In Brief

Yanqiao Chen, Benjamin Huffman, Colby Sandate Win NSF Graduate Fellowships

Yanqiao Chen, Benjamin Huffman and Colby Sandate, first-year graduate students at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), have been awarded 2016 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) grants, supporting outstanding students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

"These awards are provided to individuals who have demonstrated their potential for significant research achievements, and they are investments that will help propel this country's future innovations and economic growth," said Joan Ferrini-Mundy, NSF assistant director for education and human resources.

Chen, a member of the Yu lab, is working in chemical catalysis, specifically researching C(sp3)-H activation of unprotected amines using a transient template.

Huffman’s NSF proposal, submitted while he was in the Disney lab, is titled “Chemical approaches to study RNA-ligand interactions in cells.”

Sandate’s project, “Uncovering the mechanism of dynein/dynactin recruitment at the plus-end of microtubules,” is a collaboration between the Lander and Deniz labs in biophysics/structural biology.

In addition, 11 TSRI students received NSF GRFP honorable mentions: Janice Xu, Megan Vaughan, Ryan Paxman, Anastasia Lobanova, Helen Kim, Matthew Holcomb and David Hill at Scripps California and Sophia Park, Amber Hackler, Adam Getzler and Alicia Angelbello on the Scripps Florida campus.

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First-year graduate students, Yanqiao Chen, Benjamin Huffman and Colby Sandate (left to riight) have been awarded NSF Fellowships.

Balyn Zaro Receives Cancer Society Fellowship

Balyn Zaro, research associate in the Cravatt lab at TSRI, has been awarded an American Cancer Society (ACS) fellowship, which provides initial funding to early-career scientists in cancer research.

Zaro’s research project, titled “Achieving Kinetic Selectivity for Irreversible Enzyme Inhibitors,” seeks to precisely control reactivity of irreversible small molecule inhibitors through metabolism, with the aim of helping develop improved anti-cancer drug therapies with fewer side effects.

TSRI ARCS Scholars Honored

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TSRI’s Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Scholars—above (left to right), Rigo Cintron-Colon (Conti lab), Margarete Johnson (Havran lab), Danielle Grotjahn (Lander lab), Jessica Bruhn (Ollmann Saphire lab) and George Campbell (Encalada lab)—were honored with other ARCS scholars recently at a San Diego ARCS chapter event, where Grotjahn gave a brief speech expressing appreciation for the organization’s support on behalf of the area’s ARCS scholars.

New Coffee Hour Celebrates TSRI’s Many Cultures

Research is an international endeavor, breaking down traditional borders of geography, nationality and language, and drawing strength from a broad diversity of individual backgrounds. To celebrate this diversity and build ties among graduate students, postdocs and TSRI staff, the Graduate Office recently kicked off a new bimonthly event: International Coffee Hour.

Despite its caffeinated title, International Coffee Hour is less about the coffee and more about exploring the rich spectrum of cultures and traditions at TSRI. Each event will be hosted by one or more individuals who are willing to share any manner of food, drink and music they feel is representative of their native culture.

The inaugural event took place on April 12 in the Graduate Office’s Dining Room and was hosted by Graduate Student Anna Kriebs of Cologne, Germany. Kriebs put together a slideshow of images from Germany and guests were treated to a variety of German music, décor and delicious refreshments.

Stay tuned for the next International Coffee Hour, which will be announced via email and on the Graduate Program’s online Intranet calendar. If you would like to host an event to share your culture with the TSRI community, please contact the Graduate Office.

2016 Funding Fest Continues

The Spring 2016 Funding Fest, a series of workshops on the “how-to” of grants and fellowships, continues:

Tuesday, April 19: Grant Writing 101

TSRI faculty members Luc Teyton, Ashok Deniz and Glen Nemerow will discuss grant opportunities, specific elements of grant proposals, the review process and tips for writing effective grants. The workshop will be held from 1 to 2:30 PM in the TSRI Committee Lecture Hall, Skaggs Institute/Molecular Biology building, room 220. Register online.

Thursday, April 21: Navigating the NIH: Strategies for Identifying Your Target Audience

Salk Institute Staff Scientist Michael Nunn and Grant Writer David O’Keefe will provide strategies to select the National Institutes of Health (NIH) study sections and to translate research plans into funded proposals. Although geared toward NIH proposals (R01, K99, F32), concepts will be applicable to a wide range of funding mechanisms and granting agencies. Scheduled for 1 to 2:30 PM, the workshop will be held in the Salk Institute Trustees room. Register online.

