S CRIPPS F LORIDA F UNDING C ORPORATION
A NNUAL R EPORT
F OR
THE
Y EAR E NDED S EPTEMBER 30, 2013
2013 B OARD
OF DIRECTORS
D AVID J. G URY , CHAIRMAN ∙ D R . P AMELLA D ANA , V ICE C HAIRMAN
C. G LEN G ED ∙ C. G ERALD G OLDSMITH ∙ M ARK J. K ASTEN
T HOMAS G. K UNTZ ∙ R ICHARD M. L UCERI , M.D.
E DWARD S ABIN ∙ A RT W OTIZ
S ARA M ISSELHORN , P ROJECT D IRECTOR
130 S CRIPPS W AY , S UITE B41 J UPITER , FL 33458 (561)655-9669
S CRIPPSCORP @ BELLSOUTH . NET
SCRIPPS FLORIDA FUNDING CORPORATION ANNUAL REPORT
For Year Ended September 30, 2013
INTRODUCTION
Florida Statute 288.955 (the “Enabling Statute”) created Scripps Florida Funding Corporation (“SFFC”)
to facilitate the establishment and operation of a biomedical research institution for the purposes of
enhancing education and research and promoting economic development and diversity. In addition, the
Enabling Statute charged SFFC with the obligation to assure the compliance by The Scripps Research
Institute (“TSRI”) with the Enabling Statute and the agreement between SFFC and TSRI (the “Operating
and Funding Agreement”). The Enabling Statute provides that SFFC shall prepare or obtain certain
reports, audits, and evaluations of TSRI’s compliance with the performance expectations and
disbursement conditions contained in the Enabling Statute. As such, SFFC is submitting this Annual
Report to the Governor, the President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House, as required by the
Enabling Statute to be submitted by December 1 of each year. This SFFC Annual Report addresses the
activities and outcomes of SFFC and Scripps Florida (“SF”) for the fiscal year ended September 30,
2013 (“Fiscal 2013”). The Scripps Florida Annual Report addressed the activities and outcomes of
Scripps Florida for the year ended June 30, 2013, and SFFC received the Scripps Florida Annual Report
on August 25, 2013. The information in the Scripps Florida Annual Report was informally updated for
this SFFC Annual Report.
The SFFC Annual Report serves to report on both the requirements and the aspirations as set forth by
the Operating and Funding Agreement with Scripps and is presented in two parts: first, a summary that
highlights the substantial events that have occurred during the year ended September 30, 2013; and
second, an itemized report that corresponds with the applicable sections of the Enabling Statute.
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ABOUT THE SCRIPPS FLORIDA FUNDING CORPORATION
In November 2003, Governor Bush signed into law an historic piece of legislation that laid the
framework for The Scripps Research Institute to expand its world-renowned scientific research and
endeavors into Florida. The bill, passed by the Florida Legislature during special session, provided a
one-time investment of $310 million from federal economic stimulus monies to create Scripps Florida
and pay certain expenses for the first seven years, specifically salaries and equipment purchases. In June
2006, The Scripps Research Institute revised the Scripps Florida business plan and SFFC and TSRI
revised the scheduled disbursements from SFFC, which expanded grant funding to ten years, or through
2014.
To oversee the investment and spending of the State’s investment in Scripps Florida, the Florida
Legislature created the Scripps Florida Funding Corporation, hereto referred to as SFFC, a non-profit
entity comprised of a nine-member Board of Directors and one ex-officio member. The role of SFFC
was enunciated by Governor Bush, “my vision for this board is that it manages the financial portion of
our partnership, but lets Scripps do what it does best – conduct biomedical research.”
SFFC Board of Directors
Of the nine-member Board of Directors, three Directors are appointed by each of the Governor, House
Speaker and the Senate President. Mr. David Gury serves as Chair of the Board of Directors and Dr.
Pamella Dana as Vice-Chair. The full Board of Directors consists of the Chair and Vice Chair and Mr.
Charles Glen Ged, Mr. C. Gerald Goldsmith, Mr. Mark J. Kasten, Mr. Thomas G. Kuntz, Dr. Richard
M. Luceri, Mr. Ed Sabin and Mr. Art Wotiz.
ABOUT THE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is one of the world's largest independent, not-for-profit
organizations focusing on research in the biomedical sciences. TSRI is internationally recognized for its
contributions to science and health, including its role in laying the foundation for new treatments for
cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, and other diseases. An institution that evolved from the Scripps
Metabolic Clinic founded by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps in 1924, the institute now employs
about 3,000 people on its campuses in La Jolla, CA, and Jupiter, FL, where its renowned scientists—
including three Nobel laureates—work toward their next discoveries. The institute's graduate program,
which awards PhD degrees in biology and chemistry, ranks among the top ten of its kind in the nation.
For more information, see www.scripps.edu.
ABOUT SCRIPPS FLORIDA
Scripps Florida, a division of the not-for-profit Scripps Research Institute, sits on 30 acres adjoining the
Florida Atlantic University campus in the Town of Jupiter in Palm Beach County, Florida. Over 500
scientists, technicians, and administrative staff work in the 350,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art
biomedical research facility which opened in March 2009. Scripps Florida focuses on basic biomedical
science, drug discovery and technology development. In addition to the one-time grant from the State of
Florida, Palm Beach County provided an economic package that included funding for land and
construction of the current permanent facility.
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SCRIPPS FLORIDA HIGHLIGHTS
As of September 30, 2013, Scripps Florida employed 528 people and had received $49.5 million in
research support from non-state sources. Since inception, Scripps Florida research has resulted in over
100 domestic and foreign patent applications, 39 technology licenses and $355 million in grants and
gifts from the National Institutes of Health, foundations and donors.
The next subsections - Scripps Florida Institutional Milestones, Scripps Florida Philanthropic
Accomplishments, Scripps Florida Faculty, and Scripps Florida Scientific Accomplishments, which
includes scientific publications, grant awards, and scientific awards - summarize the highlights of the
Scripps Florida events that have occurred during the year ended September 30, 2013.
Scripps Florida Institutional Milestones
Scripps Research Institute Named David Blinder to Key Fundraising Position
In January 2013, Scripps appointed David Blinder, PhD, as senior vice president for external affairs at
The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). Mr. Blinder began his new position, which oversees external
affairs on both the Scripps California and Scripps Florida campuses, on March 1, 2013.
Blinder earned a BA in philosophy, magna cum laude, from Princeton University in 1972 and an MA
and PhD in philosophy from UC Berkeley in 1979 and 1981, respectively. He then joined Yale
University as an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy. In 1987, he joined the
philanthropy staff at Princeton University, while continuing to lecture in philosophy. After positions in
leadership gifts and corporate and foundation relations, Blinder became director of development for
Princeton in 1992. At that time, he became involved in developing the university’s $1 billion 250 th
anniversary campaign. In 1995, he joined Wellesley College as vice president for resources and public
affairs. There, he planned and implemented a record-breaking campaign for liberal arts fundraising. In
2007, he joined University of California (UC), Berkeley, where he was a member of the Chancellor’s
Cabinet, Council of Deans, and UC Berkeley Foundation Campaign Steering Committee. Before he
joined Scripps, he was associate vice chancellor of university relations and vice president of the UC
Berkeley Foundation. In that capacity, Blinder was senior manager of a highly successful fundraising
effort, The Campaign for Berkeley. Publicly launched in 2008, the campaign has raised $2.7 billion
toward a $3 billion goal.
Michael A. Marletta, PhD, president and CEO of TSRI, commented, “His leadership and
accomplishments in development and management will be essential to our philanthropic efforts. I am
very much looking forward to working with him to build a strong financial future for the institute.”
Florida’s Marshall Criser III Joined Scripps Research Institute Board of Trustees
As per the agreement between TSRI and SFFC, SFFC is permitted to request two nominations to the
TSRI Board of Trustees. At the SFFC annual meeting on March 13, 2013, the SFFC Board of Directors
voted to nominate Marshall M. Criser III, president of AT&T Florida, for membership in the Board of
Trustees and in May 2013, TSRI Board of Trustees elected Mr. Criser to its Board.
As president of AT&T Florida, Criser is responsible for leading AT&T’s operations throughout the
state. Prior to the merger of AT&T and BellSouth in December 2006, he held the same position with
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BellSouth. Criser has held various senior management positions with the company, including vice
president of regulatory and external affairs, vice president of regulatory and strategic planning for
BellSouth International, and director of state and agency relations in Washington, D.C. He began his
career at Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company, where he held positions in regulatory,
internal audits and comptrollers divisions. A Florida native, Criser earned a BA in business
administration at the University of Florida. He also completed the Advanced Management Programme at
INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. Criser’s business, public sector and community involvement is
extensive. He is chair of the Florida Council of 100, co-chair of the Florida Higher Education
Coordinating Council, and a member of the Executive Committee and chair of the Audit Committee of
Enterprise Florida, a public-private partnership devoted to statewide economic development. In 2010, he
was appointed by the Florida Board of Governors to serve on the Board of Trustees of the University of
Florida. He served previously on the Florida Transportation Commission under appointments by
Governor Jeb Bush and Governor Charlie Crist. In addition, he serves on the board of the Miami Dade
College Foundation.
