La Jolla News Nuggets: Susan G. Komen walk, Christmas tree lot, highly cited scientists

Susan G. Komen 3-Day walk passes through La Jolla to fight breast cancer

The Susan G. Komen San Diego 3-Day walk to raise funds for breast cancer research began Nov. 19, with about 2,300 people passing through La Jolla on their 60-mile trek, which ended Nov. 21 in downtown San Diego.

Walkers stuck to sidewalks as they traveled south from Del Mar, with “pit stops” in La Jolla at the Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, Kellogg Park and La Jolla Lutheran Church.

Christopher Canole, as Dude Vader, escorts participants passing through La Jolla in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day walk on Nov. 19.

(Courtesy of Christopher Canole)

Along the route, La Jolla businesses showed support with window signs, and residents put up tables with water and cheered as walkers passed by.

The event raised a total of $9.2 million, organizers said.

Mr. Jingles Christmas Trees opens in La Jolla on Nov. 26

Mr. Jingles Christmas Trees will open in La Jolla for the 2021 holiday season Friday, Nov. 26, at 801 Pearl St.

The lot will offer in-person shopping, online ordering, delivery, drop-off, installation and tree removal services.

Mr. Jingles has six types of fresh trees ranging from 2 to more than 20 feet tall, along with fresh wreaths, garlands and mistletoe, lights, ornaments and more.

For more information, visit mrjingleschristmastrees.com.

UCSD has 56 highly cited scientists; other La Jolla institutions also are well-represented

Professor Rob Knight, one of the UC San Diego researchers on Clarivate’s list of highly cited scientists, is one of the most prominent figures in the study of the microbiome — the collection of good and bad microbes that live in people.

(K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

UC San Diego has the ninth-largest collection of highly cited researchers in the world and is close to passing UC Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to an annual assessment of global brain power by Clarivate, a British science data company.

The new list says UCSD has 56 highly cited scientists and that dozens of additional elite scholars work at other La Jolla institutions such as Scripps Research, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla Institute for Immunology and Sanford Burnham Prebys.

Seventeen Scripps Research scientists were chosen, including Ardem Patapoutian, who won this year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

Salk and LJI both had six researchers on the list and SBP had two.

Clarivate’s rankings are considered to be the “who’s who” of science, covering fields ranging from chemistry and physics to clinical medicine and engineering. The company says its list identifies researchers “who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade.”

Their names are “drawn from the publications that rank in the top 1 percent by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science citation index.” — The San Diego Union Tribune and La Jolla Light

Salk scientist receives Medal for Research Excellence

The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla has awarded neurobiologist and geneticist Cori Bargmann its Medal for Research Excellence, which recognizes a scientist who has made significant contributions in basic scientific research.

In her early career, Bargmann explored the mechanisms of a cancer gene called the NEU oncogene, which turned out to be relevant in human breast cancer. Targeted tumor therapies, such as Herceptin, were later developed to treat HER2-positive breast cancer, based on her research.

After that discovery, Bargmann switched to neurobiology, where she has used transparent worms called C. elegans to study how genes interact in the nervous system to encode behavior. For example, she has used the worms to decipher how the sense of smell works to alter their feeding behavior. Her lab is currently examining how the brain and body interact with each other to generate changes in physiology and motivation.

“As a neuroscientist, I believe that studying the brain will lead to exciting discoveries and to great benefits in human health,” Bargmann said. “It’s an incredible honor to be recognized by Salk for this award.”

— La Jolla Light staff compiled this report ◆