Whitehall Foundation honors two pioneering Scripps Research scientists
February 11, 2019
LA JOLLA, CA – Neuroscientists Giordano Lippi, PhD, and Li Ye, PhD, of Scripps Research have received grants from the Whitehall Foundation to support their studies into brain function. Each researcher will receive $225,000 over three years.
“The Whitehall Foundation has a history of supporting young neuroscientists at the beginning of their tenure-track careers,” says Lippi, an assistant professor at Scripps Research and member of the Dorris Neuroscience Center. “Many awardees have gone on to very successful careers. It is therefore a true honor to receive this award.”
“It's a great honor to be acknowledged with this prestigious new faculty award in neuroscience,” says Ye, an assistant professor at Scripps Research and member of the Dorris Neuroscience Center. “Having this award will allow us to try out-of-the-box, high-reward projects.”
In the Lippi lab, the new funding will support research into microRNAs, the regulatory molecules that control brain development. The researchers plan to investigate a microRNA molecule called miR-218, which has been linked to epilepsy and cognitive impairments in human patients. Lippi says this work will help scientists unravel the molecular mechanisms underpinning healthy brain development.
“This project in particular, like most of the work in our lab, is at the intersection of circuit neuroscience and hard-core molecular biology,” says Lippi. “The Dorris Neuroscience Center is the perfect place for this kind of research, because of the expertise of my colleagues and the highly collaborative environment.”
The separate award to the Ye lab will support research to identify the brain circuits that drive organisms to eat more food when they are in a cold environment. One question researchers want to answer is how acute energy consumption affects the control of appetite.
“Scripps Research has a long history of promoting interdisciplinary research,” says Ye. “This project is a great example of cross-field research involving both neuroscience and metabolism.”
The Whitehall Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1937 to support basic neurobiology research in the United States.
For more information, contact press@scripps.edu