La Jolla News Nuggets: Pancake breakfast, memorial, home project, medical news, more

Pancake breakfast returns Aug. 16 at Recreation Center

The Kiwanis Club of La Jolla will present its annual pancake breakfast this weekend, with proceeds going to local first responders.

The event, planned for 8-11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, at the La Jolla Recreation Center, includes all-you-can-eat pancakes and sausage, coffee and orange juice, pony rides, a bounce house, face painting, live music and more than $2,000 in donated items that will be raffled.

The Kiwanis Club will present a $16,000 grant to the First Responders Foundation, and local firefighters, police officers and lifeguards will attend. Emergency vehicles will be on display and demonstrations will be provided.

Tickets are $15 in advance for adults and $5 for children 14 and younger ($5 more if purchased onsite). Find out more at kiwanisclublajolla.org/pancake-breakfast.

Salk Institute partners with La Mer to study aging

The La Jolla-based Salk Institute for Biological Studies has entered a partnership with luxury skin care brand La Mer in which the company, through the new La Mer Fellowship in Healthy Aging, will fund a three-year postdoctoral research position focused on studying human aging at the molecular level.

The inaugural fellowship has been awarded to researcher Ankita Chadda. With La Mer’s support, Chadda will use cutting-edge technologies to explore how aging disrupts cellular transport in neurons. The work may reveal new strategies to prevent or reverse transport-related neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

The research also may further innovations in medicine and skin care.

UCSD holds memorial event for former chancellor Robert Dynes

UC San Diego remembered former chancellor Robert Dynes, a La Jolla resident who died June 30, during an event Aug. 3 at the Conrad Prebys Music Center on the La Jolla campus. The memorial included speakers, a slideshow and a reception.

Dynes was chancellor of UCSD from 1996 to 2003 and president of the University of California system from 2003 to 2007.

At UCSD, Dynes oversaw the creation of the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Rady School of Management and the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, now known as the Qualcomm Institute. The “QI” quickly became famous for its innovations, including AlertCalifornia, a network of live cameras that detect and monitor wildfires.

In 2000, UC San Diego surpassed $1 billion in annual research funding for the first time — a figure that has since nearly doubled. Also in 2000, Dynes launched the university’s first $1 billion fundraising campaign, successfully tapping industries such as telecommunications, engineering, health care and defense.

He also helped found The Preuss School, a charter middle and high school on the UCSD campus.

Wrelton Drive home project to get San Diego hearing

A controversial residential project planned for Bird Rock will have a review by a San Diego hearing officer next week.

The proposal would remodel and add to a vacant 3,500-square-foot two-story house at 625 Wrelton Drive, facing Tourmaline Beach. The house was significantly damaged by a fire years ago and has been vandalized with graffiti in recent years.

The project would result in a three-story, approximately 4,800-square-foot house, including a 186-square-foot first-floor addition, a 2,074-square-foot second-floor addition, a 115-square-foot penthouse and decks.

Earlier this year, two local review boards did not support the project.

The hearing officer review will be during a meeting beginning at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 20, online. For more information, go to bit.ly/4muKDxP.

Record-breaking free diver to teach in La Jolla

Record-breaking free diver and instructor Martin Stepanek, founder of Freediving Instructors International, is coming to La Jolla to teach the highest level of free diving at the end of this month.

The organization teaches three levels of free diving: Level 1 is limited to a 20-meter depth, Level 2 is diving to a 40-meter depth and Level 3 has no limits.

According to FII, this is the first time a Level 3 class will be taught on the West Coast. Training will be held in the canyon off La Jolla Shores.

To learn more, email info@freedivinginstructors.com or visit freedivinginstructors.com.

LJI looking into sex-based differences in the immune system

Many diseases affect men and women differently. Asthma tends to strike men earlier in life, yet more women develop asthma as they get older. Parkinson’s disease is more common in men, but Alzheimer’s is more common in women.

The differences are even more stark when it comes to autoimmune disease. Women are about 2½ times more likely than men to develop multiple sclerosis and nine times more likely to develop lupus.

Now, scientists at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology are leading new research into how our immune cells defend specific parts of the body.

Immune cells can sense hormones such as estrogen and testosterone and use them to determine which genes to turn on or off and which to turn on more brightly or dim. This means similar immune cells can do different things, depending on whether that cell is from a male or female.

The new research into sex-based immune system differences is considered key for developing new cancer immunotherapies. The researchers are working with collaborators across the country to move the studies forward.

Friendship Games returns to La Jolla diamond

Local baseball players again hosted players from Japan as part of the ongoing Friendship Games, played this year on Aug. 7-8 at La Jolla’s Cliffridge Park.

As part of the Friendship Games exchange partnership, young Japanese baseball players and La Jolla Youth Baseball players alternate visits to their respective countries to play a series of games and stay with local families. During the inaugural year in 2023, Japanese players visited La Jolla. Last year, the La Jolla team traveled to Japan, and this year, Japanese players returned to La Jolla.

La Jolla Youth Baseball fields teams in the Shetland (6 and younger), Pinto (7 and younger), Mustang (9 and under and 10 and under), Bronco (12 and under) and Pony (14 and under) divisions.

La Jolla Woman’s Club gets $1,000 boost for new audio system

With an additional $1,000 donated from the La Jolla Garden Club, the La Jolla Woman’s Club is a step closer to buying a new audio system.

The new system will feature more dependable speakers and a microphone, in addition to a projector and screen, according to Pam Filley of the Garden Club’s program committee.

“A new state-of-the-art system is critical since the Woman’s Club hosts many meetings, weddings and events, including the La Jolla Garden Club,” Filley said.

Primary funding for the revamped sound system comes from a grant from the Ellen Browning Scripps Foundation. A specific cost estimate was not immediately available.

La Jolla cityhood group set for next community meeting

The Association for the City of La Jolla is set for another community meeting from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 2, in the Community Room of the La Jolla/Riford Library at 7555 Draper Ave.

Learn more at cityoflajolla.org.

Bishop’s student participates in change of command ceremony

Luke Irmer, an incoming junior at The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, was one of four Naval Sea Cadets chosen to serve in the color guard for the Navy Region Southwest Change of Command ceremony in June.

The event marked the transition of command from Rear Adm. Brad Rosen to Rear Adm. Michael Jarett at Naval Air Station North Island San Diego.

Luke and his unit were honored with a challenge coin symbolizing leadership, excellence and service.

The Naval Sea Cadet Corps is a youth leadership program introducing teenagers to maritime and military service.