"It is a privilege to serve with the trustees of The Scripps Research Institute,” said Criser. “Scripps's
exploration and investment in research and education have made a significant impact from coast to
coast. More importantly, Scripps researchers are solving problems and developing the problem-solvers
of the future."
James E. LaBelle Joined Scripps Research Institute Board of Trustees
Also at the May 2013 TSRI Board of Trustee’s meeting, James E. LaBelle, chief medical officer and
corporate senior vice president of Scripps Health was elected to serve on TSRI Board of Trustees.
Scripps Health is a private, nonprofit health system in San Diego, California that includes four hospitals
on five campuses, outpatient clinics, home health and hospice care with thousands of affiliated
physicians.
LaBelle was appointed chief medical officer and corporate senior vice president of Scripps Health in
January 2013. Prior to this appointment, he was corporate vice president of quality, physician comanagement and medical management with Scripps Health. He also served as medical director of
emergency services at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas and served two terms as the hospital’s chief
of staff. A physician in the field of emergency medicine for more than 25 years, LaBelle is board
certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American College of Physician
Executives. LaBelle earned a BS degree in electrical engineering and an MD from the University of
Washington, as well as completing an internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of
California, San Diego. He also holds a Healthcare Executive MBA from the University of California,
Irvine. LaBelle is co-founder and past president and CEO of Connect the Docs Multi-Specialty
Network, Inc., as well as a co-founder and past chairman of Connect the Docs Medical Management.
“We would like to extend a warm welcome to Marshall and Jim,” said Dick Gephardt, President/CEO of
Gephardt Government Affairs and lead trustee of the TSRI Board of Trustees. "We are confident their
contributions as board members will enhance TSRI’s preeminence in biomedical research and graduate
education."
“We are delighted to have Marshall and Jim join our board,” said TSRI President and CEO Michael A.
Marletta. “Marshall brings a wealth of business experience and will help us build even stronger ties to
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our community in Florida. Jim's experience in medicine and research will serve us very well and in
addition he brings a sincere interest, which I share, in forging new relationship to the Clinic and Scripps
Health. We enthusiastically look forward to working with both of them.”
Karen Marcus to Assist Scripps Florida with Government and Community Relations
In April 2013, Scripps contracted with former County Commissioner Karen Marcus to provide advice
and assistance in community and government relations. She was a member of the Palm Beach County
Commission for 28 years before retiring last December because of term limits. In her new role with
Scripps Florida, Marcus keeps SF informed about local, regional and state-wide events, legislation and
activities; connects SF with key organizations throughout the state; and raises awareness about Scripps
Florida’s initiatives and programs. Not included in her duties is lobbying the Palm Beach County
Commission, as rules prohibit former commissioners from lobbying that entity for two years after they
leave office.
“Having worked to bring Scripps Florida to Palm Beach County, I’m delighted to have the opportunity
to be part of the institute’s continued success,” Marcus said.
Scripps Florida Philanthropic Accomplishments
During the fiscal year ending September 30, 2013, gifts and pledges to Scripps Florida totaled more than
$4.2 million and new pledges, more than $3.4 million. Highlights include:
 Rich and Helen DeVos continued their support of the graduate education program at Scripps Florida
by making a new $1.25 million pledge, which will be used to attract, enrich and retain outstanding
PhD students in the life sciences.

The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust awarded $1,000,000 for four years of support for Scripps
Florida’s Education Outreach Programs, overseen by Program Director Deborah Leach-Scampavia.

The Josilyn Faith Foundation for Prader-Willi Syndrome has made a $450,000 commitment to Roy
Smith, chair of the Department of Metabolism and Aging, to support the development of therapies
for the disease and to fund a three-year postdoctoral training fellowship.

The Esther B. O'Keeffe Charitable Foundation donated $250,000 to fund neuroscience training and
public outreach under the direction of Professor Ron Davis, chair of the Department of
Neuroscience; the gift will help train the next generation of scientists, as well as support a series of
presentations to raise community awareness of Scripps Florida’s work to understand and combat
brain diseases.

The Joseph B. & Rita P. Scheller Charitable Foundation has made a $250,000 five-year commitment
to create the Scheller Graduate Student Fellowship.

Jimmy & Becky Mayer demonstrated their resolve in advancing research through the generous
renewal of their Marie Mayer Postdoctoral Training Fellowships in Cancer Biology under the
direction of Department of Cancer Biology Chair John Cleveland.

A private family foundation has pledged $100,000 to Roy Smith, chair of the Department of
Metabolism and Aging, for use at his discretion.
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
In its second year, PGA National’s 2013 Women’s Cancer Awareness Days fundraising effort
resulted in contributions in excess of $212,000, supporting five Postdoctoral Training Fellowships in
Cancer Research under the mentorship of five faculty members.

The Samuel J. and Connie M. Frankino Foundation has made a $105,500 gift to fund a two-year
postdoctoral training fellowship for Dr. Lorraine Clark under the direction of Professor Tom
Kodadek. Dr. Clark will work on developing an efficient screening test to detect Alzheimer's disease
before symptoms appear, setting the stage for early treatment options.

The Klorefine Foundation has made a gift of $100,000 for a two-year postdoctoral training
fellowship for Dr. Xiuling Li under the direction of Associate Professor Christoph Rader. Dr. Li will
work on novel antibody-drug conjugates—which could act as smart bombs selectively delivered to
cancer cells without harming the normal cells and tissues—for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic
leukemia.

The Rendina Family Foundation has made a $150,000 pledge to fund a two-year postdoctoral
training fellowship for Dr. Laura Rosenberg under the mentorship of Assistant Professor Derek
Duckett. Dr. Rosenberg will continue pursuing a project aimed at developing more effective
therapies for glioblastoma, a virulent type of brain cancer.

Rick and Lesley Stone have made a $120,000 commitment to fund a postdoctoral training fellowship
in the laboratory of Professor Patrick Griffin, chair of the Department of Molecular Therapeutics.
The recipient of the fellowship will be Dr. Vinh Lamm, who is working on a project that holds
promise for the treatment of diabetes mellitus type 2.

The Rainwater Charitable Foundation has made a gift of $112,500 for the first year of two two-year
postdoctoral training fellowships under the direction of Professor Matt Disney in the Department of
Molecular Therapeutics. The two postdoctoral fellows will work on designing drugs that selectively
inhibit RNA variants that encode a mutant protein implicated in frontal temporal dementia and
Alzheimer's disease.

The Men's Golf Association at the BallenIsles Country Club has provided approximately $105,000
to fund a prostate cancer research fellowship to be supervised by Associate Professor Kendall
Nettles of the Department of Cancer Biology.
Scripps Florida Faculty
There was significant faculty hiring in Fiscal 2013 as Scripps Florida prepares to meet its goal of 545
employees by December 2013. The following announcements explain the key positions appointed
during the period of October 1, 2012 through September 30, 2013.
TSRI Appointed Boger as Department of Chemistry Chair and Kodadek as Vice Chair
In October 2012, TSRI named Dale Boger, PhD, as chair of its Department of Chemistry. In addition,
Thomas Kodadek, PhD, was appointed vice chair. TSRI’s Department of Chemistry is comprised of
scientists on both coasts. Boger is based in the institute’s La Jolla, CA, campus, and Kodadek in the
Jupiter, FL, campus. Boger succeeds K. C. Nicolaou, who had served as chemistry chair since the
inception of the department in 1989.
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TSRI has been highlighted in a Science Watch survey of "high-impact" papers in chemistry as the top
institution worldwide by citations per paper. And, according to U.S. News & World Report, the
institute's graduate program is rated seventh overall in the nation in chemistry, with a ranking of third in
the specialty of organic chemistry and fourth in biochemistry.
Ten faculty members have joined the institute’s chemistry department to head laboratories in the last
four years, including Kodadek, who arrived in 2009.
Boger, 59, received his BS in chemistry from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas (1975) and
PhD in chemistry from Harvard University (1980). He returned to the University of Kansas in 1979,
moved to Purdue University in 1985, and, in 1991, joined the faculty at TSRI. Boger is internationally
recognized for his work in organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry, natural products total synthesis and
biological evaluation, synthetic methodology development including combinatorial chemistry, and
bioorganic chemistry. He has made seminal contributions to the understanding of DNA-drug
interactions, small molecule stabilization or disruption of protein–protein interactions involved in signal
transduction, and to the discovery and validation of new biological targets. Boger has been the recipient
of numerous awards for his work, including an inaugural year Searle Scholar Award, the inaugural year
ISHC Katritzky Award in Heterocyclic Chemistry, an American Chemical Society (ACS) A. C. Cope
Scholar Award, the ACS Award for Creativity in Organic Synthesis, the Paul Janssen Prize for
Creativity in Organic Synthesis, the ACS Ernest Geunther Award in Natural Products, and the ACS
Ralph Hirschmann Award in Peptide Chemistry. He is also an elected member of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Kodadek, 53, received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Miami (1981) and a PhD
in organic chemistry from Stanford University (1985). He completed postdoctoral work in biochemistry
at the University of California, San Francisco, and joined the University of Texas, Austin, as an assistant
professor in 1987. He joined the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as a professor of
Internal Medicine and Molecular Biology in 1998 and became director of the Division of Translational
Research there in 2005. At Scripps Florida, Kodadek holds joint appointments in the Departments of
Chemistry and Cancer Biology. Kodadek has made fundamental discoveries in nucleic acid
enzymology, including elucidating the biochemistry of homologous genetic recombination and the role
of the proteasome in eukaryotic transcription. His more recent research is focused on developing
chemical tools to address important problems in biology and medicine, for example identifying synthetic
molecules capable of targeting antibodies, B cells and T cells in an antigen-like fashion for the purpose
of monitoring and manipulating the immune system. His awards and honors include the Jane Coffin
Childs Postdoctoral Fellowship, American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Research Award and the NIH
Director's Pioneer Award. He is also an elected fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.
