A given high-throughput functional genomics, proteomics, sequencing, metabolomics or transcriptome profiling experiment can ... proteomics). Before users generate data, they come to the core to be advised on experimental design, including replicate ...

Dan Winer, MD, imagines a world where his child or future grandchildren will read in a class textbook or online course about one of his scientific discoveries. He is off to a good start so far, helping to develop new and emerging branches of immunology seemingly with every research topic he undertakes.. The Buck Associate Professor focuses on the many facets of the immune system to uncover the impact they have on every system in the body.. "Early in my career, I thought that the immune system is so important that it probably contributes to nearly every disease in one way or another, and that is turning out to be true," says Winer.. Winers first textbook-worthy finding materialized more than a decade ago, when he and his colleagues discovered that the adaptive immune system plays a really important role in diabetes that develops in association with obesity. Before then, it was generally thought that while type-1 diabetes is a classic autoimmune disease, type-2 diabetes had little to no ...

Cancer is the #2 cause of death in the US, and mainly affects older adults. While treatments and even cures have improved outcomes and saved countless lives, there are still far too many who succumb to this horrific disease. Scientists are always looking for a new "in"-something specific about cancer cells that they can target, while leaving healthy cells alone. Mitochondria, as the cells "powerhouse", are an appealing target for energy-hungry cancer cells.. Cancer cells divide rapidly and need more energy than healthy cells. Because of this, researchers are investigating the cancer cells energy source as a target for treatment. With this in mind, an emerging chemotherapeutic mechanism of action involves the inhibition of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC), one of the ways that cells transform energy. The mitochondrial ETC is primarily made up of mitochondrial complexes I-V. The inhibition of these complexes by small molecules has produced higher mortality rates for cancer cells ...

M. Arthur Gensler Jr. and his wife, Drucilla Cortell Gensler, have donated $5 million to the Buck Institute. The gift will be honored by naming the Institutes administrative facility the "Arthur and Drue Gensler Building.". Drue Gensler is President of the Gensler Family Foundation and was an early supporter of the Institute, serving on the first Advisory Committee. Arthur Gensler has served a total of 11 years as a Buck Trustee, joining in 2000 just as the Institutes first two research buildings were coming on line. As Chair of the Construction Committee, his experience and expertise has helped shape both the operations and the esthetics of the Institute. He played a crucial role in the development of the open laboratory plans which have been incorporated into the Institutes scientific expansion. He was actively involved in the planning and construction of the Institutes new Regenerative Medicine Research Center which opened last April. He also helped champion the new geothermal heat ...

At the Buck, we believe it is possible to prevent age-related disease and to enjoy healthier longevity. Research advances are revealing how a better understanding of the biology of aging can lead to the treatment and prevention of disease. There has never been a more exciting time for Buck research and participating in the Impact Circle brings you up close and personal with this exciting discovery process. It is an unprecedented chance to follow along closely with a scientific research project and to enjoy exclusive meetings and updates with the scientists themselves over the course of an entire year.. In 2023, we will be hearing from many of our Buck scientists on new direction for their work. Membership to the Impact Circle is $5,000. This event is open to both Impact Circle members and interested friends. We look forward to seeing you!. For more information and questions, please contact:. Lisa Palma, Director of ...

Name a research project going on at the Buck Institute and its likely that Birgit Schilling is a part of it. The Buck scientist has an array of research projects spanning the wide range of things that can go wrong as we age, from joint problems to kidney disease to breast cancer.. "I love to bring projects together that initially appear to have nothing to do with each other," says Schilling. As an example, she points out that 40 percent of metastatic breast cancer infiltrates bones. "I thought it would be cool to combine breast cancer with all of our bone projects," so she wrote a proposal to study secondary metastatic bone cancer in breast cancer patients.. Another collaboration spawned when Schilling spoke with a colleague about the fact that brittle bones are associated with Alzheimers disease, but nobody knows why. That conversation led to a study exploring the connections between the bones and the brain.. What interests Schilling most is how cells communicate with one another, the ...

The Buck Institute for Age Research has been awarded $1,571,229 from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) for a research training program in stems cells and aging. Approval of the training program came at todays CIRM meeting. The program, which will bring new six postdoctoral PhD or MD scientists to the Buck, will focus on stem cells and aging and age-related disease, with a particular concentration in neurodegenerative disorders.. CIRMs decision to fund the program follows a positive reassessment of CIRM finances. The Buck Institutes proposed program was deemed scientifically meritorious by CIRM in January 2009, but monies were not available to fund the program. Today CIRM officials said an improvement in the states bond situation made capital available to add the Bucks request to $58 million CIRM approved for training programs in January. "We want to thank you for the excellent program that you are running at the Buck," said Robert Klein, Chair of the Governing Board ...

Researchers at the Buck Institute have identified and categorized thousands of protein interactions involving huntingtin, the protein responsible for Huntingtons disease (HD). To use an analogy of a human social network, the identified proteins are like "friends" and "friends of friends" of the HD protein. The network provides an invaluable resource for identifying targets to treat the disease and has been used to implicate a particular signaling pathway involved in cell motility. HD is an incurable, fatal, inherited neurological disorder that causes severe degeneration of the nervous system.. The research appears in the March 7, 2014 edition of the Journal of Biological Chemistry and was chosen as the Paper of the Week. The Journals editorial board members consider this study to be in the top 2% of those to be published this year in terms of significance and overall importance.. HD is caused by a mutation in the human HTT gene that results in an abnormal expansion and misfolding of the ...

A study from the Buck Institute and UCLA offers an explanation for why a particular genetic form (allele) of apolipoprotein E (ApoE) poses the most significant genetic risk for Alzheimers disease. Publishing on January 20th in The Journal of Neuroscience, researchers cast the lipid-binding ApoE4 in an entirely new light, showing that it is a transcription factor that enters the nucleus and binds DNA with high affinity, including the promoter regions of 1700 different genes. Seventy-five million Americans are ApoE4 carriers, putting them at increased risk for Alzheimers disease, and another 7 million carry two copies of ApoE4, giving them an even higher, 10 - 12 fold increased risk of developing Alzheimers.. "When the genes whose promoters bind ApoE4 are considered in functional groups, their relationship to Alzheimers disease is striking," said co-senior author Dale Bredesen, MD, Buck Institute faculty and a professor at the Easton Laboratories for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at UCLA, ...