Committed to another century of Science Changing Life

Pioneering immunologist Frank Dixon, MD, and four of his colleagues (William Weigle, PhD; Joseph Feldman, MD; Charles Cochrane, MD; and Jacinto Vazquez, MD) arrive from the University of Pittsburgh on July 1, establishing a Division of Experimental Pathology. They are drawn to the institute by the freedom to pursue research without the traditional administrative constraints of a university, as well as the beginnings of a biomedical research cluster in the area.

Richard Lerner, MD, chair of the Scripps Department of Molecular Biology, is appointed the research institute’s new director. Under Lerner’s 25-year tenure, research operations triple in size. He establishes a chemistry department that is soon recognized as one of the best in the world and recruits many notable faculty including Velia Fowler, PhD (1987); K.C. Nicolaou, PhD (1989); K. Barry Sharpless, PhD (1990); and Gerald Edelman, MD, PhD (1992).

“He just hired us and said, ‘I will support you, do your thing.’ That was something rare in a leader.” – K. Barry Sharpless, Professor, Two-time Nobel laureate

The institute launches a graduate program, building on its strengths in the integration of cell and molecular biology, structural biology, and chemistry. The program is later named The Kellogg School of Science and Technology in honor of philanthropists Janet R. (“Jean”) Kellogg and W. Keith Kellogg II. Only 10 years after its founding, the graduate school is ranked one of the 10-best programs of its kind in the nation by U.S. News & World Report — an honor it maintains to the present.

Ernest Beutler, MD, leads the team that tests a new anti-cancer drug developed at Scripps Research by Dennis Carson, MD, and approved by the FDA in 1993. LEUSTATIN® (cladribine, IV) is characterized as one of the most promising chemotherapeutic agents developed and subsequently produces a large number of complete remissions in patients with hairy cell leukemia, as well as other leukemias and lymphomas. Learn more.

The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Chemical Sciences — a 165,000 sqft, state-of-the-art research facility — is completed with substantial funding from the Arnold & Mabel Beckman Foundation. A successful chemist and inventor, Arnold O. Beckman founded Beckman Instruments (now Beckman Coulter), a company that supports laboratory research around the world.

Thanks to a transformational $100 million gift from the Skaggs family, the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology is established at Scripps Research. The Skaggs Institute conducts pioneering research at the interface of chemistry and biology to develop novel cures for diseases. Noted chemist Julius Rebek, Jr., PhD, an expert on molecular self-assembly, moves his laboratory from MIT to helm the institute, and more than a dozen newly recruited faculty join him from other institutes.

To honor the memory of Norton B. Gilula, PhD — the first dean of the graduate school — the institute erects “The Flame of Knowledge,” a 15-ft-high polished steel sculpture, on its campus. The sculptor, John Safer, who is also a member of the Board of Trustees, says the statue symbolizes what education is all about, “an unending search, a groping upward; but you never quite get there, so it’s cut off at the top.”

K. Barry Sharpless, PhD, receives the Wolf Prize in Chemistry and the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions.

The world’s largest nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) magnet ever constructed arrives at the institute, where it is assembled into the most sensitive NMR instrument on the planet.

Scripps Research and the University of Oxford establish a joint doctoral program in which graduate students study biochemistry at Oxford for two to three years and chemistry or biology at Scripps Research for two to three years. They emerge with a joint DPhil/PhD degree. This marks the first time in its 900-year history that the University of Oxford has offered a degree jointly with any other institution of higher learning.

The institute receives $3 million from Mark Pearson, a San Diego real estate investor and venture capitalist, to establish The Pearson Center for Alcoholism and Addiction Research at Scripps Research. Scientists at the center combine laboratory investigations of neurochemistry and molecular biology with clinical applications to understand addiction. They focus on the physiological changes in the brain that both drive excessive drinking and drug use and create vulnerability to relapse.

The “Oak Cairn” sculpture, honoring founding immunologist William O. Weigle, PhD, is installed on campus.

The institute dedicates the Dorris Neuroscience Center on May 25, 2010, officially launching the newly consolidated center established with financial gifts from San Diego philanthropist and mental health advocate Helen Dorris. Ulrich Mueller, PhD, is director of the new center.

Bruce Beutler, MD, wins the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity. At the time of the award, Beutler is chair of the Department of Genetics at Scripps Research.

Thomson Reuters ranks Scripps Research #1 in the world in chemistry for the decade 2001-2011. The citation rate per 1,000 or more papers from Scripps Research faculty is 41.7, besting the citation rate at Harvard, Rice and Caltech.

Scientific findings and advances from the lab of Richard Lerner, MD, lead to the approval of BENLYSTA® (belimumab) by the FDA to treat the most common type of systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus). BENLYSTA® is the first new lupus therapy in more than 50 years.

