La Jolla, Calif. — May 28, 2026 — The W. M. Keck Foundation has awarded $600,000 in bridge funding to support three innovative early‑career projects at the Salk Institute, pairing faculty members with graduate students to pursue high‑risk, high‑reward science in cancer, neuroscience, and genetics.
The initiative, part of the Keck Foundation Bridge Funding Initiative, is designed to provide critical support for early‑ to mid‑career scientists facing uncertainty in federal research funding. The program emphasizes bold scientific inquiry, enabling researchers to generate preliminary data that can lead to larger grants in the future.
Salk President Dr. Gerald Joyce praised the partnership, noting that philanthropic investment is vital to sustaining scientific progress. “Partnerships with forward‑thinking foundations like Keck are essential to safeguarding the future of discovery and accelerating breakthroughs that benefit society,” he said.
The three funded projects include:
- Neuroscience: Associate Professor Sung Han and graduate student Rachel Felix will investigate how different neurotransmitters encode emotion and physiology, exploring how brain circuits mediate pain, anxiety, and feeding behaviors.
- Cancer Biology: Assistant Professor Daniel Hollern and graduate student Monika Quackenbush will study how B cell‑regulated tolerance mechanisms allow cancer cells to metastasize, aiming to uncover new therapeutic strategies.
- Genetics: Associate Professor Graham McVicker and graduate student Han Chen will develop machine learning models to predict how gene perturbations affect genome‑wide regulation, advancing the future of targeted gene therapies.
The Keck Foundation, established in 1954, is one of the nation’s largest philanthropic organizations supporting science, engineering, and medical research. Its latest investment underscores the importance of empowering young scientists to pursue transformative discoveries.
