Recent Accomplishments from Unrestricted Gifts

Thanks to unrestricted gifts, Scripps Research is able to support the scientists of tomorrow, provide crucial bridge funding, and achieve landmark disease research results through the purchase of new equipment and opening of new laboratories – leading to the development of new therapeutics.

Unrestricted donations have been used to provide:

Bridge Funding for  Senior Scientists –Unrestricted gifts have assisted two of our senior scientists, Dr. Jane Dyson and Dr. John Elder, during critical gaps in funding, stabilizing their important research programs so that they have been able to maintain their productivity while external federal and private funding has been temporarily disrupted.  Dr. Dyson’s discoveries could lead to the development of future anti-cancer therapeutics.  Dr. Elder studies feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), a cousin of HIV – his discoveries should shed light on the problem of HIV. 

Equipment for Junior Faculty to Advance Scientific Pursuits – Unrestricted funds have been used to purchase equipment for two up-and-coming junior faculty members, Dr. Andrew Ward and Dr. Dennis Wolan.  Dr. Ward’s studies are aimed at designing more effective chemotherapy drugs.  Dr. Wolan’s laboratory employs an arsenal of methods to identify new therapeutic targets to inhibit human disease.

State-of-the-art Instrumentation for Scientists across Scripps Research – Unrestricted gifts have helped provide core equipment for Scripps Research scientists, including Next Generation Sequencing and Electron Microscopy.  Next Generation Sequencing has transformed biology, with a new generation of sequencing technologies sequencing DNA at unprecedented speed, thereby enabling impressive scientific achievements and novel biological applications.  Electron Microscopy is a technique for obtaining high resolution images of biological and non-biological specimens. It is used in biomedical research to investigate the detailed structure of tissues, cells, organelles and macromolecular complexes.  Electron Microscopy images provide key information on the structural basis of cell function and of cell disease.  

Institutional Resources for Promising Faculty Members - Dr. Lisa Stowers is among the faculty members to benefit from unrestricted funding.  Dr. Stowers untangles the complicated web of brain chemistry, determining how the brain can be hardwired to respond to chemical signals and how this can lead to complex behaviors.  Her research helps shed light on how these brain circuits work through the study of how subsets of neurons specify behavior.

These are just a few of the ways that generous unrestricted gifts are achieving breakthroughs and saving lives in critical disease areas.