Scripps Research Institute Appoints Innovative Scientist to Metabolism and Aging Department
In November 2012, Anutosh Chakraborty was appointed as an assistant professor in the Department of
Metabolism and Aging. Before coming to Scripps Florida, Chakraborty was affiliated with the Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD.
Chakraborty’s research is aimed at understanding the molecular details of the various signaling
pathways involved in metabolic diseases, particularly the family of inositol hexakisphosphate kinases
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(IP6Ks), which play a role in a range of physiological activities from programmed cell death to the
regulation of insulin and glucose homeostasis.
Chakraborty received his bachelor’s degree in Zoology from the University of Burdwan, India, in 1995
and a master’s degree in 1997 from the same institution. He was awarded a PhD from the Indian
Institute of Chemical Biology in 2005. He conducted postdoctoral work at Johns Hopkins, and then
became a research instructor there. In 1998, Chakraborty was awarded a Lectureship after qualifying in
the Joint Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), India, and the University Grants
Commission National Eligibility Test. He received a Merit Research Grant Award the following year.
He ranked second in the nationwide Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), conducted by
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in 1999. In 2008, Chakraborty was a key member of a Johns
Hopkins research team that discovered a novel way to develop stronger, less-harmful anticancer drugs—
showing that the action of IP6K2, which promotes cell death in response to stress such as commonly
prescribed anti-cancer drugs, can be controlled when bound to a heat shock protein, HSP90. The study
was published the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2010, he was the lead
author of a study published in the journal Cell that suggested that selective inhibitors of IP6K1 could
have strong therapeutic potential in treating type-2 diabetes associated with obesity and insulin
resistance—with few adverse side effects. He demonstrated that mice deleted of the IP6K1 gene are
protected from age and high-fat-diet-induced weight gain and insulin resistance.
Two Noted Harvard Scientists – Farzan and Choe - Appointed to Scripps Florida Faculty
In December 2012, TSRI appointed Professor Michael R. Farzan and Associate Professor Hyeryun Choe
to the faculty on its Florida campus. Prior to joining Scripps Florida this month, both were on the
faculty at Harvard Medical School.
Farzan’s research is focused on uncovering the process by which various viruses, including HIV-1 and
SARS coronavirus, enter target cells and the immune system’s response to this event. Farzan is also
working to find ways to enhance these immune responses. For example, his lab identified the cellular
receptor for the SARS virus, a key post-translational modification of CCR5 necessary for HIV-1
infection, and a family of innate immune factors that prevent viruses from entering cells. He has shown
that some antibodies mimic certain host receptors, an important finding since such similarities make it
more difficult for the virus to escape the body’s immune response. Farzan is currently investigating
these antibodies, their role in controlling long-term infection, and how to better draw them out. His longterm goal is to find an appropriate combination of antibody and antibody-like molecules to provide longterm protection from HIV-1 infection following a single inoculation.
Farzan received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College in 1984 and a PhD in Immunology from
Harvard Medical School in 1997. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Cancer
Immunology and AIDS at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Farzan joined Harvard Medical
School as an instructor in the Department of Pathology in 1999. In 2002, he was named an assistant
professor in the Department of Medicine and, in 2005, an assistant professor in the Department of
Microbiology and Molecular Genetics. In 2007, he was promoted to associate professor and, in 2012, to
professor. Among Farzan’s honors are the Richard A. Smith Prize for outstanding research at DanaFarber Cancer Institute, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigators in Pathogenesis of Infectious
Disease Award, and a Kavli Fellowship from the National Academy of Sciences and Kavli Foundation.
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Choe’s research has focused on identifying the processes by which enveloped viruses enter their target
cells. That focus has led to the identification of a number of key factors essential for entry of HIV-1,
SARS coronavirus and a number of hemorrhagic fever viruses. Among her significant research is a 2007
Nature paper that reported the identification of a key receptor for pathogenic New World arenaviruses—
Machupo, Junin, Guanarito and Sabia, which cause hemorrhagic fever and significant casualties in
various regions of South America. The team was also able to show that iron depletion enhances, and
iron supplementation slows, infection by these viruses, suggesting iron supplements as a possible
treatment.
Choe received a bachelor’s degree from Seoul National University in Korea in 1977 and a master’s
degree in 1980. She was awarded a PhD from Pennsylvania State University in 1984, and subsequently
conducted postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School. In 1997, Choe was appointed as an instructor
at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. In 2000, she became an assistant
professor at Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Choe was the second most cited scientist
for research published in 1996-7 as reported by Thomson Reuters' Essential Science Indicators Science
Watch; in 2002, she was named a Prominent Scientist by the Society for Biomedical Research.
Memory Researcher Tomchik Appointed to Faculty
In January 2013, TSRI appointed Assistant Professor Seth Tomchik as a laboratory head on the Florida
campus. Previously, Tomchik was a senior research associate and a member of the Ron Davis laboratory
at Scripps Florida.
Tomchik, who received a prestigious National Institute of Mental Health Pathway to Independence
award in 2010, focuses his research on how the brain influences both innate and learned behaviors. Like
many scientists who study memory, he uses the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, as a model
system to study and decipher the intricacies of neural circuits. Genetic techniques, coupled with in vivo
imaging and precise manipulation of neuronal activity, enable him to study how various
neurotransmitter pathways are involved in shaping normal behavior and disease. His ultimate goal is to
uncover the pathophysiology of diseases such as fragile X and neurofibromatosis type 1.
Neurofibromatosis type 1 is a tumor disorder that produces tumors within the nervous system and often
results in learning difficulties.
Tomchik received an Honors Program BA cum laude in psychology from the University of Miami in
2001, and a PhD in biology from the same institution in 2005. From 2006 to 2007, he was a postdoctoral
fellow at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami and later, from 2007 to 2009, at
Baylor College of Medicine. Tomchik received a Robert E. Maytag fellowship in 2002 and a National
Institute of Neurological Disorders and Biomedical Discovery Training fellowship in 2007. He joined
TSRI in 2009.
Innovative Biotech Scientist Sundrud Appointed to Cancer Biology Department
In March 2013, TSRI appointed Mark Sundrud as an assistant professor in the Department of Cancer
Biology. Before joining Scripps Florida, Sundrud was a principal scientist and head of discovery biology
at Tempero Pharmaceuticals, a GlaxoSmithKline-funded Massachusetts-based biotechnology company
focused on developing new therapeutics for autoimmune diseases.
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In his research program at Scripps Florida, Sundrud aims to better understand the molecular
underpinnings of how inflammatory T cells develop and promote tissue inflammation—with the
ultimate goal of applying that knowledge towards the development of new therapies. His research has
been focused on understanding the metabolic and stress response pathways of Th17 and he explains…
“if we switch that around, we may also be able to harness these same T cells and these same pathways to
eradicate tumors.”
Sundrud earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and psychology with honors from Concordia College and
a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he received
the Sidney P. Colowick Memorial Award for outstanding graduate research. He went on to complete a
postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, where he was awarded a fellowship from the
Irvington Institute fellowship program of the Cancer Research Institute. As the head of target discovery
at the newly formed Tempero Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Sundrud oversaw the company's early research
programs that were focused on defining the mechanisms underlying T cell-mediated inflammation and
on developing innovative therapeutic strategies for the treatment of chronic and autoimmune
inflammation. Sundrud also served as the scientific manager of a research alliance between
GlaxoSmithKline and the Harvard Medical School-affiliated Program in Cellular and Molecular
Medicine at Children's Hospital in Boston. Sundrud was the lead author of a groundbreaking 2009
study, published in the journal Science, which described how halofuginone, a small molecule derived
from the root of the blue evergreen hydrangea, specifically inhibits the development of a unique,
inflammatory subset of CD4+ “helper” T cells known as Th17 cells, which have been implicated in a
variety of common autoimmune disorders.
Immunology Researcher Solt Appointed to Faculty
In April 2013, TSRI appointed Laura Solt as assistant professor at the Florida campus. Previously, Solt
was a research associate and a member of the laboratory of Professor Thomas Burris at Scripps Florida.