Friday May 6: Basics of Mentored Grant Writing

University of California (UC) San Diego Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Bioengineering Peter Wagner will discuss types of grants, their structures and components (abstract, aims, method and budget), as well as strategies to write them. The session will be held from 1 to 3 PM on the UC San Diego campus in the Leichtag Building, room 107. Register online.

Open to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, the festival is sponsored by the Torrey Pines Training Consortium, a collaboration of TSRI, the Salk Institute, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and UC San Diego.

CA Meet the Alumni: Petra Pavlickova of Hologic

Petra Pavlickova, regulatory affairs manager at Hologic, a global healthcare and diagnostics company, is the featured guest at the next Scripps California Meet the Alumni event, to be held Monday, April 25, from 4 to 5 PM.

After earning a PhD in biochemistry from Charles University in Prague, the Czech Republic, Pavlickova was a postdoctoral fellow in the Vogt lab from 2007 to 2010 studying oncogenic mechanisms of Class 1 P13-kinase regulation. She has been with Hologic for 11 years.

Each Meet the Alumni event features a different guest speaker from the growing TSRI alumni network, presented in a relaxed, informal discussion setting and open to postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. Speakers discuss career options and decisions and offer advice on career transitions.

The event will be held in the Graduate Studies Office dining room, first floor, the Hazen Theory building. Light refreshments will be served. Reservations are required.

CA Career Workshop: Employment Transition

Financial planning for changes in jobs or job status is the focus of a Scripps California workshop, “Employment Transition: Preparing for Change,” to be held Thursday, April 21, from 4 to 5:30 PM, in the Graduate Studies Office dining room, first floor, Hazen Theory building.

Sponsored by TSRI’s Career and Postdoctoral Services Office, the session will be conducted by MetLife financial education facilitators. Topics include:

Essential financial survival skills
Action plan development
Strategies to maintain an individual’s way of life during a transition

Reservations are requested.

Lunch & Learn: Intuitive Eating

Options to maintain wellness without dieting will be explored at the next Lunch & Learn presentation, “Intuitive Eating: Cultivating a Healthy Relationship with Food and Your Body,” scheduled for Friday, April 29, noon to 1 PM.

Megan Holt, coordinator of nutrition and wellness at Potentia Family Therapy in San Diego, will share the benefits of “intuitive eating” in her presentation. Topics will include:

Research findings on the effectiveness of diets and dieting
Non-dietary weight and health management
The difference between “head/emotional” hunger and physical hunger cues

The event, arranged by TSRI’s Office of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), will be held in the Beckman building’s Keck Amphitheater. For information on other CAPS services and resources, visit the department’s website.

FL Biosafety Meeting Scheduled for April 20

The next meeting of the Scripps Florida Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) will be held on Tuesday, April 20, from 9:30 to 11:30 AM, in room B490. RSVP required to Galina Judge, gjudge@scripps.edu.

At the Auditorium: Prize-Winning Cellist, Chamber Music

The La Jolla Music Society’s Discovery Series will present Hungarian cellist István Várdai, winner of several international music prizes, on Sunday, April 17, 3 PM. Accompanied by pianist Julien Quentin, Várdai will perform works by Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff and Dvořák as well as the Brahms Sonata for Cello in F Major. For additional ticket and program information, visit the society’s website.

Mainly Mozart’s Spotlight Series offers an evening of chamber music on Saturday, April 30, featuring violinist Steven Copes, violist Hsin-Yun Huang, cellist Peter Wiley and clarinetist David Shifrin with David Jolley on the French horn and Anne-Marie McDermott on piano. Their program will include Beethoven’s Clarinet Trio in B-Flat Major, Op. 11 and Hungarian composer Ernö Dohnányi’s Sextet in C Major, Op. 37. A 6:30 PM wine reception will precede the 7:30 PM concert. For ticket information, visit the Mainly Mozart website.

The Auditorium at TSRI is located at 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, San Diego 92121.

Send comments to: mikaono[at]scripps.edu

Graduate Student Anna Kriebs (right) serves TSRI Research Associate Torben Schiffner a helping of German pretzels and mustard at the first International Coffee Hour. (Photo by Cindy Brauer.)

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