Transforming the face of research: Katie Baca-Motes, MBA, and Julia Moore Vogel, PhD, MBA
December 15, 2021
Can a wrist-worn activity tracker detect early symptoms of COVID-19, or help a patient with Long COVID manage their symptoms? Can we use mobile apps to engage communities that have historically been underrepresented in biomedical research? These are all questions scientists at the Scripps Research Digital Trials Center seek to answer. In this Front Row lecture, Katie Baca-Motes, MBA, and Julia Moore Vogel, PhD, MBA, discuss the digital revolution that is taking place in clinical research. By designing clinical trials around the participant rather than the research clinic, scientists at Scripps Research are heralding a new era of diverse, participant-centric remote digital trials, powered by the smart technologies already in your pocket.
Overcoming arthritis: Martin Lotz, MD
November 17, 2021
In his Front Row lecture, Martin Lotz, MD, discusses cutting-edge research on osteoarthritis, the form of arthritis typically associated with age-related deterioration of the joints or following joint injury. Lotz shares how he and other scientists are deciphering the underlying biology of how the body’s ability to maintain and repair cartilage changes with age; he will also dive into a number of promising possibilities for counteracting the onset of age-related arthritis.
Unlocking new insights into metabolism and longevity: Supriya Srinivasan, PhD
October 13, 2021
The complex biological processes that regulate our metabolism are closely linked with many aspects of our health, from our weight and mental wellbeing to how long we live. Scripps Research neuroscientist and associate professor Supriya Srinivasan, PhD, leads a team that uses state-of-the-art molecular and genetic tools to investigate how our genes, gut-brain communication and other factors are implicated in metabolism and longevity—and how disease can develop when our internal balance goes awry. Her discoveries are paving the way to potential medicines for metabolic conditions and have led to interesting new insights into longevity.
Getting to the heart of the matter: Jeffery Kelly, PhD
September 15, 2021
Pioneering biochemist Jeffery Kelly, PhD, has recently been awarded the prestigious Breakthrough Prize for his transformative advances in the understanding of neurological disease. In his Front Row lecture, Professor Kelly shares his research into a broad set of disorders where incorrectly folded proteins clump and lead to degeneration of the heart and the nervous systems. He explains how his research led to the first approved therapy for diseases caused by such processes. He also describes how he and his team are developing future precision therapies for a wide range of diseases.
Harnessing the power of the microbiota to boost immunity against infection and cancer: Howard Hang, PhD
August 18, 2021
The trillions of bacteria, or “microbiota,” that reside in our gut emit chemical signals that enhance our immunity and help fight disease. Scripps Research professor Howard Hang, PhD, has discovered important links between specific species of microbes and immunity, laying the groundwork for new approaches to more effectively prevent infections and treat cancer and other diseases. In this Front Row lecture, you’ll learn why specific bacteria in our body are such powerful mediators of health—and find out about breakthrough discoveries that are now on their way to becoming medicines.
How the science of chirality is helping the search for better drugs and origins of life: Donna Blackmond, PhD
June 16, 2021
Many of the building blocks of life exist in two forms that are mirror images of one another – a phenomenon known as chirality that is necessary for life to exist at all. How chirality arose eons ago is one of the great mysteries of science. What served as the first template – back before DNA, RNA and proteins, before the origin of life, in the prebiotic soup, when the nascent building blocks for life were first being formed? What process was responsible for directing amino acids to turn left, and sugars to turn right? In her Front Row lecture, Donna Blackmond, PhD, will share how deciphering the origins of chirality can help scientists design and develop safer, modern pharmaceuticals and in the search for life on other planets.
Mapping the secret complexity of tumors to defeat aggressive cancers: Michalina Janiszewska, PhD
April 21, 2021
What makes cancer so difficult to defeat? Why do so many patients respond well to a particular treatment, only to relapse months or years later? The answer lies within the complex cellular makeup of cancerous tumors. Since cells within a tumor vary widely from one another, even if most are destroyed, at least some will survive and rebuild the tumor mass. Cancer biologist Michalina Janiszewska, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research, is bringing a heightened understanding to how a tumor’s diverse cell populations interact and what causes cells with particular mutations to expand. Likening tumors to jigsaw puzzles, Janiszewska is finding patterns that were never before seen. By mapping the intricate tumor ecosystem and finding new ways to detect the most dangerous of cells, she seeks to bring about better treatments for brain cancer and other highly aggressive or treatment-resistant tumors.
Cracking the code of chronic inflammation: Mark Sundrud, PhD
March 25, 2021
Chronic inflammation occurs when the immune system spins out of control, and leads to a host of devastating and incurable immune-mediated diseases. In his Front Row lecture, Mark Sundrud, PhD, shares how he and his colleagues are deciphering new networks of immune regulation that operate locally (in specific tissues), as opposed to globally (throughout the entire body), and how this can inform the development of safer, more targeted therapies for chronic inflammatory diseases that avoid the potentially life-threatening consequences of global immune suppression.
The science of sight: An eye-opening presentation on the neuroscience of vision: Hollis Cline, PhD, and Kirill Martemyanov, PhD
February 17, 2021
Our sense of sight is our window into the world. Advances in neuroscience are rapidly unlocking the secrets of vision and paving the way to new therapies for blindness and other vision disorders. In their Front Row lecture, Hollis Cline, PhD, and Kirill Martemyanov, PhD, co-chairs of the Department of Neuroscience at Scripps Research, present their cutting-edge vision research. Among other topics, they discuss recent findings on how molecules in the retina turn light into information, how visual sensations shape brain development and how deciphering the way our visual system works could lead to new avenues to detect, prevent and correct vision impairments.
Accelerating innovative medicines in times of change: Peter Schultz, PhD
January 19, 2021
How can we, as a society, do a better job of creating new drugs for our most urgent global health challenges?
Kicking off the 2021 season of the Front Row lecture series, Scripps Research President and CEO Peter Schultz, PhD, discusses how the nonprofit biomedical institute has expanded the bounds of academic research to transform drug development.
Using state-of-the-art drug discovery methods and new approaches to translational medicine, the institute is quickly turning new scientific insights into effective drugs. Schultz also will share updates on Scripps Research’s COVID-19 programs and its growing drug pipeline, which encompasses new treatments for cancer, neurodegenerative disease, osteoarthritis and more.