Solt’s research is focused on nuclear receptors, a family of protein molecules that are best known for
sensing and controlling hormone activity inside the cell; they have been implicated in the progress of a
number of cancers, the generation of metabolic syndrome, and several autoimmune diseases. Due to the
wide range of physiological and potential pathological consequences of aberrant nuclear receptor
activity, this family of proteins is a popular area of research as potential targets for drug development,
including for type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis and metabolic syndrome.
Solt received a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, with a concentration in Pre-Medical studies, from
Boston College in 1998 and a PhD in Immunology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008 before
joining Scripps Florida as a postdoctoral fellow. In the Burris lab, Solt was deeply involved in research
that led to the development of first-in-class, highly selective compounds that effectively suppress certain
types of autoimmune responses, including the severity of multiple sclerosis in animal models. These
compounds could provide new and more effective therapeutic approaches to multiple sclerosis and other
autoimmune diseases. Solt, 36 and a resident of Palm Beach Gardens, is past-president of the ScrippsFlorida Society of Research Fellows and one of the founders of the campus’s chapter of Network for
Women in Science.
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Innovative Scientist Xu Appointed to Neuroscience Department
In May 2013, TSRI appointed Baoji Xu as a professor in the Department of Neuroscience. Before
joining Scripps Florida, Xu was an associate professor at the Georgetown University Medical Center in
Washington, DC.
Xu’s work will revolve around three research topics: local protein synthesis in dendrites (branch-like
extensions on nerve cells), which has been implicated in the formation of long-term memory; central
control of body weight and glucose homeostasis; and the mechanisms behind neurodegenerative
diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s.
Xu earned a bachelor’s degree from Xiamen University in China in 1983, a master’s degree from
Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology, Chinese Academy in 1986, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University
in 1995. His doctoral dissertation research in the laboratory of Professor David Clayton involved
understanding the mechanisms that control replication of mitochondrial DNA, with support of a
predoctoral fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation. Xu did his postdoctoral training in the
laboratory of Professor Louis Reichardt at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of
California, San Francisco, from 1996 to 2001, studying the role of neurotrophins in the cerebral cortex
and in weight control. After briefly working on the development of obesity therapeutics at Chiron
Corporation (currently Novartis Emeryville Research Center in California), Xu joined Georgetown
University as an assistant professor in 2003. At Georgetown University, Xu carried out a highly
successful research program and published many papers in prominent journals. He received an
American Heart Association Scientist Development Award and was funded by numerous grants from
the National Institutes of Health, American Diabetes Association, Klarman Family Foundation, March
of Dimes Foundation and Whitehall Foundation.
Columbia University Scientist Snyder Appointed to Chemistry Department
In September 2013, TSRI appointed Scott A. Snyder as an associate professor with tenure in the
Department of Chemistry. Before coming to the Florida campus of TSRI, Snyder was a member of the
Columbia University faculty.
Snyder’s research focus is on the total synthesis of natural products, materials widely used in the drug
development process, either as medicines themselves or as progenitors to more highly bioactive and
selective molecules. For instance, at TSRI Snyder will continue his work on the chemistry and biology
of resveratrol, an ingredient in red wine and grape skins thought to be behind the so-called “French
paradox”– the notion that despite the consumption of significant amounts of fat and cholesterol within
the typical French diet, citizens of that nation experience relatively few heart attacks because their diet
also includes large amounts of red wine. Snyder’s goal is to explore these more complex compounds
and see what their effects might be in humans. His creative approach for the controlled synthesis of
many members of the resveratrol family was recently published in the journal Nature.
Snyder received his bachelor’s degree in 1999 from Williams College. After finishing graduate studies
at TSRI under the tutelage of Professor K. C. Nicolaou in 2004, he was a National Institutes of Health
postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor E. J. Corey at Harvard University, the 1990 Nobel
Laureate in Chemistry. In 2006, Snyder was appointed as an assistant professor at Columbia University,
and in the ensuing seven years established a vigorous research program that was recognized by a number
of honors. For instance, in 2010, he received an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship and a
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Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Grant in synthetic organic chemistry; in 2011, a DuPont Young
Professor Award; and, in 2012, the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the American Chemical
Society. He will deliver The Chemical Record Lecture at the Japanese Chemical Society meeting in
early 2014. In addition to his research, Snyder is also a recognized leader in chemical education, having
co-authored an advanced graduate text while a graduate student and, more recently, an undergraduate
text used worldwide which is currently in its 11th edition. Snyder also plans to involve himself deeply in
education and outreach at TSRI.
Scripps Florida Scientific Accomplishments
The following is an overview of Scripps Florida’s scientific accomplishment from October 1, 2012
through September 30, 2013, ranging from scientific publications, federal grants and finally to scientific
awards.
Scientific Publications
Articles from Scripps Florida scientists were published in a variety of scientific research publications
ranging from online editions of prestigious journals to Proceedings from the Journal from the National
Academy of Sciences. The following are a small sample of the hundreds of publications during the year
by Scripps scientists.
Scientists Develop Novel Technology to Identify Potential Biomarkers for Ulcerative Colitis
Scientists from the Florida campus of TSRI developed a novel technology that can identify, in animal
models, potential biomarkers of ulcerative colitis, a type of inflammatory bowel disease that affects the
lining of the colon. The study was published October 3, 2012, in the Journal of the American Chemical
Society. The new research focuses on the protein arginine deiminases (PAD), which have been
implicated in a number of diseases, including cancer, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. PADs
participate in reactions in the body that form the amino acid citrulline in proteins through a process
known as citrullination. This modification can have significant effects on the structure and function of
the modified proteins.
While abnormally high PAD activity is present in a host of human diseases, the exact role of
citrullination in these diseases remains unknown, largely due to the lack of readily available chemical
probes to study it.
In the new study, the scientists describe a chemical probe called
rhodamine‐phenylglyoxal (Rh‐PG), which tags citrulline-containing proteins with a fluorescent imaging
compound. According to Paul Thompson, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at
TSRI, who led the study, the next step will be to produce further generations of this chemical probe to
isolate the biomarker proteins and determine their sites of modification, as well as to quantify the extent
of the citrullination.
Scientists Devise New Screening Method to Aid RNA Drug Development Research
Scripps Florida scientists developed a new method of screening more than three million combinations of
interactions between RNA and small molecules to identify the best targets on RNA as well as the most
promising potential drug compounds. This novel technology may lead to more efficient drug
development. The study was published in the October 9, 2012 issue of the journal Nature
Communications.
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RNA has multiple biological functions, including encoding and translating proteins from genes and
regulating the amount of protein expressed under various cellular conditions. Recent studies have
identified RNA as a “molecular switch” that controls cellular events such as gene expression, making
RNA an attractive target for small molecules that serve as chemical genetics probes, analytical tools or
potential drugs. However, to date information on which small molecules bind to which parts (structural
motifs) of RNA has been sparse, hampering this promising area of research and development. That’s
where the new study comes in.
Matthew Disney, an associate professor at TSRI who authored the study with graduate student Tuan
Tran, notes that larger, more chemically diverse small molecule libraries could be screened to provide
additional ligands with an affinity for RNA recognition, plus additional RNA motifs preferred by small
molecules. The new method could be used to create easily accessible small molecule libraries biased
towards binding to RNA. The new technology will also be used in a computer program designed by
Disney that brings together information on the interaction between small molecules and RNA with data
on the RNA folds present in segments of the human genome that contribute to specific human diseases.
TSRI Scientists Pinpoint Gene Variations Linked to Higher Risk of Bipolar Disorder
Scripps Florida Professor Ron Davis, who led the new study, which was published by the
journal Translational Psychiatry and his team, identified small variations in a number of genes that are
closely linked to an increased risk of bipolar disorder, a mental illness that affects nearly six million
Americans, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
A strong tendency towards bipolar disorder runs in families; children with a parent or sibling who has
bipolar disorder are four to six times more likely to develop the illness, according to the National
Institute of Mental Health. While the genetic basis for bipolar disorder is complex and involves multiple
genes, it appears to be associated with a biochemical pathway known as cyclic adenosine
monophosphate (cAMP) signaling system. The Davis laboratory and others have previously shown that
the cAMP signaling plays a critical role in learning and memory processes. The new study focused on
this signaling pathway.
Scripps Florida Scientists Uncover Secrets of How Intellect & Behavior Emerge During Childhood
Scripps Florida Scientists have shown that a single protein plays an oversized role in intellectual and
behavioral development. The scientists found that mutations in a single gene, which is known to cause
intellectual disability and increase the risk of developing autism spectrum disorder, severely disrupts the
organization of developing brain circuits during early childhood. This study helps explain how genetic
mutations can cause profound cognitive and behavioral problems. The study was published in the
November 9, 2012, issue of the journal Cell.
The genetic mutations that cause developmental disorders, such as intellectual disability and autism
spectrum disorder, commonly affect synapses, the junctions between two nerve cells that are part of the
brain’s complex electro-chemical signaling system. A substantial percentage of children with severe
intellectual and behavioral impairments are believed to harbor single mutations in critical
neurodevelopmental genes. Until this study, however, it was unclear precisely how pathogenic genetic
mutations and synapse function were related to the failure to develop normal intellect.
