Science behind the session: Sanford Burnham Prebys in La Jolla relaunches G12 speaker forums

In a forum designed to share knowledge about scientific concepts and more with the surrounding community, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Research Institute in La Jolla hosted the first of its G12 talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the January 24 session, Sanford Burnham Prebys President and CEO Dr. David Brenner spoke about his research into liver fibrosis and his vision for the future of the institute. This came just hours after the organization broke the news of a large gift to the institute from billionaire T. Denny Sanford.

G12 events began in 2002 when Sanford Burnham Prebys co-founder Lillian Fishman and her neighbor and friend Rina Horowitz organized a monthly discussion group that invited a speaker from the institute to talk with friends of the “Group of 12” – the G12 – about speaker research.

G12 has evolved into a community education event, with nearly 100 Sanford Burnham Prebys donors, community supporters, and other gatherings on the Institute’s campus. Topics expanded to include variety with a strong focus on science and health.

G12 events are now scheduled quarterly. “Some of the stuff coming out this year will blow your mind,” Horowitz said.

Brenner study

Brenner, who took over as president and CEO in September after serving the previous 15 years at UC San Diego as vice chancellor of medical sciences, continues to lead the gastroenterology research lab.

In his speech at G12, he spoke about the work of the laboratory for the study of liver fibrosis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

According to him, fibrosis is “abnormal wound healing in which connective tissue replaces normal, healthy, happy tissue, resulting in remodeling and scarring.”

Fibrosis can occur in any organ, Brenner says, causing new cells called myofibroblasts to form.

Scientists are trying to figure out whether inhibition of myofibroblasts will prevent fibrosis, he says.

Brenner’s lab is most concerned with myofibroblasts and fibrosis in the liver, “because of all the burden of disease associated with fibrosis, the liver … is by far the most important,” he said. “More patients have fibrotic liver disease than any other organ.”

According to Brenner, in the 20th century the most serious liver disease was hepatitis C, which has “virtually been eliminated in the United States.”

It has been replaced in the 21st century, he says, by non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, so named because “it looks like you’re drinking alcohol, but you’re not.”

Metabolic syndrome disease leads to liver fibrosis and is currently the leading cause of liver failure in the United States.

In the fibrous liver, cells called hepatocytes become damaged, causing inflammation and leading to the formation of myofibroblasts, which cause non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and hepatitis C.

Brenner’s lab showed in their research that “liver fibrosis is treatable and can be regressed” by changing the diet of mice that were originally fed “a Western diet that is the equivalent of a Big Mac and Coke,” he said.

The laboratory also studied donor liver and bioprinting a mechanism developed in collaboration with San Diego-based biotech firm Organovo to create a purified liver.

“It’s our proposal,” Brenner said, “that we can use this very new 3D printing to develop models of liver disease in a plate and then test new drugs on them to see if that prevents fibrosis from progressing.”

The Future of Sanford Burnham Prebis

Brenner says this kind of innovation is at the heart of his vision for the Sanford Burnham Prebys, an institution made up of several scientific centers and an accredited graduate school in biomedical sciences, which accepted 19 PhDs this year. students who are trained in the lab versus the classroom.

All components of Sanford Burnham Prebys share common technologies to “optimize our scientists’ ability to advance research,” Brenner said.

“We want to conduct and broadcast basic research to improve human health,” targeting the most difficult diseases that are not treatable or curable, he said.

Brenner said scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys “devote 100 percent of their time to research” instead of teaching or serving on committees.

Brenner said his vision for Sanford Burnham Prebys includes continuing to recruit the best scientists from the best laboratories in the world’s best research institutions.

He also wants to further develop the institute’s translational science, “when you advance something from basic research to clinical care,” he said. “It’s not as well developed as basic research.”

Clinical research will also be improved to make it more effective, he said.

Brenner added that he wants to make computational biology — the application of mathematical modeling and data analysis to scientific research — “more accessible.”

“There has been a revolution in biomedical research,” he said, where medical scientists can generate terabytes of data, a “tipping point” where people must analyze and synthesize new, vast amounts of information in order to ask and answer new questions. .

According to Brenner, “the second revolution in biomedical research” will be the use of artificial intelligence to process big data.

The use of machines to read information does not threaten the livelihood of doctors, but rather improves their ability, he said. “So my question that I’m asking the educators, my colleagues, is how can we take advantage of artificial intelligence to promote Sanford Burnham Prebys?”

“This is a much more collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to big data exploration than we’ve had in the past,” Brenner said. “We are… determined to succeed.” ◆

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