Scientific Report 2005

President's Introduction

At The Scripps Research Institute, 2005 was about many things: innovative research, scientific exchange, and remarkable support from public and private sources. Our new operation in Florida forged ahead in the laboratory. Our La Jolla faculty built on its past successes. And researchers on both coasts came together to work toward our common goal: improving human health and quality of life through science.

Scripps Florida

Scripps Florida represents a new era for the institute, one that renews our commitment to forward-looking biomedical research, embraces promising technologies in drug discovery, and draws on resources from both coasts to strengthen and energize our institution. Currently, Scripps scientists are operating out of temporary space on the campus of Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter. The first building here, completed in March, will be augmented with a second structure to be completed in 2006.

As research continues, Scripps Florida is creating a new hub of scientific activity and exchange in the region. In March, the institute launched a series of high-level biomedical science seminars, titled The Scripps Florida Collaborative Seminars, featuring prominent Florida-based speakers from the academic, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical communities. The presenters focus on topics within the broad fields of biomedical science, advanced technologies, and drug discovery. These seminars create new opportunities to share knowledge, exchange points of view, and build collaborations among biomedical researchers at Scripps Florida and other Florida institutions.

Reaching out to an even broader audience, in November, Scripps Research held the first Scripps-Oxford International Biotechnology Conference, hosted jointly with Oxford University at the Breakers in Palm Beach. The conference, Building a New Model for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biomedicine, and preconference meetings highlighting research in neurodegenerative diseases of aging and drug discovery technologies drew leading scientists and business executives from around the world. The initiative built on the relationship between Scripps Research and Oxford University forged in 2003 with the announcement of the new Skaggs Oxford Scholarships Program, a joint graduate program in biology, chemistry, and biochemistry in which students graduate with a Ph.D. jointly awarded by the 2 institutions.

In 2005, Scripps Florida also launched programs aimed at bringing science into the local community. For the first time, laboratories at Scripps Florida hosted summer interns. A total of 3 teachers and 4 students, all from schools in the Palm Beach County School District, spent 7 weeks learning hands-on techniques and participating in the life of a working laboratory. A 2-year grant from the William R. Kenan, Jr., Charitable Trust supports these internships and additional outreach initiatives under development in Florida. The Scripps Florida internship program is modeled on a similar program on the California campus, which also added new features this year, including a project to donate microscopes to San Diego schools.

Innovative Investigations

Scripps Research is known around the world for innovative research in a range of biomedical disciplines, investigations that change the way we think about the workings of health and disease. In 2005, Scripps Research scientists continued to make major contributions to their fields. At the time of this writing, Chemical Abstracts Service, a division of the American Chemical Society, had listed papers from Scripps Research investigators in its “Science Spotlight,” a list of the 10 most requested articles worldwide, every quarter for the past year and a half.

The following list highlights only a few of the breakthroughs made by Scripps Research investigators in 2005. The scientists

• solved the structure of a rare human antibody that broadly neutralizes HIV, which causes AIDS;
• created the first cell culture system for hepatitis C virus, a new tool for vaccine and drug research;
• reported a new molecular mechanism that controls how the lungs are kept dry and under what conditions they permit fluids to enter, a finding that may lead to new treatments for “shock lung”;
• conducted one of the first studies on the long-term neurologic effects of nicotine addiction on the brain’s reward system, reporting findings that may have important implications for people who are trying to quit smoking;
• revised our understanding of the process of RNA folding;
• showed that a certain type of molecule known as an LPA receptor plays a major role in conception;
• described how a bacterial control agent prevents crown gall disease, a plant disease that affects more than 600 species;
• discovered that a compound extracted from soy beans is a natural and potent inhibitor of a pathologic process involved in a number of amyloid diseases;
• developed a way to screen hundreds and potentially thousands of “noncoding” RNA molecules to discover the functions of the molecules within cells;
• pursued new approaches for combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria; and
• elucidated mechanisms and components of the immune system, including CD1, CD22, CD36, and TLR3.

New Support, New Possibilities

The pioneering investigations at Scripps Research received significant new support in 2005. In the public realm, a consortium of scientists at Scripps Research and several other California institutions received $52.7 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health. The grant is part of the second phase of a national effort called the Protein Structure Initiative in which scientists ultimately seek to find the 3-dimensional shapes of all types of proteins. This structural information will help reveal the roles that proteins play in health and disease.

In addition, the National Institutes of Health awarded a $10.4 million grant to establish the Scripps Research Institute Molecular Screening Center, an initiative of researchers from both the California and Florida campuses. The aim of this pilot program is to discover small-molecule tools for translating basic biomedical discoveries more quickly into medically relevant applications. Significantly, this type of work, which has traditionally been done by pharmaceutical companies, is the first project of its kind in the public or nonprofit sector.

Scripps Research also received many generous gifts from private donors, including 2 multimillion-dollar donations. In the largest gift that has been made to Scripps Florida to date, Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence J. De George of Jupiter, Florida, gave $5 million to support biomedical science at the institute’s new Palm Beach County campus. The gift was made through the Lawrence J. and Florence A. De George Charitable Trust, established through the couple’s leadership role in 3 Fortune 500 public companies.

On the West Coast, San Diego business leader and philanthropist John J. Moores contributed $4 million to Scripps Research to establish the Worm Institute for Research and Medicine. The mission of the new institute is to combat the painful, disfiguring, and debilitating diseases transmitted by worms that afflict hundreds of millions of people in much of the world. In one of the first efforts, researchers at the institute will look for methods to detect the presence of parasitic worms in a person’s body that can be used as diagnostic tools for public health efforts in the field.

Transitions

In 2005, several new members joined our Board of Trustees. I extend a warm welcome to J. Gary Burkhead, a retired Fidelity Investments executive, of Palm Beach, Florida; Louis L. Gonda, founder of International Lease Finance Corporation, of Beverly Hills, California; and Mark S. Skaggs, an attorney and business executive formerly with American Stores, of Boise, Idaho. All 3 new members will enrich the board with their expertise in business development and management, investment, and philanthropy.

On the La Jolla campus, Floyd E. Bloom announced his retirement as chairman of the Scripps Research Department of Neuropharmacology, recently renamed the Molecular and Integrative Neurosciences Department. Floyd, now professor emeritus at Scripps Research and chairman and chief scientific officer of Neurome, was awarded an honorary degree at the Scripps Research 2005 commencement ceremony.

Taking up the chairmanship of the department is noted neuroscientist Tamas Bartfai, director of the Harold L. Dorris Neurological Research Center, who holds the Harold L. Dorris Chair in Neuroscience. Before arriving at Scripps Research in 2000, Tamas headed CNS research at Hoffmann-La Roche.

Spanning both the California and Florida campuses, a new department, the Department of Biochemistry, made its debut in November. Headed by Steve A. Kay, who also directs the Institute for Childhood and Neglected Diseases, the department will take an integrative approach to research on physiological processes from the molecular level to the whole organism.

Also, 2005 saw changes in the administrative offices. Executive Vice President Arnold LaGuardia retired after serving the institute for more than 2 decades. Polly Murphy, senior vice president for business and scientific services, arrived from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and Robert Murphy (no relation), senior vice president and general counsel, joined Scripps Research from the business world, where he had worked for healthcare and technology companies.

Congratulations to the 21 newest alumni of the Scripps Research Kellogg School of Science and Technology, which U.S. News and World Report ranks among the top 10 graduate programs in the United States in the biological sciences and chemistry. This year’s Kellogg School graduates were awarded doctoral degrees in the May 20 commencement ceremony, which celebrated their individual accomplishments and contributions. The graduates have gone on to hold positions in both academia and industry, including positions at Albert Einstein University, Brown University, Providence Medical Center, Merck, Max Planck Institute, and Biogen.

Numerous awards and honors were bestowed on the Scripps Research faculty in 2005, as evident from the following list.

• Associate Professor Clare Waterman-Storer won the National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award, which supports exceptionally creative scientists who take innovative approaches to major challenges in biomedical research.
• Professor Peter G. Schultz, who holds the Scripps Family Chair and is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, was awarded the American Chemical Society Arthur C. Cope Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in the field of organic chemistry, the significance of which has become apparent within the previous 5 years.
• Professor Gerald Joyce was honored with the H.C. Urey Medal, the highest recognition by the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, given every 6 years to a scientist who is considered to have the best-sustained scientific research program in the origins-of-life field.
• I received the DART/NYU Biotechnology Achievement Award from the Biotechnology Study Center of the New York University School of Medicine, which recognizes the role of leaders who pursue pure science in the development of pharmaceuticals, and particularly honors those scientists whose work has led to major advances at the bedside.
• Professor John Yates was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award in Proteomics, given in recognition of indispensable contributions to the field of proteomic science.
• Professor Peter K. Vogt was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which selects fellows through a highly competitive process that recognizes individuals who have made preeminent contributions to their disciplines and to society at large.
• Professor Eng Tan was the first non-European rheumatologist to be awarded the European League Against Rheumatism Meritorious Service Award, which recognized his work on autoantibodies and autoimmunity.
• Professors Dennis Burton and Michael Buchmeier were elected to the fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology, an honor leadership group that recognizes excellence, originality, and creativity in all subspecialties of the mirobiologic sciences.
• Professor Julius Rebek, Jr., was named a foreign member of the Academia Europaea, an organization of scholars from across Europe that is a “broad assembly of excellence.”

At Scripps Research, our greatest resource is our people. Our talented principal investigators. Our generous donors. Our hardworking staff. Our knowledgeable trustees. Our inquisitive students. Our outstanding postdoctoral fellows. Our supportive friends. The accomplishments of Scripps Research are only possible because of their efforts.