Gavin Rumbaugh, a TSRI associate professor led the new research which focused on a critical synaptic
protein known as SynGAP1. Mutations in the gene that encodes this protein cause disabilities in an
estimated one million people worldwide, according to the paper. Using animal models that were
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missing just one copy of SynGAP1, as seen in some patients with intellectual disability, the scientists
found that certain synapses develop prematurely in the period shortly after birth. This dramatically
enhances what is known as “excitability”—how often brain cells fire—in the developing hippocampus, a
part of the brain critical for memory. The balance between excitability and inhibition is especially
critical during early developmental periods, when neural connections that ultimately give rise to normal
cognitive and behavioral functions are forming. Interestingly, inducing these mutations after the critical
development period was complete had virtually no impact on normal synapse function and repairing
these pathogenic mutations in adulthood did not improve behavior or cognition.
These results imply that very early intervention is essential in neurodevelopmental disorders,
particularly for cognitive problems. The team is now aggressively searching for the optimal period
during development in which repairing these mutations is most beneficial.
Rumbaugh speculates that successfully defining these treatment windows, combined with the fastapproaching ability to identify potential pathogenic mutations in utero, will provide a possible path
toward eradicating this type of intellectual disability and lowering the risks for autism. “We believe a
cure is possible,” he said. “It is likely that there are many other single mutations out there that cause
distinct forms of these spectrum disorders. Our strategy could be applied to these disorders as well.”
Team Reveals Key Protein Interactions Involved in Neurodegenerative Disease
TSRI Professor Philip LoGrasso, who, along with TSRI Associate Professor Kendall Nettles, led the
study, have defined the molecular structure of an enzyme as it interacts with several proteins involved in
outcomes that can influence neurodegenerative disease and insulin resistance. The enzymes in question,
which play a critical role in nerve cell (neuron) survival, are among the most prized targets for drugs to
treat brain disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(ALS). The study was published online ahead of print on November 8, 2012, by the journal Structure.
The new study reveals the structure of a class of enzymes called c-jun-N-terminal kinases (JNK) when
bound to three peptides from different protein families; JNK is an important contributor to stressinduced apoptosis (cell death), and several studies in animal models have shown that JNK inhibition
protects against neurodegeneration. The scientists used what they called structure class analysis,
looking at groups of structures, which revealed subtle differences not apparent looking at them
individually.
Study Shows Protein-Making Machinery Can Switch Gears with a Small Structural Change
For the past several years, Min Guo, an assistant professor at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), has
focused on the intricate actions of an ancient family of catalytic enzymes that play a key role in
translation, the process of producing proteins. These complex enzymes are a group of fundamental
molecules that make building blocks for protein production. Present in every cell, these enzymes—
known as aminoacyl-transfer RNA synthetases (tRNA synthetases)—select the proper amino acids and
assign them to transfer RNAs to make a protein in the ribosome. As an essential step of determining the
genetic code, tRNA synthetases have been around for billions of years.
However, this essential part of the protein-making machine did not stop evolving. Now, in a study
published online ahead of print on November 15, 2012, by the journal Molecular Cell, Guo, Ehud Razin
of The Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada, and a large team of international scientists have
shown that this enzyme can actually also work in another fundamental process in humans. In this case,
the enzyme activates a process that creates a copy of RNA from DNA—transcription, which is the first
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step leading to gene expression. All this takes is a single chemical alteration (phosphorylation) at a
specific site on the enzyme, which then triggers a cascade of structure changes, freeing the enzyme from
translation to another role—that is, regulating transcription.
This newly discovered ability has large implications for our understanding of immune response,
including allergies and cancer, Guo said. Recent research has also shown that the transformed
synthetase in the new study also increases metastasis in breast cancer cells.
Scripps Florida Scientists Uncover a Novel Cooperative Effort to Stop Cancer Spread
SF scientists have uncovered a group of what have been considered relatively minor regulators in the
body that band together to suppress the spread of cancer from its primary site. The discovery offers a
fresh batch of possible therapeutic targets as well as new diagnostic tools with the potential to predict
and inhibit the spread of cancer (metastasis) in patients suffering from the disease.
The research, published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry, was conducted by TSRI Professor
Donald G. Phinney, a nationally recognized authority in the study of adult bone marrow-derived stem
cells, and a postdoctoral fellow in his laboratory, Christopher L. Haga.
The scientists found that a cluster of seven microRNAs (miRNA) function cooperatively to repress a
process known as epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). While EMT is part of the normal biology
of cell development in some parts of the body, the process has recently been implicated in two
dangerous aspects of tumor growth—tumor metastasis and the growth of drug-resistant cancer stem
cells. MicroRNAs are tiny fragments of RNA found in all mammalian cells. They bind to messenger
RNAs, a process that generally results in gene silencing. This cluster of miRNAs, located in a genetic
region known as DLK1-DIO3, suppresses a specific signaling network in human cancers that primarily
affect glands such as breast cancer.
Researchers Develop New Compound that Reverses Fatty Liver Disease
Scientists from TSRI Florida campus have developed the first synthetic compound that can reverse the
effects of a serious metabolic condition known as fatty liver disease. True to its name, the disease
involves an abnormal buildup of fat in the liver. The compound—known as SR9238—is the first to
effectively suppress lipid or fat production in the liver, eliminating inflammation and reversing fat
accumulation in animal models of fatty liver disease. The new compound also significantly lowered total
cholesterol levels, although precisely how that occurred remains something of a mystery.
Thomas Burris, a professor at TSRI who led the study, which was published in an online edition of the
journal ACS Chemical Biology explained that fatty liver, which often accompanies obesity and type 2
diabetes, frequently leads to more serious conditions including cirrhosis and liver cancer. The condition
affects some 10 to 24 percent of the general population, according to a 2003 study in GUT, an
international journal of gastroenterology and hepatology.
The work was supported by the State of Florida.
Scripps Florida Scientists Create New Approach to Destroying Disease-Associated RNAs in Cells
Scripps Florida Scientists developed a new approach to alter the function of RNA in living cells by
designing molecules that recognize and disable RNA targets. As a proof of principle, in the new study
the team designed a molecule that disabled the RNA causing myotonic dystrophy. The study, published
online ahead of print on December 20, 2012 by the journal Angewandte Chemie, reports the creation of
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small molecules that recognize disease-associated RNAs, targeting them for destruction. Since small
molecules are cell-permeable, the approach could have benefits over traditional methods of targeting
RNAs for degradation, such as antisense or RNA interference (RNAi).
Matthew Disney, an associate professor at TSRI pioneered the research. “This approach may allow for
the inactivation of many cellular RNAs by small molecules and potentially lead the way to a whole
range of novel therapeutics.”
It’s well known that gene expression can be controlled by triggering the degradation of messenger
RNA—the blueprint for the production of proteins. This is accomplished through the recruitment of
compounds that cleave or split the molecule. While several compounds can induce RNA cleavage in
vitro, this has not been accomplished efficiently in living cells—until now.
In the study, Disney and Research Associate Lirui Guan attached a rationally designed small molecule
that targets the RNA that causes myotonic dystrophy type 1 with a molecule that produces hydroxyl
radicals. Upon the small molecule’s recognition of the target, a hydroxyl radical was released that
cleaved the disease-associated RNA, alleviating the disease-associated defects. Disney noted that,
despite the compound’s producing a highly reactive species, the compounds are non-toxic at relatively
effective doses. The team accomplished this feat through what Disney calls a bottom-up approach to
targeting RNA.
Scientists Uncover Potential Drug Target to Block Cell Death in Parkinson's Disease
Oxidative stress is a primary villain in a host of diseases that range from cancer and heart failure to
Alzheimer’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. Now, scientists from the
Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found that blocking the interaction of a
critical enzyme may counteract the destruction of neurons associated with these neurodegenerative
diseases, suggesting a potential new target for drug development. These findings appear in the January
11, 2013 edition of The Journal of Biological Chemistry. During periods of cellular stress, such as
exposure to UV radiation, the number of highly reactive oxygen-containing molecules can increase in
cells, resulting in serious damage. However, relatively little is known about the role played in this
process by a number of stress-related enzymes.
TSRI team was led by Professor Philip LoGrasso and focused on an enzyme known as c-jun-N-terminal
kinase (JNK). Under stress, JNK migrates to the mitochondria, the part of the cell that generates
chemical energy and is involved in cell growth and death. That migration, coupled with JNK activation,
is associated with a number of serious health issues, including mitochondrial dysfunction, which has
long been known to contribute to neuronal death in Parkinson’s disease.
The study showed for the first time that the interaction of JNK with a protein known as Sab is
responsible for the initial JNK localization to the mitochondria in neurons. The scientists also found
blocking JNK mitochondrial signaling by inhibiting JNK interaction with Sab can protect against
neuronal damage in both cell culture and in the brain. In addition, by treating JNK with a peptide
inhibitor derived from a mitochondrial membrane protein, the team was able to induce a two-fold level
of protection of neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta, the brain region devastated by
Parkinson’s disease. The study noted that this inhibition leaves all other cell signaling intact, which
could mean potentially fewer side effects in any future therapies.
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Study Shows How Brain Cells Shape Temperature Preferences
While the wooly musk ox may like it cold, fruit flies definitely do not. They like it hot, or at least warm.
