Salk Institute’s Nicola Allen receives 2024 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award

(Press-News.org) LA JOLLA (October 8, 2024)—The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has selected Salk Associate Professor Nicola Allen to receive a 2024 NIH Director’s Pioneer Award. The award recognizes exceptionally creative scientists pursuing highly innovative research and groundbreaking approaches to major challenges in biomedical, behavioral, or social sciences.

Allen will receive $3.5 million over five years to support her latest research, which investigates how plasticity in the adult brain could be enhanced. She focuses on manipulating proteins produced by star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes.

“Nicola’s work challenges traditional ideas about the many cell types that make up the brain, and her innovative thinking really shines in this research project,” says Salk President Gerald Joyce. “True to the name of the award, she is truly a pioneer, and all of us at Salk look forward to supporting her as she continues to push scientific boundaries in the years ahead.”

Allen studies astrocytes, an abundant cell type in the nervous system long thought to act as mere scaffolding for neurons. With Allen’s work and a growing body of research dedicated to astrocytes, scientists are finding these cells do so much more, like maintaining neuronal health as we age, balancing molecules in the brain’s extracellular space, and stabilizing synapses between neurons.

Allen has been especially focused on this last point, studying the role of synaptic dysfunction during aging and in neurological disorders such as autism spectrum and Alzheimer’s disease. Synapses are the tiny junctions that connect neurons in the brain to create circuits through which information can flow. In young brains, synapses fire quickly and exhibit plasticity—an ability to learn new tasks and easily repair lost connections. In older or otherwise dysfunctional brains, synapses can lose this plasticity. Emerging research has begun pointing to the proteins that surround neurons as the possible culprit for this decline in plasticity.

With her award, Allen plans to pin down this relationship between extracellular proteins and brain plasticity. Her plan is twofold: 1) creating a tool kit for modulating the brain’s protein environment called Targeted Degradation of Extracellular Proteins (TDEP), and 2) establishing an atlas containing all secreted proteins responsible for regulating plasticity. As a proof of concept, Allen will design TDEP to target only proteins secreted by astrocytes that are already known to reduce plasticity, which should demonstrate both the efficacy of TDEP and whether the removal of some proteins can revive plasticity. If successful, TDEP can then be adapted to target the many proteins identified in the atlas.

The tool kit and project goals promise a new therapeutic strategy for neurological disorders and injuries wherein boosted plasticity would be advantageous, like after a stroke or in Alzheimer’s disease.

“I am honored to receive this prestigious award from NIH, and excited to begin work on this project,” says Allen. “Through the support of this funding mechanism that targets innovative and bold ideas, we aim to make significant progress in developing tools to control brain plasticity.”

Allen’s additional recognitions include a Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust Award, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Career Accelerator Award, World Economic Forum Young Scientist Award, Dana Foundation Neuroimaging Award, and Pew Biomedical Scholar Award.

Allen has also been involved in several Salk collaborations to explore different parts of the brain, including a 2018 American Heart Association-Allen Initiative-funded program to study Alzheimer’s disease and aging, a 2019 round of funding from the NIH Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative, and the recently launched 2024 NOMIS Foundation-funded Neuroimmunology Initiative, of which Allen is a co-lead.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):

NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

About the Salk Institute for Biological Studies:

Unlocking the secrets of life itself is the driving force behind the Salk Institute. Our team of world-class, award-winning scientists pushes the boundaries of knowledge in areas such as neuroscience, cancer research, aging, immunobiology, plant biology, computational biology, and more. Founded by Jonas Salk, developer of the first safe and effective polio vaccine, the Institute is an independent, nonprofit research organization and architectural landmark: small by choice, intimate by nature, and fearless in the face of any challenge. Learn more at www.salk.edu.

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