the time he getsto spend in sunny San Diego each year, Wilkins
says it’s the chance to contribute a small partto a worthy cause that keeps him coming backto Salk’s annual fundraiser.
“Not only is it a fun event, but the people
at Salk are just great human beings. I always

Inside Salk August 2010

walk away inspired and hopeful about the
future of medical science,” he says. “I lovethe minute part that I can play in helping toadvance their scientific research. And they’vereally adopted me as part of the Salk family,
which is pretty cool.”
Wilkins is in his third season with the
Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and continues hisrole as music director for the Omaha Symphony.
He stepped down last year as the resident
conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
after nine seasons.
“At this stage in my career, I end up guest
conducting so many weeks out of the year I
just couldn’t give enough time to the Detroit
Symphony for me to warrant staying on staff,”says Wilkins, who has developed into one of
the most sought after guest conductors in the
United States during his more than 20-year
career.“And quite frankly, it’s really time forsome young whippersnapper to come along
and have an opportunity.”
With each passing year as Symphony at
Salk’s guest conductor, Wilkins has concluded
that there is little difference between his work inmusic and that of the scientists in the Institute’s
laboratories. Both disciplines are focused on thesame goal: to improve the human condition.
“The classical music genre represents someof the greatest achievements of mankind like any
scientific endeavor,” he explains. “You think of
the lasting power of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony

Liza Minnelliand 200 years later it is still current andappropriate to our lives.
“Much of classical music deals with thisindelible human spirit when faced with some
sort of obstacle or challenge. And to the extent
that people receive this music and understandthe journey that composers take us on, the aim
is that we do indeed walk away as better humanbeings,” Wilkins says. “And clearly that is what
they are doing scientifically at Salk as well.”www.salk.edu

33NEWS BRIEFS
Excited about the Institute’s new BioMark Fluidigm microfluidic system, Geoffrey Wahl commented that “this technology, among many other uses to which it can be put, will revolutionize our ability to interrogate
single cells to determine how they receive and process signals from the environment.” Pictured (from left): Ben Spike, Samantha Cheung, Wahl, and Jennifer Lin

Researcher to Serve on Advisory Panel for Top Breast Cancer Organization
Salk Principal Investigator Geoffrey Wahl has been
selected to serve on a new international panel of more than 60 top-ranking
scientists, clinicians and advocates to guide the extensive research
program of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, the world’s largest breast
cancer organization.
The distinguished experts from a wide range of disciplines and sevencountries will serve as inaugural members of Komen for the Cure’s new
Scientific Advisory Council (SAC). They will provide scientific peer review
for the breast cancer grants and programs that Komen funds annually.
The Scientific Advisory Council will also provide Komen leadership withguidance on breast cancer education and public policy.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, the largest source of breast cancer
research funding outside of the U.S. government, currently funds nearly
760 active research grants around the world, with plans to invest another$55 million in 105 projects this year.
The new advisory council members have expertise in many specialties,
including clinical research, laboratory research, surgery, pathology,
radiation oncology, epidemiology, medical oncology, behavioral sciences,disease prevention, bioinformatics and international health. Wahl, aprofessor in the Salk’s Gene Expression Laboratory, studies the genetic
basis of the origin and progression of cancer.

Education Outreach Program
Receives Award of Excellence
The San Diego Science Educators Association(SDSEA) recognized the Salk Institute’s Education
Outreach Program (EOP) with an award of excellence forits support of K-12 science education in the local region.
Two San Diego teachers whose students participatedin the Salk’s Mobile Science Lab and the annual HighSchool Science Day programs nominated the Salk
program for the award.
The SDSEA is a professional organization supporting science educators. Its mission is to promote science
literacy and advocate for science education by promoting
professionalism, leadership and community outreach.
“As a past teacher, it is an honor to be recognized by
my former colleagues for providing quality educational
opportunities to San Diego students,” said Salk Education
Specialist Dona Mapston.
Dona Mapston (left) and Ellen Potter

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Inside Salk August 2010www.salk.edu

NEWS BRIEFS

Salk President William R. Brody at the groundbreaking ceremony with his wife, Wendy.

Johns Hopkins University Honors Brodys with Learning Commons
The Homewood campus of The Johns
Hopkins University held a ceremony on June
6 to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Brody
Learning Commons, a state-of-the-art building
named in honor of its former president, William
R. Brody, and his wife, Wendy.
Several years in the planning, the Brody
Learning Commons will be a light-filled, fourstory hub for collaborative learning, with a robust

technology infrastructure and spaces for groupand individual study. The building will feature
a quiet reading room, a new home for the
Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts,
new laboratory and instruction space for the
Department of Preservation and Conservation,
and a new atrium and café.
More than 200 guests attended the groundbreaking ceremony, which was held outside thecampus’ Milton S. Eisenhower Library. Brody
served as JHU president for 12 years before
being named president of the Salk Institute inlate 2008.
“Having a place where students will gather tostudy and learn named after us feels like we getto keep a piece of Hopkins with us forever,” said
Wendy Brody. The building is scheduled to becompleted in July 2012.

Wireless Sensor Startup Wins UC San Diego Entrepreneur Challenge
Ping Wang, a graduate student in
Terry Sejnowski’s Computational Neurobiology
Laboratory, was part of a UCSD Engineeringand Rady School of Business graduate student
team that won the university’s Entrepreneur
Challenge. The students developed wirelesssensors that monitor the heart without touching
the patient’s skin.
Jacobs School of Engineering graduate
student Mike Chi developed the technology
with other team members, including the Salk’s
Wang, Yuchen Cao, Mehmet Parlak, and Stephen
Chen. The group received $25,000 in cash andInside Salk August 2010

$15,000 in legal services to support theirstart-up company, Cognionics.
Engineers and physicians are increasingly
turning to wireless technologies and innovative circuit designs to develop sensors that cut
health care costs through better preventive careand shorter hospital stays. Wireless sensors
also offer patients more freedom than wired
sensors that are attached to machines. The UC
San Diego wireless sensor project could lead to
unobtrusive heart sensors for long-term cardiac
health monitoring.
The sensors record “biopotentials” – tiny
voltage signals that appear on the skin surface.

Biopotentials emanatefrom electrically active
cells, such as neurons
and cardiac cells, andpropagate through theconductive media of thePing Wang
human body.
One of the project’s goals is to take the sensing technology out of the hospital setting andinto the home environment, without constraining
the mobility of the patient. The technology would
also allow doctors to track cardiac or brain activity during exercise, or to monitor the health ofsoldiers on the battlefield.
www.salk.edu

35

NONPROFIT ORG.
U.S. POSTAGE

PA I D

STREET ADDRESS
10010 North Torrey Pines RoadLa Jolla, California 92037-1099

PERMIT NO. 611
SAN DIEGO, CA

Telephone: 858.453.4100
Fax: 858.552.8285
www.salk.edu

There are many ways to support the Salk. For detailed information on opportunities, please email giving@salk.edu or call 858.550.0472

Celebrating five decadesof scientific excellence in basic research.
[1960 – 2010]

Salk Calendar
AUGUST 201025–28 International Council Meetingat the Salk Institute
28 Symphony at Salk,
Featuring Guest Artist Liza Minnelli
SEPTEMBER 2010
29 A Taste of Discovery San Diego
OCTOBER 201027–29 Faculty Symposium on Biological Complexity
Salk Medal Awards Ceremony
NOVEMBER 2010
1 Breathing & Sleep Symposium© Françoise Gilot Vegetation #1 1961

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