Stemming from two decades of work performed by Charles Cochrane, MD, SURFAXIN® (lucinactant) is approved by the FDA to treat respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), a condition that strikes preterm infants whose lungs lack surfactant, a coating of rigid proteins that keeps the spherical air sacs in the lungs from collapsing. The drug subsequently helps thousands of premature infants.

Chi-Huey Wong, PhD, wins the prestigious Wolf Prize in Chemistry.

CYRAMZA® (ramucirumab) is approved by the FDA as a treatment for advanced gastric cancer, liver cancer, and metastatic, non-small cell lung cancer.

Times Higher Education, a weekly magazine based in London, ranks Scripps Research #1 in the world in the production of impactful scientific papers cited in patent applications.

PORTRAZZA® (necitumumab) is approved by the FDA. Used in combination with existing chemotherapies to treat metastatic squamous non-small cell lung cancer, it provides patients a new option.

Work in the lab of Ralph Reisfeld, PhD, leads to the approval of UNITUXIN® (dinutuximab) by the FDA to treat high-risk cases of neuroblastoma, the second leading form of childhood cancer.

Peter Schultz, PhD, is named chief executive officer and vice chair of Scripps Research. The following year, he is named president. He sets about implementing a novel model at the institute: basic research will seed drug discovery, new candidate medicines will be developed and advanced through pre-clinical and early clinical trials by the institute itself (capturing more of their value), strategic alliances will be formed with pharmaceutical companies to bring these novel medicines to market, and subsequent royalties will be reinvested in further basic research. Scripps Research thus creates a self-sustaining model for nonprofit research, amplifying the impact of federal and philanthropic support along the way.

TAKHZYRO® (lenadelumab-flo) is approved by the FDA to help prevent attacks of hereditary angioedema, a rare disorder that disrupts the normal flow of blood and other fluids in the body.

PALYNZIQ® (pegvaliase-pqpz) is approved by the FDA, a novel enzyme therapy for adults with phenylketonuria (PKU) — a rare and serious genetic disease.

Calibr, founded by Peter Schultz, PhD, in 2012 as the nonprofit California Institute for Biomedical Research, completes a merger with Scripps Research — becoming the institute’s drug discovery and development division. Its world-class infrastructure and exceptional drug development expertise have created a portfolio of 50+ drug candidates in only 10 years, with several currently in clinical trials in patients. Watch the video.

Members of the Skaggs family, longtime supporters of the institute, make a lead gift through their foundations toward the institute’s $100 million campaign to establish endowed fellowships for all students in its graduate program. In recognition of this gift, the program is renamed the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences.

Scripps Research ranks top stand-alone scientific institute in the United States for producing high-quality research by Nature Index, based on discoveries published in leading scientific journals. The institute receives the honor again the following year.

In response to the emergence and spread of SARS-CoV-2, scientists at Scripps Research partner with peer institutions across San Diego to launch the San Diego Epidemiology and Research for COVID Health (SEARCH) alliance. The consortium focuses on screening local healthcare workers and first responders for COVID-19 to understand the prevalence of infections in the community.

TRODELVY® (sacituzumab govitecan-hziy), invented with the aid of click chemistry, is approved by the FDA as a novel treatment for bladder cancer, urinary tract cancers, and triple-negative breast cancer.

ZEPOSIA® (ozanimod) is approved by the FDA for the treatment of adults with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis. Hugh Rosen, MD, PhD, and Edward Roberts, PhD, along with their laboratory teams, discovered and developed the drug. In 2021, Zeposia® is approved for treating ulcerative colitis as well. Watch the video.

Scientists at Scripps Research make notable contributions toward combating the COVID-19 pandemic, including identifying the evolutionary origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, discovering antibodies that protect against the virus, and launching a nationwide study using data from wearables to flag the onset of illness. Watch the playlist.

Ardem Patapoutian, PhD, receives the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering receptors critical to temperature and touch. Watch the video.

COVID-19 vaccines are developed and FDA approved in record time with key innovations from scientists at Scripps Research, including the laboratory team of Andrew Ward, PhD. These vaccines help protect people from SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Watch the video.

Scripps Research breaks ground on its East Campus for an 83,000 sqft, ultramodern research facility destined to house collaborative teams of chemists, structural biologists, and molecular medicine specialists focused on translating scientific insights into new drugs. Honoring one of the institute’s top glycobiologists, The Chi-Huey Wong Laboratories for Biomedical Research rises at the gateway to the life sciences community in San Diego.

Benjamin Cravatt, PhD, wins the prestigious Wolf Prize in Chemistry.

The National Institutes of Health awards Scripps Research $67 million to establish the Center for Antiviral Medicines and Pandemic Preparedness (CAMPP). The center unites the institute’s virology expertise with Calibr’s drug discovery infrastructure on a mission to create drugs against viruses with high pandemic potential.

K. Barry Sharpless, PhD, receives the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing click chemistry. It is his second Nobel, making him one of only two scientists in history to win two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry. Watch the video.