Frontiers in Science

Several times a year, the Institute hosts a lecture or panel presentation by Scripps Research scientists on a particular disease, recent discovery, or the application of new knowledge to clinical practice. The series is called Frontiers in Science.

The last Frontiers in Science featured Dr. Benjamin Cravatt who presented on “From Basic Medical Research Discoveries to New Pharmaceuticals That Relieve Suffering – The Critical Path”

There is a new measure of success in basic biomedical research.  It is not the number of grants awarded, publications presented, or laboratory space acquired – it is diminishing suffering and saving lives.

Basic medical research yields new knowledge about biology and disease.  The past few decades have brought enormous breakthroughs in the fundamental knowledge necessary to understanding, preventing, diagnosing, and treating many diseases – and the new decade promises to accelerate progress in curing diseases across the board.

Dr. Cravatt, Chairman of the Chemical Physiology Department at The Scripps Research Institute, discussed this process of translating basic research discoveries made in academia to new pharmaceutical opportunities for relieving human suffering.  Dr. Cravatt illustrated this critical path through his own work on strategies for chronic pain.

Chronic pain is a complex disorder that affects millions of individuals worldwide.  Few drugs are currently available to treat pain and those that are effective often produce unwanted side effects.  Dr. Cravatt’s lab is decoding novel biochemical pathways in the nervous system that regulate chronic pain – identifying potentially new and exciting ways to treat this disorder.  One of his findings has inspired several large pharmaceutical companies to advance his work into clinical development, which is now in Phase II trials and may have utility beyond pain, such as the treatment of depression and anxiety.

Philanthropic contributions supported the formative, early stages of Dr. Cravatt’s scientific research, and have been leveraged many times over by public and industrial funding to build a burgeoning research program aimed at the discovery of new pathways and drugs for treating nervous system disorders.

Dr. Cravatt was joined by two Scripps Research graduate students who were pivotal in validating this enzyme for drug development -- Jonathan Long and Jacqueline Blankman -- as well as Scott Forrest, Scripps Research’s Director of Business and Technology Development.

For more information, please contact Chelsesa Luedeke, Events Manager, at (858) 784-7083 or cluedeke@scripps.edu.