2007
Dr. Lei Wang, Assistant Professor in the Chemical Biology and Proteomics Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, received research funding from the foundation for the three year period 2008-2010.
Dr. Wang's proposed research, In vivo Visualization of Wnt Trafficking and Secretion in Caenorhabditis elegans, will genetically encode novel amino acids in C. elegans to enable live, in vivo visualization of Wnt proteins, allowing the secretion and movement of the protein to be determined in real time.
Dr. Dorian B. McGavern, formerly Associate Professor in the Molecular and Integrative Neurosciences Department at The Scripps Research Institute, now at NIH, received research funding from the foundation for the three year period 2007-2009.
Dr. McGavern's proposed research, Neuronal Regulation of Adaptive Immunity, focuses on novel mechanisms by which neurons modulate immune function in the central nervous system, in particular the central role played by the major histocompatibility complex I.
Dr. Gentry Patrick, Assistant Professor of Biology at University of California, San Diego, received research funding from the foundation for the three year period 2006-2008.
Dr. Patrick's proposed research, The Role of the Ubiquitin Proteasome System (UPS) in Synaptic Plasticity and Neurodegenerative Disease, focuses on activity-mediated changes in the protein composition of mammalian synapses by the UPS, one of the major cellular pathways controlling protein turnover in eukaryotic cells.
Jeffrey A. Long, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Plant Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, received research funding from the foundation for the three year period 2005-2007.
Dr. Long's proposed research, Investigating the Connection Between Radial Polarity and Apical/Basal Polarity in Arabidopsis embryogenesis, focuses on uncovering the molecular basis and mechanisms by which cell differentiation occurs in plant embryogenesis.
James G. Umen, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Plant Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, received research funding from the foundation for the three year period 2004-2006.
Dr. Umen's proposed research, Chemical Genetic Dissection of Cell-Size Control Mechanisms by the RB Tumor Suppressor Pathway, focuses on developing a novel approach to study size homeostasis in the model eukaryote Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
Joseph G. Gleeson, MD, Associate Professor in Neurosciences at University of California, San Diego, received research funding from the foundation for the three year period 2003-2005.
Dr. Gleeson's proposed research, Mouse Mutagenesis Screen for Developmental Brain Defects, focuses on developing MRI techniques to screen for brain morphological defects in dead mouse pups using high-throughput technology. These techniques will be used to identify mouse families with novel heritable brain developmental defects.
Lisa Boulanger, Assistant Professor of Biology at University of California, San Diego, received research funding from the foundation in 2007. Boulanger's research focuses on how proteins of the immune system participate in normal brain development and synaptic plasticity.
Tracy L. Johnson, Assistant Professor of Biology at University of California, San Diego, received research funding from the foundation in 2004. Johnson's research seeks to exploit the power of yeast genetics and biochemistry to study eukaryotic gene expression in the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae.