Scientist Profiles - Pat Griffin

Patrick Griffin, Ph.D.

Professor & Chair,
Molecular Therapeutics
Director & Head,
Translational Research Institute

As director of The Scripps Research Institute’s Translational Research Institute, Professor Patrick Griffin is engaged in several research programs in the Scripps Research drug discovery pipeline. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Virginia under the direction of Professor Donald F. Hunt working with methodology in the field of Biological Mass Spectrometry that set the stage for what we know today as proteomics. After a postdoctoral fellowship in the Caltech labs of National Academy of Sciences member Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D., and an appointment at Genentech, in 1991 Professor Griffin joined Merck Research Laboratories as a biochemist working on inflammation, infectious diseases, and metabolic disorders. Later, as Merck’s senior director of basic chemistry, he led a team of more than 40 scientists focused on drug discovery, resulting in the development of DMP-777, an investigational drug for treatment of pulmonary disease, and Januvia, an FDA-approved oral medication for the management of Type 2 diabetes. In 2002, Dr. Griffin left Merck to head a biotech startup, ExSAR Corp. In June 2004, Dr. Griffin came to Scripps Florida as Professor of Biochemistry and Director of Drug Discovery. In March 2007, he was named Chairman of the Department of Molecular Therapeutics.

Read more about the Griffin Lab.

2011 Front Lines of Hope Hero
December 9, 2010
Stem Cells: Hype vs. Reality. Featuring Dr. Patrick Griffin and Dr. Donald Phinney

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