At the Salk Institute, brain health is “cognitive brain health,” said Salk President Gerald (Jerry) Joyce, “keeping your brain humming away deep into a long lifespan.”

Long-involved in research into Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, the researchers at Salk “bring many different approaches to a common problem,” Joyce said, looking at neurons, the immune system and numerous other factors that contribute to neurodegenerative disorders.

Last year being Salk’s “Year of Alzheimer’s” emphasized the “huge challenge” society faces with the disease, he said, as one in six adults over age 80 succumb to the “terrible” disease that currently has no effective treatment.

Talk of slowing Alzheimer’s progression led to the Salk team realizing “a lot of people want to know … how to not get the disease in the first place,” which resulted in the development of the “Year of Brain Health,” Joyce said.

Often, brain health is discussed in the news and on social media as piecemeal habits such as exercise, diet and mindfulness.

But at the Salk Institute, researchers want to ask why and offer clarity about measures people can take to definitively decrease the risk of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. 

Gerald Joyce, Salk president/Image courtesy of The Salk Institute

“We want to understand the mechanism by which those good behaviors contribute to lifelong brain health,” Joyce said, adding that with this understanding, scientists can pinpoint the “bullseye” – those behaviors that are the most effective.

“Potentially that [understanding] then leads to new drug discovery opportunities,” Joyce added.

The Year of Brain Health launched with an “Evening of Experts” and continues through 2026, revealing video podcasts featuring Joyce and Salk researchers with expertise relevant to brain health. 

One podcast featured Satchin Panda discussing circadian clocks, sleep and other timed habits; others will discuss immune health, cardiovascular issues and metabolic function, all tied to brain health and longevity. 

Additional events will follow; the summer gala “Symphony at Salk” will also feature themes related to the Year of Brain Health.

The “cathedral of science”: Not just a pretty facade

The research breakthroughs that facilitate initiatives like the “Year of Brain Health” aren’t happenstance, they are advanced in a setting deliberately designed to empower brilliance and provoke discovery.

The Salk Institute isn’t just a breathtaking expanse of concrete and teak flanking a travertine courtyard; the forward-thinking architecture was planned for forward-thinking science.

Jonas Salk

The Salk Institute was founded in 1960, following Jonas Salk’s landmark development of the first effective polio vaccine in Pittsburgh.

Wanting to create a research institute, Salk eventually settled in La Jolla, commissioning Louis Kahn to design something special that fused art and discovery, Joyce said.

Salk was known to have asked Kahn for something “worthy of Picasso,” Joyce said, a nod to Salk’s late widow, Francoise Gilot, who mothered two children with Pablo Picasso before marrying Salk.

The resultant campus ended up not reminiscent of Picasso but a brutalist touchstone that still draws architectural admiration 65-plus years later.

Image courtesy of The Salk Institute

The Salk Institute is “a truly magical place,” Joyce said, calling it a “cathedral of science” – a phrase coined by the officiant who married Joyce and his wife on the campus in the 1980s, though weddings are no longer allowed.

The design is inspiring, he said, and so is the science, an intentional outcome: The buildings on either side of the courtyard are six stories tall, with laboratories on every other floor. 

Image courtesy of The Salk Institute

In between the labs are full-sized floors containing all the equipment needed to service the labs below.

The arrangement means no walls on the lab floors: the laboratories are “one continuous, open space, so that knowledge can flow between scientists,” Joyce said. “This was very innovative in 1960” and still remains a rare use of a full floor between each lab.

The organic collaboration optimized by the design leaves room for 50 faculty members, all of whom sought Salk for its combination of skill and concept.

“We don’t have departments,” said Joyce, who came to Salk as a graduate student in the 1980s, again as a post doctoral some years later and finally in 2017 as a professor, before becoming president three years ago.

“Everybody’s in the mix together, and they are all superstars,” he said. “When you’re surrounded by very talented scientists in a beautiful place, what’s not to like?”

A Salk luminary: Nicola Allen

Nicola Allen, Salk professor/Image courtesy of The Salk Institute

The roster of scientific prowess and cross-field access is what attracted Nicola Allen to Salk in 2012.

A neuroscientist whose work is at the forefront of research into astrocytes, or cells that play a once-misunderstood role in brain circuitry, Allen arrived at Salk “because of all the amazing colleagues that we have here, and the ability to … interact with people across disciplines,” she said.

Every day, Allen speaks with experts in immunology, cancer biology and plant biology, which “brings real new approaches and interests in my research into the brain and gives us a new way of tackling problems and understanding brain health,” she said.

Beyond leveraging lab space like a communal incubator of innovation, the Salk Institute inspires, especially with its more “emotional features,” Joyce said, like the “River of Life.”

Salk Institute River of Life/Image courtesy of The Salk Institute

Often photographed, the River of Life is a slim water feature that flows down the center line of the courtyard, surrounded by the concrete monoliths, carrying water from the east end of campus west and seemingly disappearing into the horizon as it meets the ocean.

The River of Life represents “the flow of knowledge, starting here at Salk,” Joyce said, “spreading out to society, … toward the world.”

The River of Life and its place within Salk’s architectural setting is conducive to brainstorming, Allen said.

“At the weekend, when there’s no one around, you go out there and just sit there quietly,” she said. “It’s just very inspiring.”

Being so invigorated has led Allen and her team to a newly launched neuroimmunology initiative, a “real, concrete example of people from different disciplines coming together” to solve big problems, she said, an approach that underscores the interplay between the body’s immune system and brain health and how inflammation and other conditions signal the brain to initiate cell change. 

The Salk Institute in the La Jolla biotech landscape

Image courtesy of Flo Li

Salk, a nonprofit supported by philanthropy and federal funding, isn’t just a hotbed of collaborative research unto itself; it’s a vital part of the vibrant La Jolla biomedical community, which promotes collective discovery through interlocking areas of scientific expertise.

Salk’s role in that ecosystem is fundamental, or foundational, research.

“We’re not trying to make a product. We’re not trying to sell anything,” Joyce said. “We are trying to make the fundamental discoveries that then we share with others, and then they take the next step and begin to apply those discoveries.”

La Jolla and San Diego are fortunate to have “an incredible cluster of biomedical research, biotechs, biopharma,” he said, companies that develop clinical trials to manufacture life-changing – or life-saving – medicines to patients who need them.

Before that stage, however, are research institutions like Scripps Research or Sanford Burnham Prebys, engaged in translational research to bridge the gap between fundamental scientific research and clinical applications, Joyce said.

And before that, there are places like the Salk Institute.

“Someone has got to focus on just making the fundamental discoveries, not knowing what the payoff is going to be, but dedicated to understanding how biology works,” Joyce said, noting there are very few places in the country entirely devoted to that early stage of the breakthrough pipeline.

A “living legacy”

Foundational as its work may be, the Salk Institute remains at the forefront of science.

“Our people are working at the lab benches,” Joyce said, “making those next fundamental discoveries in cancer research and really challenging diseases.”

For all those who live in La Jolla and San Diego County, Salk is “part of your legacy,” he said, “a living legacy” that honors Jonas Salk’s achievements daily.

Interested in seeing the intersection of architecture and science for yourself? The Salk Institute offers docent-led tours for the public. Click here for more information.