In fact, their preferred optimum temperature is very similar to that of humans—76 degrees F. Scientists
have known that a type of brain cell circuit helps regulate a variety of innate and learned behavior in
animals, including their temperature preferences. What has been a mystery is whether or not this
behavior stems from a specific set of neurons (brain cells) or overlapping sets.
Now, a new study from TSRI shows that a complex set of overlapping neuronal circuits work in concert
to drive temperature preferences in the fruit fly Drosophila by affecting a single target, a heavy bundle
of neurons within the fly brain known as the mushroom body. These nerve bundles, which get their
name from their bulbous shape, play critical roles in learning and memory.
The study, published in the January 30, 2013 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience, shows that
dopaminergic circuits—brain cells that synthesize dopamine, a common neurotransmitter—within the
mushroom body do not encode a single signal, but rather perform a more complex computation of
environmental conditions.
Scientists Uncover Previously Unknown Mechanism of Memory Formation
It takes a lot to make a memory. New proteins have to be synthesized, neuron structures altered. While
some of these memory-building mechanisms are known, many are not. Some recent studies have
indicated that a unique group of molecules called microRNAs, known to control production of proteins
in cells, may play a far more important role in memory formation than previously thought. Now, a new
study by scientists on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute has for the first time
confirmed a critical role for microRNAs in the development of memory in the part of the brain called the
amygdala, which is involved in emotional memory. The new study found that a specific microRNA—
miR-182—was deeply involved in memory formation within this brain structure.
In the study, led by TSRI assistant professor Courtney Miller and published in the Journal of
Neuroscience, the scientists measured the levels of all known microRNAs following an animal model of
learning. A microarray analysis, which enables rapid genetic testing on a large scale, showed that more
than half of all known microRNAs are expressed in the amygdala. Seven of those microRNAs increased
and 32 decreased when learning occurred.
Miller is now interested in whether or not high levels of miR-182 accumulate in the aging brain,
something that would help to explain a tendency toward memory loss in the elderly. She also notes that
other research has shown that animal models lacking miR-182 had no significant physical or cellular
abnormalities, suggesting that miR-182 could be a viable target for drug discovery.
Compound Developed by Scripps Florida Scientists Protects Heart Cells During & After Attack
Using two different compounds they developed, scientists from the Florida campus of TSRI have been
able to show in animal models that inhibiting a specific enzyme protects heart cells and surrounding
tissue against serious damage from heart attacks. The compounds also protect against additional injury
from restored blood flow after an attack, a process known as reperfusion. The study, which was led by
Philip LoGrasso, a professor and senior scientific director of discovery biology at Scripps Florida,
appears in the February 8, 2013 print edition of The Journal of Biological Chemistry.
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n
A heart attack severely restricts blood supply, starving heart cells and surrounding tissue of oxygen,
which can cause enormous damage in relatively little time—sometimes in just a few minutes. Known as
an ischemic cascade, this drop-off of oxygen results in a sudden crush of metabolic waste that damages
cell membranes as well as the mitochondria, a part of the cell that generates chemical energy and is
involved in cell growth and death.
Unfortunately, restoring blood flow adds significantly to the damage, a serious medical issue when it
comes to treating major ischemic events such as heart attack and stroke. Reperfusion re-invigorates
production of free radicals and reactive oxygen species that attack and damage cells, exacerbating
inflammation, turning loose white blood cells to attack otherwise salvageable cells and maybe even
inducing potentially fatal cardiac arrhythmias.
The scientists found that inhibiting the enzyme, c-jun-N-terminal kinase (JNK), pronounced "junk,"
protected against ischemic/reperfusion injury in rats, reducing the total volume of tissue death by as
much as 34 percent. It also significantly reduced levels of reactive oxygen species and mitochondrial
dysfunction.
In earlier studies, TSRI scientists found that JNK migrates to the mitochondria upon oxidative stress.
That migration, coupled with JNK activation, they found, is associated with a number of serious health
issues, including liver damage, neuronal cell death, stroke and heart attack. The peptide and small
molecule inhibitor (SR3306) developed by LoGrasso and his colleagues blocks those harmful effects,
thereby reducing programmed cell death four-fold.
Findings Underline Potential of New Technology to Diagnose Disease
Scripps Florida researchers developed cutting-edge technology that can successfully screen human
blood for disease markers. This tool may hold the key to better diagnosing and understanding today’s
most pressing and puzzling health conditions, including autoimmune diseases. Thomas Kodadek, a
professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Cancer Biology and vice chairman of the Department of
Chemistry at TSRI, developed the technology with his group.
The latest study, published in the journal Chemistry & Biology on March 21, 2013, shows how the
technology accurately identified human blood markers for neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a rare
autoimmune disorder resembling multiple sclerosis that can result in blindness and paralysis. Following
a similar study on mouse models for multiple sclerosis two years ago, the work confirms that the
technique can also be successfully applied to humans.
New Compounds Found that Alter Cell Signaling and Point to New Approaches to Breast Cancer
Using a broad spectrum of analytical tools, Scripps Florida scientists uncovered a class of novel
compounds that can alter cell signaling activity, resulting in a variety of responses including a strong
anti-inflammatory effect. These findings could lead to new strategies for treating diseases such as breast
cancer. The study, published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, focuses on compounds that
interact with the estrogen receptor-α, a therapeutic target in breast cancer that causes widely varied
effects, including cell proliferation, inflammatory activity and immune cell changes. The receptor, which
binds to estrogens or similar molecules, is over-expressed in nearly three-quarters of breast cancer
cases.
The scientists, led by Kendall Nettles, a TSRI associate professor, used a unique “structure class
analysis” approach, making it far easier to identify broad structural patterns underlying how estrogen
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receptors bind to other molecules. In general, ligands—molecules that bind to a larger complex and
trigger a reaction—bind in two distinct ways, either through a dynamic, changeable orientation or a
single, constrained orientation. In the study, TSRI scientists compared a set of estrogen receptor ligands
with dynamic binding orientation with those that bind in a single orientation.
Scripps Scientists Identify First Potentially Effective Therapy for Human Prion Disease
Human diseases caused by misfolded proteins known as prions are some of most rare yet terrifying on
the planet—incurable with disturbing symptoms that include dementia, personality shifts, hallucinations
and coordination problems. The most well-known of these is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which can be
described as the naturally occurring human equivalent of mad cow diseases. Now, scientists from the
Florida campus have for the first time identified a pair of drugs already approved for human use that
show anti-prion activity and, for one of them, great promise in treating these universally fatal disorders.
The study, led by TSRI Professor Corinne Lasmézas and performed in collaboration with TSRI
Professor Emeritus Charles Weissmann and Director of Lead Identification Peter Hodder, was published
online ahead of print by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The new study used an innovative high-throughput screening technique to uncover compounds that
decrease the amount of the normal form of the prion protein (PrP, which becomes distorted by the
disease) at the cell surface. The scientists found two compounds that reduced PrP on cell surfaces by
approximately 70 percent in the screening and follow up tests. The two compounds are already
marketed as the drugs tacrolimus and astemizole.
Scientists Create Novel Approach to Finding RNAs Involved in Long-Term Memory Storage
Despite decades of research, relatively little is known about the identity of RNA molecules that are
transported as part of the molecular process underpinning learning and memory. Now, working
together, scientists from Scripps Florida, Columbia University and the University of Florida,
Gainesville, have developed a novel strategy for isolating and characterizing a substantial number of
RNAs transported from the cell-body of neuron (nerve cell) to the synapse, the small gap separating
neurons that enables cell to cell communication. Using this new method, the scientists were able to
identify nearly 6,000 transcripts (RNA sequences) from the genome of Aplysia, a sea slug widely used
in scientific investigation. The scientists’ target is known as the synaptic transcriptome—roughly the
complete set of RNA molecules transported from the neuronal cell body to the synapse.
Published in April 2013 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study
showed how scientists focused on the RNA transport complexes that interact with the molecular motor
kinesin; kinesin proteins move along filaments known as microtubules in the cell and carry various gene
products during the early stage of memory storage. Sathya Puthanveettil, a TSRI assistant professor,
designed the study.
Scripps Research Institute Scientists Discover How a Protein Finds Its Way
Proteins, the workhorses of the body, can have more than one function, but they often need to be very
specific in their action or they create cellular havoc, possibly leading to disease. Scripps Florida
scientists uncovered how an enzyme co-factor can bestow specificity on a class of proteins with
otherwise nonspecific biochemical activity. The protein in question helps in the assembly of ribosomes,
large macromolecular machines that are critical to protein production and cell growth. This new
discovery expands scientists’ view of the role of co-factors and suggests such co-factors could be used to
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modify the activity of related proteins and their role in disease. TSRI Associate Professor Katrin
Karbstein, led the study.
The new study, published April 29, 2013, in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, sheds light on proteins called DEAD-box proteins, a provocative title actually
derived from their amino acid sequence. These proteins regulate all aspects of gene expression and RNA
metabolism, particularly in the production of ribosomes, and are involved in cell metabolism. The link
between defects in ribosome assembly and cancer and between DEAD-box proteins and cancer is well
documented.
