Scientists with diverse expertise to join Scripps Research faculty

Protein engineering and autism genetics experts join the faculty, and a Scripps Fellow is promoted to assistant professor, in pursuit of new knowledge and treatments for unmet medical needs.

June 24, 2021

LA JOLLA, CA—Three scientists joining the widely respected Scripps Research faculty bring a diverse set of new methods and tools, with expertise in subjects ranging from protein engineering to the gene expression patterns of autism.

“We are incredibly fortunate to continue to hire young colleagues that are at the forefront of their fields. They bring new technologies and ideas to complement the existing bedrock of our talented faculty,” says Jamie Williamson, PhD, executive vice president of Research and Academic Affairs at Scripps Research. “The future of Scripps Research is very bright, and I look forward to seeing the exciting programs from this new cohort develop in the coming years.”

Ahmed Badran

Formerly a fellow and principal investigator of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Ahmed Badran, PhD, will join the Scripps Research Chemistry Department. Badran’s lab is actively developing methods for the high-throughput study of ribosomes, the cell’s protein-building machinery. He’s also working to use ribosomes to build proteins never before seen in nature, to facilitate production of new medicines, probe mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, and more.

Badran studied biochemistry and molecular biophysics, alongside molecular and cellular biology, at the University of Arizona. Under the mentorship of Indraneel Ghosh, PhD, he pioneered approaches for rapid detection of researcher-defined DNA sequences, quantification of messenger RNA, and assessment of nucleic acid damage. Subsequently, he earned his PhD in Chemical Biology from Harvard University under the mentorship of David Liu, PhD, where he focused on developing and applying rapid methods for continuous directed evolution. His research enabled the prediction of antiviral drug resistance, improved the specificity of genome editing reagents and overcame mechanisms of insecticide resistance.

Upon completing his doctoral studies, Badran started an independent research group at the Broad Institute. There, his lab developed technologies to define pathways of ribosome assembly in living cells, created genetic codes capable of encoding complex information, and explored how horizontal gene transfer can influence the evolution of proteins.

Badran has been the recipient of multiple awards. These include the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Scholarship, the Bio5 Innovator Award, the Galileo Circle Scholarship, a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, the Christensen Prize for Outstanding Research Achievement, and the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Merit Fellowship. A finalist for the Reaxys PhD Prize, he was also awarded the National Institutes of Health Director’s Early Independence Award.

Badran says his lab will focus on understanding the fundamental processes at play during protein translation, and harnessing that understanding to address diverse problems ranging from the need for new antibiotics to the challenge of how to sequester greenhouse gasses.

“Scripps Research is a leader in biomedical research with a focus on innovations in both clinical and biotechnological settings, bolstered by pioneers in chemical biology and drug discovery,” Badran says. “These points collectively make it an exceptional fit for me and my lab, and we’re thrilled to be joining this community.”

Danielle Grotjahn

Also joining the faculty is former Scripps Research Fellow Danielle Grotjahn, PhD. An assistant professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Grotjahn studies the interplay of mitochondria, the cell’s energy organelle, and their surrounding cellular environment, especially in response to cellular stress. She employs advanced structural and computational tools including cryogenic electronic microscopy.

Previously, Grotjahn completed a postdoctoral position at the California Institute of Technology. She earned her doctorate at Scripps Research where, under the mentorship of structural biologist Gabe Lander, PhD, she helped solve the first three-dimensional structure of the dynein complex bound to microtubules.

Among many awards, she is a recipient of the Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award, the Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, an Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation fellowship, and National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships.

Grotjahn says the collegial and supportive atmosphere at Scripps Research makes it an ideal place to establish her research program.  

“The most exhilarating aspect of my research is truly being the first to explore and see inside of cells in a completely new way,” Grotjahn says. “I am excited to continue discovering structural secrets and identifying key interactions that lead to disease pathogenesis.”

Xin Jin

The interaction of genetics and physiology in brain development fascinates Xin Jin, PhD, who joins the Scripps Research Neuroscience Department as assistant professor following her junior fellowship at the Harvard Society of Fellows and the Broad Institute. Jin has developed and applied genetic engineering and genomic tools called in vivo Perturb-seq to probe at scale how autism risk genes impact a variety of cell types. Her techniques allow for observation of the effects of each genetic mutation in millions of single cells in vivo, providing insights at unprecedented resolution of how diverse mutations affect brain development.

While earning an undergraduate degree in chemistry at MIT, Jin worked in the labs of Scripps Research chemist Ben Cravatt, PhD, and MIT chemist Alice Ting, PhD. She went on to earn her doctorate in biology at The Rockefeller University, working in the lab of Cori Bargmann, PhD.

Over the course of her studies, she earned multiple awards and fellowships. She received the Simons Foundation Collaborative Grant, a Young Investigator Award from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, an Allison Doupe Fellowship from the McKnight Foundation, an Intersections Science Fellow Award, a Presidential Member Award from the Genetics Society of America, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) International predoctoral fellowship for graduate work.

Jin says she’s thrilled to return to Scripps Research. Her lab will focus on building and applying a suite of new neuro-technologies to study brain development and disorders.

“Here at Scripps Research, chemists and biologists talk to each other, and true interdisciplinary research happens,” Jin says. “This inspires us to connect genomic technologies with  new insights into how these complex inputs are integrated into the brain or misinterpreted in the disease context. I am excited to learn from this diverse and energetic scientific community, and contribute to it.”

About Scripps Research

Scripps Research is an independent, nonprofit biomedical institute ranked the most influential in the world for its impact on innovation. With campuses in La Jolla, California, and Jupiter, Florida, we are advancing human health through profound discoveries that address pressing medical concerns around the globe. Our drug discovery and development division, Calibr, works hand-in-hand with scientists across disciplines to bring new medicines to patients as quickly and efficiently as possible, while teams at Scripps Research Translational Institute harness genomics, digital medicine and cutting-edge informatics to understand individual health and render more effective healthcare. Scripps Research also trains the next generation of leading scientists at our Skaggs Graduate School, consistently named among the top 10 U.S. programs for chemistry and biological sciences. Learn more at www.scripps.edu.

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