SAN DIEGO, CA, August 19, 2025 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Mainly Mozart – the San Diego nonprofit behind the highly acclaimed Mainly Mozart All-Star Orchestra Festival – is honored to announce Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D., MBA, Professor, President and CEO of La Jolla Institute for Immunology, is the 2025 San Diego Genius Award honoree. Dr. Sapphire will be recognized Oct. 18 at the Genius Awards Dinner at the Westgate Hotel. Tickets are available now at mainlymozart.org/genius.

Since 2015, the Genius Award has celebrated extraordinary individuals whose contributions span science, technology, and the arts, enrich the community, and embody "Genius in the Spirit of Mozart." Saphire joins past recipients Dr. Irwin Jacobs (2015), Dr. Andrew Viterbi (2016), Dr. Walter Munk (2017), Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn (2018), Chancellor Pradeep Khosla (2019), Susan Tousi (2022), Dr. David Brenner (2023), and Dr. Al Pisano (2024). This year's Genius Award Selection Committee members included Martha Dennis (chair), Steve Hart (chair), Irwin Jacobs, Joel Buxbaum, and David Brenner.

Dr. Saphire's pioneering research at La Jolla Institute for Immunology has unraveled the molecular mechanisms by which viruses such as Ebola, Marburg, Lassa, and SARS-CoV-2 infect human cells and evade immune defenses. Under her leadership, teams have solved the high-resolution structures of multiple viral glycoproteins, guided global vaccine design efforts, and spearheaded the collaborative consortia—including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation–supported CoVIC initiative and the NIAID Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Immunotherapeutic Consortium—that united scientists across five continents in life-saving immunotherapeutic research, closing the critical gap between scientific breakthroughs and real-world medical interventions. Recognizing another crucial research gap, Dr. Saphire recently launched a groundbreaking institute-wide initiative focused on uncovering sex-based differences in the immune system.

Dr. Saphire's work has been recognized at the White House with the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, with young investigator awards from the International Congress of Antiviral Research, the American Society for Microbiology, the MRC Centre for Virus Research in the United Kingdom, and the California Life Sciences Pantheon Award for Academia and Marion Spencer Fay Award. She has been awarded a Fulbright Global Scholar fellowship from the United States Department of State and a Mercator Fellowship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, to develop international collaborations using cryoelectron microscopy to further global health.

"Erica Saphire's groundbreaking work exemplifies the ingenuity and collaborative ethos that the Genius Award honors," said Mainly Mozart Founding CEO Nancy Laturno. "Her tireless dedication to understanding and combating viral pathogens has not only advanced science but has also had a profound global health impact."

Genius Awards Dinner
When: October 18, 2025
Where: The Westgate Hotel | Downtown San Diego | 1055 Second Ave, San Diego, CA 92101
Time: 6pm - 9pm

Program
6:00 PM: Wine reception
7:00 PM: Seated dinner and awards presentation
8:00 PM: Musical performances by Edric Saphire, a Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra alum and composer commissioned in 2023 to write a Bassoon Sextet, in honor of Dr. Saphire's contributions to science and the arts.

Tickets
Tickets for the gala support Mainly Mozart's artistic and educational programs, including the Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra, the All-Star Orchestra Festival and Mainly Mozart's music education initiatives and community outreach programs, including its long-term partnership with Art of Autism.

To purchase tickets or learn about sponsorship opportunities, visit https://www.mainlymozart.org/genius.

About Mainly Mozart
Since 1988, Mainly Mozart has brought the San Diego community together to experience the finest in orchestral music, intimate concert experiences and extraordinary music education for young people. In that time, the famed Mainly Mozart All-Star Orchestra Festival has made its name as the largest gathering of Concertmasters and Principal Players in the United States, boasting top level players from the world's greatest orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Philharmonic and dozens more. Mainly Mozart's mission is to enrich the lives of today and tomorrow's passionate music lovers by connecting them to the genius and innovation of Mozart and the Masters, to world-class musicians and music-making, and to each other. For more information, visit www.mainlymozart.org. Keep up with news and announcements on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.

About La Jolla Institute
The La Jolla Institute for Immunology is dedicated to understanding the intricacies and power of the immune system so that we may apply that knowledge to promote human health and prevent a wide range of diseases. Since its founding in 1988 as an independent, nonprofit research organization, the Institute has made numerous advances leading toward its goal: life without disease. Visit lji.org for more information.

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