Potential Drug Compound Designed that Attacks Parkinson’s Disease on Two Fronts
Scientists from the Florida campus of TSRI have found a compound that could counter Parkinson’s
disease in two ways at once. In a new study published online ahead of print by the journal ACS
Chemical Biology, the scientists describe a “dual inhibitor”—two compounds in a single molecule—that
attacks a pair of proteins closely associated with development of Parkinson’s disease.
“In general, these two enzymes amplify the effect of each other,” said team leader Phil LoGrasso, a
TSRI professor who has been a pioneer in the development of JNK inhibitors for the treatment of
neurodegenerative diseases. “What we were looking for is a high-affinity, high-selectivity treatment that
is additive or synergistic in its effect—a one-two punch.”
A dual inhibitor ultimately would be preferred over separate individual JNK and LRRK2 inhibitors
because a combination molecule would eliminate complications of drug-drug interactions and the need
to optimize individual inhibitor doses for efficacy, the study noted. Now the team’s new dual inhibitor
will need to be optimized for potency, high selectivity (which reduces off-target side effects) and
bioavailability so it can be tested in animal models of Parkinson’s disease.
Study Shows a Solitary Mutation Can Destroy Critical ‘Window’ of Early Brain Development
Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have shown in animal
models that brain damage caused by the loss of a single copy of a gene during very early childhood
development can cause a lifetime of behavioral and intellectual problems. The study, published in the
Journal of Neuroscience, sheds new light on the early development of neural circuits in the cortex, the
part of the brain responsible for functions such as sensory perception, planning and decision-making.
The research also pinpoints the mechanism responsible for the disruption of what are known as
“windows of plasticity” that contribute to the refinement of the neural connections that broadly shape
brain development and the maturing of perception, language, and cognitive abilities. The key to normal
development of these abilities is that the neural connections in the brain cortex—the synapses—mature
at the right time.
In an earlier study, the team, led by TSRI Associate Professor Gavin Rumbaugh, found that in mice
missing a single copy of the vital gene, certain synapses develop prematurely within the first few weeks
after birth. This accelerated maturation dramatically expands the process known as “excitability”—how
often brain cells fire—in the hippocampus, a part of the brain critical for memory. The delicate balance
between excitability and inhibition is especially critical during early developmental periods. However, it
remained a mystery how early maturation of brain circuits could lead to lifelong cognitive and
behavioral problems.
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The current study shows in mice that the interruption of the synapse-regulating gene known as
SYNGAP1—which can cause a devastating form of intellectual disability and increase the risk for
developing autism in humans—induces early functional maturation of neural connections in two areas of
the cortex. The influence of this disruption is widespread throughout the developing brain and appears to
degrade the duration of these critical windows of plasticity.
“In this study, we were able to directly connect early maturation of synapses to the loss of an important
plasticity window in the cortex,” Rumbaugh said. “Early maturation of synapses appears to make the
brain less plastic at critical times in development. Children with these mutations appear to have brains
that were built incorrectly from the ground up.”
The accelerated maturation also appeared to occur surprisingly early in the developing cortex. That,
Rumbaugh added, would correspond to the first two years of a child’s life, when the brain is expanding
rapidly. “Our goal now is to figure out a way to prevent the damage caused by SYNGAP1 mutations.
We would be more likely to help that child if we could intervene very early on—before the mutation has
done its damage,” he said.
Scripps Florida Scientists Turn Muscular Dystrophy Defect On and Off in Cells
For the first time, Scripps Florida scientists identified small molecules that allow for complete control
over a genetic defect responsible for the most common adult onset form of muscular dystrophy. These
small molecules will enable scientists to investigate potential new therapies and to study the long-term
impact of the disease.
Myotonic dystrophy is an inherited disorder, the most common form of a group of conditions called
muscular dystrophies that involve progressive muscle wasting and weakness. Myotonic dystrophy type 1
is caused a type of RNA defect known as a “triplet repeat,” a series of three nucleotides repeated more
times than normal in an individual’s genetic code. In this case, a cytosine-uracil-guanine (CUG) triplet
repeat binds to the protein MBNL1, rendering it inactive and resulting in RNA splicing abnormalities.
To find drug candidates that act against the defect, TSRI Associate Professor Matthew Disney, whose
new research was published June 28, 2013, by the journal Nature Communications and his colleagues
analyzed the results of a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored screen of more than 300,000
small molecules that inhibit a critical RNA-protein complex in the disease. The team divided the NIH
hits into three “buckets”—the first group bound RNA, the second bound protein, and a third whose
mechanism was unclear. The researchers then studied the compounds by looking at their effect on
human muscle tissue both with and without the defect.
Diseased muscle tissue treated with RNA-binding compounds caused signs of the disease to go away. In
contrast, both healthy and diseased tissue treated with the protein-binding compounds showed the
opposite effect—signs of the disease either appeared (in healthy tissue) or became worse. In addition,
Disney said, with the new discovery, scientists will be able to develop a greater understanding of how to
control RNA splicing with small molecules. RNA splicing can cause a host of diseases that range from
sickle-cell disease to cancer, yet prior to this study, no tools were available to control RNA splicing.
Drug Candidate Designed at Scripps Research Institute Leads to Improved Endurance
An international group of scientists has shown that a drug candidate designed by scientists from Scripps
Florida significantly increases exercise endurance in animal models. These findings could lead to new
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approaches to helping people with conditions that acutely limit exercise tolerance, such as obesity,
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure, as well as the decline of
muscle capacity associated with aging. The study was published July 14, 2013, by the journal Nature
Medicine.
The drug candidate, SR9009, is one of a pair of compounds developed in the laboratory of TSRI
Professor Thomas Burris and described in a March 2012 issue of the journal Nature as reducing obesity
in animal models. The compounds affect the core biological clock, which synchronizes the rhythm of
the body’s activity with the 24-hour cycle of day and night. The compounds work by binding to one of
the body’s natural molecules called Rev-erbα, which influences lipid and glucose metabolism in the
liver, the production of fat-storing cells and the response of macrophages (cells that remove dying or
dead cells) during inflammation.
In the new study, a team led by scientists at the Institut Pasteur de Lille in France demonstrated that
mice lacking Rev-erbα had decreased skeletal muscle metabolic activity and running capacity. Burris’
group showed that activation of Rev-erbα with SR9009 led to increased metabolic activity in skeletal
muscle in both culture and in mice. The treated mice had a 50 percent increase in running capacity,
measured by both time and distance.
Scripps Florida Scientists Detail Critical Role of Gene in Many Lung Cancer Cases
Scripps Florida scientists have shown that a well-known cancer-causing gene implicated in a number of
malignancies plays a far more critical role in non-small cell lung cancer, the most common form of the
disease, than previously thought. These findings establish the gene as a critical regulator of lung cancer
tumor growth. This new information could turn out to be vital for the design of potentially new
therapeutic strategies for a group of patients who represent almost half of non-small cell lung cancer
cases. In the study, published online ahead of print by the journal Cancer Research, the scientists found
that presence of known oncogene Notch 1 is required for survival of cancer cells. In both cell and animal
model studies, disabling Notch 1 leads to a rise in cancer cell death.
Joseph Kissil, a TSRI associate professor, led the study. “We were able to identify Notch 1 as the critical
oncogene to target, at least in a common form of lung cancer.” The new findings show that Notch1 is
required for initial tumor growth, as it represses p53, a well-known tumor suppressor protein that has
been called the genome’s guardian because of its role in preventing mutations. The p53 protein can
repair damaged cells or force them to die through apoptosis—programmed cell death.
Scripps Florida Scientists Devise New Way to Dramatically Raise RNA Treatment Potency
Scientists from the Jupiter campus of The Scripps Research Institute have shown a novel way to
dramatically raise the potency of drug candidates targeting RNA, resulting in a 2,500-fold improvement
in potency and significantly increasing their potential as therapeutic agents. The new study, published
recently online ahead of print by the journal Angewandte Chemie, confirms for the first time that a small
molecule actually binds to a disease-causing RNA target—a breakthrough that should help scientists
identify precise RNA targets within living cells, profile their interactions, and predict drug candidates’
side effects. In the new study, the scientists created a small molecule that binds to the genetic defect in
RNA that causes myotonic dystrophy type 1 and improves associated defects in cell culture. Matthew
Disney, a TSRI associate professor authored the research with a research associate in his lab, Lirui
Guan.
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To achieve the increase in the drug candidate’s potency, Disney and his colleagues attached a reactive
molecule (a derivative of chlorambucil, a chemotherapy drug that has been used to treatment a form of
leukemia) to the small molecule they had identified. As a result, the new compound not only binds to the
target, it becomes a permanent part of the target—as if it were super glued to it, Disney said. Once
attached, it switches off the CUG defect and prevents the cell from turning it back on. Disney was
surprised at the approximately 2,500-fold improvement in potency with the new approach.
Scripps Florida Scientists Link a Protein to Initial Tumor Growth in Several Cancers
A team led by scientists from Scripps Florida have shown that a protein once thought to inhibit the
growth of tumors is instead required for initial tumor growth. The findings could point to a new
approach to cancer treatment. The study was published as the September cover article of the journal
Science Signaling.
