The Tullies and Rickeys are thrilled to support a program they believe will lead to groundbreaking science. They hope you will join them in investing in SPARK so that we can fund as many of these innovative projects as possible.
Innovation comes at a cost. Without proof-of-concept to convince highly competitive granting agencies to fund a novel project, many bold ideas never come to fruition. This is especially challenging for early-career scientists who are still building their professional foundations. The Tullie and Rickey Families SPARK Awards for Innovations in Immunology at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) are designed to overcome these hurdles.
Starting with the 2026 cohort, the SPARK Awards will offer $30,000 in flexible start-up funding—an increase from the $25,000 awarded since the program’s inception in 2017—to support LJI’s emerging researchers in pursuing bold, high-impact projects. These funds help empower scientists to explore novel approaches to diagnosing, treating, and potentially curing the diseases that affect millions today.
The Tullie and Rickey Families SPARK Awards help transform bold ideas into preliminary data, providing the foundation needed to pursue additional funding and advance impactful research in human health.
The Tullie and Rickey Families SPARK Awards for Innovations in Immunology is a structured, multi-year program designed to support early-career scientists and catalyze bold new ideas. The program unfolds in two key phases: the Application Phase and the Project Execution Phase.
Each year during the Application Phase, LJI receives a wide range of proposals from emerging investigators across its laboratories and core facilities—including instructors, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and research technicians. These proposals undergo a rigorous selection process, reviewed by a panel composed of LJI leadership, faculty members, and members of the Tullie and Rickey families. Proposals are evaluated for scientific rigor, innovation, and potential impact. The most promising applicants are selected as SPARK finalists.
What sets SPARK apart is its dual focus on cutting-edge research and professional development. In addition to receiving seed funding for high-risk, high-reward projects, finalists also gain specialized training on communicating their research to a range of audiences.
The program’s hyper-competitive format stimulates the real-world challenges of securing research grants and biotech investment, equipping young scientists with practical tools for career success. Over the course of eight months, SPARK awardees lead their own independent research projects, generating preliminary data that often lays the groundwork for larger grants and future clinical breakthroughs.
By making a gift to the SPARK program, you help provide the critical early-stage funding needed to launch pioneering research projects, helping bring transformative discoveries in immunology to light.
2025 SPARK Winners
Nirmalya Dasgupta, Ph.D.
“My SPARK project aims to uncover how DNA modifications drive immune system decline with age. I will use cutting-edge technology to analyze T cell alterations across diverse age groups, ultimately revealing strategies to enhance immune function and prevent age-related diseases.”
Laura Hinojosa
“SPARK support would allow me to address an important gap in reproductive health research. A better understanding of how hormonal contraceptives modulate the immune system is crucial for advancing women’s health.”
Hsueh-Han “Dupon” Lu
“I hope to create vaccines that provide longer-lasting immunity with just one shot, potentially transforming vaccine use and improving public health worldwide.”
Amparo Martínez Pérez, Ph.D.
“The time has come for medicine to consider conditions that affect women and were previously overlooked. This SPARK project could establish a revolutionary new perspective on the role of the adaptive immune response in gynecological disorders.”
Gele Niemeyer
“As mumps makes a global resurgence, my SPARK project aims to design a safer and more effective protein-based vaccine to address the limitations of the current MMR vaccine.”Kelly Shaffer
“My SPARK project will investigate the blood of individuals who have likely survived multiple exposures to Ebola and Marburg viruses throughout their lifetimes, as their blood may contain crucial insights for developing broad-spectrum viral treatments and enhance our understanding of these unpredictable outbreaks.”2024 SPARK Winners
Jingru Fang, Ph.D.
“Winning the SPARK award means that I can ask a scientific question that excites me and matters to others, and I will have the opportunity to make some contribution to human health.”
Isaac López-Moyado, Ph.D.
“For me, winning the SPARK award would be a seal of approval, that my ideas are worth to be funded, and it would also provide a confidence boost that would encourage me to keep working on and pursuing additional funding for this project.”Kazumasa Suzuki, M.D., Ph.D.
“Winning a SPARK award would be a very strong motivator for me, along with the financial support. It would mean that people understand and appreciate my research on autoimmune diseases. It would give me great confidence to push my research forward and seek further funding.”
Chen Sun, Ph.D.
“Winning a SPARK award would affirm my dedication to structural biology and ignite my passion for advancing our understanding of cancer.”Rimjhim Agarwal
“Winning the SPARK award would mean a lot because it will allow me to apply my research skills to make a broader impact in the real world and simultaneously contribute to the current scientific knowledge.”
Thomas Riffelmacher, Ph.D.
