News and Publications

TSRI Researchers Win Prestigious Scientific Awards

Dale Boger, Ph.D., Richard and Alice Cramer Professor of Chemistry and member of The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, has won the Paul Janssen Award for Creativity in Organic Synthesis, given on a biannual basis at the Belgian Organic Synthesis Symposium to a chemist under the age of 50 who has made a significant contribution to the field of organic synthesis. Boger is internationally recognized for his work in organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry, heterocyclic chemistry, natural products total synthesis and biological evaluation, synthetic methodology development including combinatorial chemistry, and bioorganic chemistry and has made seminal contributions to the understanding of DNA-drug interactions and small molecule stabilization or disruption of protein ­ protein interactions involved in signal transduction.

Benjamin Cravatt, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Cell Biology, member of The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, and The Scripps Research Institute's Kellogg School of Science and Technology class of ' 97, has been named one of the "TR100," the world's top young innovators according to Technology Review magazine for his work "developing tools to illuminate the roles of proteins and enzymes in humans and animals."

Albert Eschenmoser, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Chemistry and member of The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, was awarded the Oparin Medal, the highest recognition of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life. The Oparin Medal is given every six years to the scientist deemed to have "had the best sustained scientific research program in the origin of life field." Eschenmoser co-directs a research group at The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology that has contributed to the field through investigations into the chemical origins of nucleic acid structure, particularly through work on the threofuranosyl oligonucleotides (a.k.a. TNAs).

Mark H. Ginsberg, M.D., professor in the Department of Cell Biology, has won the 2003 Earl P. Benditt Research Career Award from the North American Vascular Biology Organization for his seminal work on platelet receptor function and integrin biology. According to the organization, "throughout his years at Scripps, Dr. Ginsberg made many important discoveries that have dramatically advanced our thinking of cell - cell interactions and cellular signaling through the family of integrin receptors."

Eric F. Johnson, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Molecular and Experimental Medicine, is the recipient of the 2002 Bernard B. Brodie Award in Drug Meta-bolism, given every other year by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Johnson received the award for "his pioneering contributions to our understanding of the structure, function, and regulation of liver cytochrome P450 enzymes."

Richard A. Lerner, M.D., Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Immunochemistry, Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Chair in Chemistry, president of The Scripps Research Institute, has received the University of California Presidential Medal. The medal is the highest award the university can bestow, established to recognize "extraordinary contributions to the University of California or the community of learning."

Lerner also received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Northwestern University. Northwestern awards honorary degrees to those judged to have made exceptional contributions to fields valued by the university.

Lerner's 30-year scientific career encompasses a broad scope of activities, ranging from insights into protein structure to identification of a sleep-inducing lipid. His most recent work, and that for which he is perhaps best known, involves ground-breaking discoveries of converting antibodies into enzymes, permitting the catalysis of chemical reactions considered impossible to achieve by classical chemical procedures.

Julius Rebek, Jr., Ph.D., director of The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, has won an American Institute of Chemists Chemical Pioneer Award. According to the American Institute of Chemists, "Rebek's lifelong work has led to major innovations in non-covalent molecular forces and pre-biotic mimetics - some of the concepts he has pioneered are now regarded as starting points in the field."

Stephen W. Santoro, Ph.D., research associate in the Department of Chemistry, has been selected as a recipient of a 2002 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences. The award provides $500,000 over five years for young scientists, spanning the period that includes their advanced postdoctoral training and their early years as a faculty member. Santoro, who is a 1999 graduate of The Scripps Research Institute's Kellogg School of Science and Technology, is currently studying the directed evolution of molecules, a Darwinian technique whereby a population of enzymes are modified in myriad ways and then selected for their ability to do something novel.

Ian Wilson, D.Phil., professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and member of The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, has been elected to membership of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Through Wilson's efforts, breakthroughs have been achieved in several areas of structural biology, immunology, chemistry, biology, and biochemistry, particularly in understanding the chemistry of antibody-antigen recognition, the mechanism of catalytic antibodies, cellular-immune recognition by T cell receptor-MHC interaction, the mechanism of growth hormone-cytokine receptor signaling, and the identification and mechanisms of novel small molecule mimetics of natural hormones.