Dozens of La Jolla medical researchers will each receive $500,000 from the Prebys Foundation

Fourteen San Diego researchers – twelve of them from La Jolla institutions – will each receive a $500,000 grant as part of a new Research Heroes award from the Prebys Foundation, the San Diego charity founded by philanthropist Conrad Prebys.

The $7 million allocation provides two years of support to those conducting medical research and “seeks to address the critical gap between women and underrepresented groups in leading research positions by offering substantial funding to researchers for projects that might otherwise go unsupported” , said a statement. about the program.

After consultation with the Science Philanthropy Alliance and Open Impact, the foundation made its choice to set up the Heroes program and select the first group of winners.

Here are the Prebys Research Heroes from La Jolla institutions and their research opportunities:

Rachel Blaser, UC San Diego: Blaser will investigate “how healthily aging adults perform on tasks that challenge their perception of space and their problem-solving skills.” The work could lead to “methods for early detection of cognitive decline that could change the way we approach diseases like Alzheimer’s.”

Dannielle Engle of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies is working on a way to diagnose pancreatic cancer easily and quickly.

(Salk Institute)

Dannielle Engle, Salk Institute for Biological Studies: Engle and her team “are working to find a way to diagnose pancreatic cancer easily and quickly, using a test similar to the PSA test for screening for prostate cancer or colon cancer.”

Stephanie Fraley, UC San Diego School of Medicine: Fraley “addresses two major challenges facing human health today: advancing technologies for the detection of infectious diseases and identifying therapeutic targets for cancer metastasis – two conditions responsible for a significant portion of cancer worldwide. deaths.”

Mia Huang, Scripps Research: Huang “aims to impact the health risks of pregnancies, such as preeclampsia – a common but poorly understood pregnancy disorder – and look for markers that can predict complications long before they occur.”

Xin Jin, Scripps Research: Jin “is working on approaches to understand the cellular underpinnings and fundamental principles of brain development, which will help us understand how diseases such as autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia develop.”

Marygorret Obonyo, UC San Diego School of Medicine: Obonyo “is studying new ways to identify genes that increase the risk of stomach cancer, and treatments that could be effective before the cancer reaches the terminal stage.”

Erica Ollmann Saphire, La Jolla Institute for Immunology: Ollmann Saphire, president and chief executive of the institute, “studies the molecular relationships between pathogens and their hosts, learning where viruses interact with the immune system and where they are vulnerable to being neutralized.”

Sonia Sharma, La Jolla Institute of Immunology: Sharma “is particularly interested in how molecules in the blood can activate the brain’s immune system as a way to design treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.”

Tatyana Sharpee of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies conducts brain research.

(Salk Institute)

Tatyana Sharpee, Salk Institute for Biological Studies: Sharpee “is working on potentially groundbreaking research that is… deeply interdisciplinary, drawing on physics, mathematics, neuroscience, molecular biology, hyperbolic geometry and even cosmology to help scientists better unlock the mysteries of the brain.”

Sujan Shresta, La Jolla Institute of Immunology: Shresta will focus “on protecting the public from several medically relevant viruses, including dengue, Zika, West Nile, Powassan and other pathogens that manipulate human immune cells and have the potential to cause long-term neurological problems such as brain fog and possibly even Dementia.”

Lisa Stowers, Scripps Research: Stowers “focuses on learning more about how the brain works to develop drugs and therapies to treat a wide range of brain-related conditions, from depression to dementia.”

Daniela Valdez-Jasso, UC San Diego School of Medicine: Valdez-Jasso “focuses on identifying markers for diagnosing pulmonary hypertension – high blood pressure of the lungs – before it is too late, understanding how the disease progresses and identifying opportunities for developing new drugs to treat the disease.”

Also included are Razel Bacuetes Milo of the University of San Diego, a family physician and behavioral science researcher who studies the relationship between perceived well-being and stress in the Philippine community, and Angelica Riestra of San Diego State University, who is trying “to find new ways to to counteract the disproportionate impact of trichomoniasis.”

To learn more about each researcher’s work and the Heroes program, visit PrebysResearchHeroes.org.

—La Jolla employees contributed to this report. ◆