“SPARK is perfect for this project because this is an entirely new research direction, and I would need preliminary data before I could apply for larger NIH grants.”2023 SPARK Winners
Erik Ehinger
“The SPARK program is a unique opportunity for this stage of my career. When other people believe in you enough to put their money towards your idea, especially through donations, that’s a substantial force to motivate you.”
Felix Nettersheim, M.D.
“Winning a SPARK award would show me that someone believes in my idea enough to invest in it. I would be highly motivated to repay these investors by showing them that their money was used for something meaningful.”
“The type of funding made possible through the SPARK program is a perfect fit for a new project like this that has the potential to progress the field of milk allergy research."
“Winning a SPARK award is like growing a credit score for a scientist. It shows that you are able to go from an idea to the experiment to the analysis, and increase in knowledge. It shows that your investors and collaborators can trust you.”
Dawid Zyla, Ph.D.
“Winning a SPARK award would allow me to pursue my own idea and give me the experience of managing my own project budget, which would be helpful to my future career as an independent researcher.”
Gregory Williams, Ph.D.
“Winning a SPARK award would be extremely motivating because it’s the reviewers saying that you’re asking the right questions and going about it the right way. It’s reassuring for others to tell you that you’re here for the right reasons and that you’re doing good work.”
2022 SPARK Winners
Heather Callaway, Ph.D.
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"Winning a SPARK Award would give me an opportunity to take what I’ve learned from working on the structure of rabies virus in the lab and apply it to the real world to help save lives."Maria Inês Matias, Ph.D.
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"I applied to the SPARK program because it's a great opportunity to have the possibility of being funded at the beginning of a project. This funding is critical to generate our preliminary data and show our ideas have potential. It's just an opportunity that you can't miss."Melissa Meyer, Ph.D.
“Securing funding in the scientific arena for young investigators is incredibly difficult -- yet it's super imperative to our career survival. So winning a SPARK Award would really motivate me to continue my pursuit of an academic career and also to contribute to new ideas around neutrophils.”Estefania Quesada-Masachs, M.D. Ph.D.
"I reapplied to the SPARK program this year, because I have a new scientific question about type 1 diabetes and I think this funding would help lead to that answer. In my experience, this kind of unique funding opportunity can help open a new line of research that I can then continue to follow."Priyanka Saminathan, Ph.D.
"I believe when you choose to invest in early-career researchers, such as myself and the other SPARK finalists, you not only invest in our careers, but also our vision for a better tomorrow and a greater future for everyone. Thank you for being the citizens that the world needs today."Gurupreet S. Sethi, Ph.D.
"I would like to convey my sincere thanks to all the kind SPARK donors for motivating and supporting scientists like us. You are one of the reasons that we are allowed to think out of the box and believe we can actually contribute to LJI’s vision of life without disease."2021 SPARK Winners
Mehdi Benkahla, Ph.D.
“Our hope is that by using a newly developed model of live human pancreatic slices to unravel the complex interplay between viruses, beta cells and the immune system, we will identify the best approaches for therapeutic and preventive therapies for type 1 diabetes.”Simon Brunel, Ph.D.
“To be able to meet donors directly who put their trust and faith in you and your work, gives you a concrete reason to invest your efforts in a project in which people trust and see the positive impact that it could bring to help tomorrow's patient.”Annie Elong Ngono, Ph.D.
“Winning a SPARK Award would mean a lot to me because it would mean people understand and care about my research on infectious diseases. It would also give me the experience and confidence to apply for an independent young investigator grant which is key for my future career.”Michael Norris, Ph.D.
“I study viruses in the hopes that one day my work could help save lives. Funding through the Tullie and Rickey Families SPARK Awards Program will allow me to leverage my discoveries to design life-saving therapies against some of the world’s deadliest pathogens.”Artem Romanov, Ph.D.
“I believe that this program offers a great opportunity for young scientists to test and implement high risk and high reward ideas that would be difficult to fund otherwise.”Payel Roy, Ph.D.
“My experience as a SPARK finalist has inspired me to understand the true essence of my research. Winning this award will further instill confidence that my scientific ideas have the potential to make a difference and save lives.”Nicolas Thiault, Ph.D.
“This project aims to establish the basis of a new potent tumor immunotherapy that won’t cause side effects, could be affordable, and rapidly available to anyone diagnosed with cancer.”2020 SPARK Winners
Abhijit Chakraborty, Ph.D.
"SPARK funding is very important because our hypothesis is in a very juvenile state and it requires validation through experimental data. This award will help us build our story, so we can get more funding in the future."Sara Landeras-Bueno, Ph.D.
"The SPARK Awards are a boost of energy, and really motivate me to give the best of myself to continue my fight against infectious diseases."Cecilia Lindestam Arlehamn, Ph.D.
"It's crucial to be able to distinguish between diseases with similar clinical manifestations like MAC disease and TB, in order to diagnose them correctly and provide relevant treatment."Estefania Quesada-Masachs, M.D., Ph.D.
"Winning a SPARK award would give me the opportunity to explore a possible cause of type 1 diabetes, which could open the door to better treatments and interventions."Tom Riffelmacher, Ph.D.
"A better understanding of which cells are involved in promoting the inflammation of clogged arteries in patients with atherosclerosis may give us a target for a new drug to limit the damage following heart attacks.”Vipul Shukla, Ph.D.
"Our proposed SPARK project will reveal how structures, rather than linear sequences, in our DNA relay information in cells. This is a process we know very little about, and this new knowledge could help lead to better therapeutic approaches to treat many different cancers."Greet Verstichel, M.D., Ph.D.
"Model systems are crucial scientific tools on the road to novel therapeutics. In order to take the next step toward our goal of 'Life Without Disease,' we need to take our findings into human studies, which is what I hope to do with this SPARK project."2019 SPARK Winners
Huy Dinh, Ph.D.
"My ultimate goal is to identify DNA biomarkers which potentially provide an economical and efficient test to spot early cancer symptoms at the molecular level in human blood."Julie Burel, Ph.D.
"Every infectious agent - from viruses, bacteria to parasites - has a unique genetic footprint, which can be used to identify it."Marco Orecchioni, Ph.D.
"What we eat not only feeds us, but also the vast microcosm of bacteria that call our intestines home."Sara McArdle, Ph.D.
"Clarifying how the innate immune system and cancer cells interact via super-resolution imaging will accelerate our understanding of the cancer immune response and may lead to the discovery of targets for treatments that more effectively attack cancer while causing fewer side effects."Mehdi Benkahla, Ph.D.
"It is important to understand how viral infections contribute to the onset of T1D in order to prevent or reverse its development."2018 SPARK Winners
Ian Mathews
“My SPARK award has really blossomed into something special. It’s led to a well-funded project of its own, with immense potential for clinical benefit in immune oncology."Rana Herro, Ph.D.
“The SPARK grant turned out to be a crucial springboard for my career as an independent researcher. But the implication of this work for human allergic disorders is even bigger."Nadine Hartmann, Ph.D.
“For me, SPARK equals opportunity—it allowed me to work on a meaningful project of my own that will help shed light on how our gut can influence our risk for cancer."Holger Winkels, Ph.D.
“The SPARK award helped me to gain valuable insights into these cells and set me on my path of academic independence. Exciting work lies ahead.”Daniela Weiskopf, Ph.D.
“The SPARK program has an immediate impact on the research of young scientists like me. It empowered me to pursue my own ideas and helped to create enough preliminary data to seek additional independent funding–which is critical to advancing in a scientific career."Yuan Lin, Ph.D.
“The SPARK award was critical because my research was stalled at an early stage and finding other support was very difficult. In the near future our goal is to develop a drug that can cure cancer.”Melanie McCauley, M.D.
“My SPARK award made it possible for me to gather and analyze patient samples in order to help us better understand the immune system’s response when a naïve population has been newly introduced to dengue virus."About the Tullie and Rickey Families
We’d like to thank and recognize the incredible support and generosity of LJI Board Director Tom Tullie and his wife Judy, as well as LJI Board Director Dave Rickey and his wife, Brenda, and their families. Their joint commitments to the SPARK program made in 2019 meant LJI has the assurance that this program will have funding in place for several awards a year for the next decade. That year, LJI honored their commitment by renaming the SPARK program to The Tullie and Rickey Families SPARK Awards for Innovations in Immunology.
Tom Tullie was one of the first SPARK pitch reviewers in 2018, and that was what drove him to get his family engaged in the program. “I’ve been an entrepreneur and involved in innovation my entire career, but this is the most exciting program I’ve seen because the ideas these young scientists have are not only fascinating, they have the potential to generate breakthrough discoveries that will someday save lives,” says Tom. Since then, Tom and his wife Judy and their daughters Jaqueline, Anna and Samantha have all taken part in the pitch review process.
For the Rickeys, involvement in the SPARK program was spurred by an invitation from Tom and also by the couple’s belief in the Institute’s mission. “Brenda and I love the idea of ‘life without disease’ because so many of our friends and family have suffered or died from cancer, heart problems, dementia, and other ailments,” Dave says. The Rickeys were attracted to the SPARK program largely due to its structure and opportunity to drive research forward. “In the philanthropy world, we like to give money where there will be a return. This program is really tangible and it’s good to see.”
The Tullie and Rickey families hope that by ensuring the program’s longevity, other donors will be inspired to contribute to the program to fund additional awards and get as many of these ideas off the ground as possible. “I’d love to see people join us,” shares Tom, “I guarantee you that it will be well worth our investment because these ideas are unbelievable and they need to get funded.”
Support the Tullie and Rickey Families SPARK Awards program