The focus of the study was angiomotin, a protein that coordinates cell migration, especially during the
start of new blood vessel growth and proliferation of other cell types. In addition to identifying
angiomotin’s critical role in tumor formation, TSRI Associate Professor Kissil and his colleagues found
the protein is active within the cell nucleus. Earlier cell studies focused on the function of the protein at
the cell membrane.
Scripps Florida Scientists Pinpoint Proteins Vital to Long-Term Memory
Scientists from Scripps Florida found a group of proteins essential to the formation of long-term
memories. The study, published online ahead of print on September 12, 2013 by the journal Cell
Reports, focuses on a family of proteins called Wnts. These proteins send signals from the outside to the
inside of a cell, inducing a cellular response crucial for many aspects of embryonic development,
including stem cell differentiation, as well as for normal functioning of the adult brain.
The findings stem from experiments probing the role of Wnt signaling components in olfactory memory
formation in Drosophila, the common fruit fly—a widely used doppelgänger for human memory
studies. In the new study, the scientists inactivated the expression of several Wnt signaling proteins in
the mushroom bodies of adult flies—part of the fly brain that plays a role in learning and memory. The
resulting memory disruption, Ron Davis, chair of the TSRI Department of Neuroscience, said, suggests
that Wnt signaling participates actively in the formation of long-term memory, rather than having some
general, non-specific effect on behavior.
Scripps Research Institute Study Suggests Possibility of Selectively Erasing Unwanted Memories
The human brain is exquisitely adept at linking seemingly random details into a cohesive memory that
can trigger myriad associations—some good, some not so good. For recovering addicts and individuals
suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), unwanted memories can be devastating. Former
meth addicts, for instance, report intense drug cravings triggered by associations with cigarettes, money,
even gum (used to relieve dry mouth), pushing them back into the addiction they so desperately want to
leave. Now, for the first time, scientists from Scripps Florida have been able to erase dangerous drugassociated memories in mice and rats without affecting other more benign memories.
The surprising discovery, published in September 2013 online ahead of print by the journal Biological
Psychiatry, points to a clear and workable method to disrupt unwanted memories while leaving the rest
intact. Courtney Miller, a TSRI assistant professor, led the research. In the new study, the scientists
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inhibited actin polymerization—the creation of large chainlike molecules—by blocking a molecular
motor called myosin II in the brains of mice and rats during the maintenance phase of
methamphetamine-related memory formation.
Grant Awards
Grant awards from sources other than the State of Florida totaled almost $70 million this fiscal year,
contributing to approximately $375m in grant awards since inception.
$2.1 Million Grant Funds Testing of Potential ALS Treatments
A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute was awarded $2.1 million by the Department
of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs to study several compounds with the
potential to greatly improve the quality of life for those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou
Gehrig’s disease (named after the famed Yankee first baseman who died of the condition in 1941).
Philip LoGrasso, a professor on the Florida campus of Scripps Research, will be the principal
investigator for the new two-year study, which also involves scientists from Columbia University.
LoGrasso and his Scripps Florida colleagues have already identified and validated a series of
compounds that inhibit an enzyme called c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK, pronounced “junk”) with
proven neuroprotective effects in a variety of experimental models of human diseases, particularly
Parkinson’s disease. JNK has been shown to play an important role in neuronal survival. As such, this
kinase is a highly desirable target for drugs to treat neurodegenerative disorders.
Making the new study possible, LoGrasso said, are the cell and animal models of ALS produced by
scientists at Columbia University. These models capture the hallmarks of this disease, including
selective motor neuron degeneration, and many of the clinical features of the disease.
The team is also trying to develop new compounds that are highly selective for JNK3, a single isoform
of JNK that is expressed only in the brain and the heart, thereby enabling tissue-specific inhibition and
thus limiting many potential side effects.
$2 Million Awarded to Study Tumor-Inhibiting Proteins
Scientists from Scripps Florida were awarded just over $2 million from the National Institute of
Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health to identify proteins that play key
roles in tumor cell proliferation and to determine if targeting these proteins could result in the inhibition
of tumor growth. Joseph Kissil, a TSRI associate professor, is the principal investigator for the five-year
study.
While normal cells possess mechanisms that inhibit rapid growth, tumor cells find ways to continue their
expansion. Signals to grow or stop growing are triggered by a number of conditions, including what is
known as “cell-cell contact” when cells reach critical density. The new study is focused on finding out
exactly how this cell-cell contact controls growth.
A central player in regulating these signals is a protein named merlin, a product of a tumor suppressor
gene NF2 (neurofibromatosis type 2); neurofibromatosis is a disease caused by genetic mutations that
result in tumors of the nervous system. The NF2 gene also stops functioning in a broad range of tumors,
when merlin then becomes incapacitated. Kissil and his colleagues recently identified proteins known
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as angiomotins, which are involved in cell movement and new blood-vessel growth, as holding sway
over merlin’s ability to inhibit tumor cells.
$1.6 Million Awarded to Develop Chemical Reactions as Tools for Preparing Natural Products
Glenn Micalizio, an associate professor at Scripps Florida who is the principal investigator on this
project, was awarded more than $1.6 million from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of
the National Institutes of Health to develop innovative chemical reactions as tools for the laboratory
preparation of rare and structurally diverse natural products with significant therapeutic potential.
Micalizio and his colleagues believe that the project has long-term implications for science and
medicine. By addressing the limitations and inefficiencies associated with modern chemical science,
they hope to establish a firm scientific foundation capable of driving medicinal pursuits for years to
come. Compounds targeted in this phase of the project include anticancer, antifungal, analgesic and
antibiotic agents whose evaluation as potentially valuable clinical agents is hampered by their low
availability from natural sources and the lack of efficient means to accomplish their laboratory synthesis.
Team Awarded $1.2 Million to Develop Drug Candidates for Rheumatoid Arthritis and
Neurodegenerative Disorders
Scripps Florida scientists were awarded approximately $1.2 million from the National Institute of
General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health to identify, test and develop a series of
drug candidates for a number of diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease and several
neurodegenerative disorders. Derek R. Duckett, associate scientific director in TSRI’s Translational
Research Institute, and Peter S. Hodder, senior director of lead identification at the Translational
Research Institute, will act as co-principal investigators for the three-year grant.
The project will focus on an enzyme known as ASK1, which is part of a larger family of mitogenactivated protein kinases (MAP kinases) that help control how cells respond to stress and is involved in
mediating cell survival and programmed cell death (apoptosis). Genetic target validation studies have
demonstrated that loss of this kinase shows remarkable efficacy in animal models of various diseases.
The new grant will allow the Scripps Florida scientists to perform a high-throughput screening campaign
of the TSRI compound collection at their state-of-the-art screening facility.
$1.4 Million Granted to Develop New Therapeutic Approaches to Chronic Leukemia
Scientists from the Florida campus of TSRI were awarded more than $1.4 million from the National
Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health to create a potential new drug to attack the
malignant cells that cause chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), which is the most common leukemia in
the Western world. Christoph Rader, a TSRI associate professor, will be principal investigator of the
new three-year study. William Roush, a TSRI professor, associate dean of graduate studies and
executive director of medicinal chemistry, will be co-principal investigator.
CLL affects approximately 150,000 patients and causes 4,500 deaths per year in the United States alone.
While chemotherapy and radiation are used to treat this slow growing form of leukemia, currently there
are no therapeutic options for the disease in which physicians can selectively target the malignant cells
yet spare normal cells and tissues.
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The scientists plan to use the recently discovered cell surface receptor TOSO, which is overexpressed in
leukemia cells, to create a rapid and effective entry point for delivering drugs to these malignant cells
while bypassing normal cells as much as possible. In addition, the team plans to use an antibody
fragment to add a second target to the treatment—the receptor tyrosine kinase ROR1, which is expressed
exclusively on leukemia cells.
$2.5 Million Awarded to Study Inner Workings of Memory Formation
A scientist from the Florida campus of TSRI has been awarded approximately $2.5 million from the
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to better define how the brain organizes
different types of memories among its neurons. Ronald Davis, PhD, a professor and chair of the
Department of Neuroscience at TSRI, is the principal investigator for the new study.
The five-year continuation of an earlier grant takes as its research model Drosophila melanogaster, the
common fruit fly. The fruit fly is widely used in these studies because humans and flies share many of
the same genes involved in learning and memory. The research focuses on the how the brain organizes
olfactory or scent memories learned in association with reward conditioning compared to negative
conditioning.
The new study has a number of objectives, Davis said, including defining the exact nature of cellular
memory traces, the mechanisms for their formation, their duration, and the neurons in which they form.
Aiding current memory research are advances in functional imaging of neural activity in the fly brain,
allowing scientists for the first time to see olfactory memory traces as they form—a literal and figurative
window into the cellular and systems logic of memory formation.
$2.7 Million Received to Investigate Major Therapeutic Target
A consortium of TSRI scientists from both campuses was awarded $2.7 million from the National
Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health to study the structural rules
that govern a large superfamily of proteins that help regulate critical functions such as reproduction,
development and metabolism. The principal investigators for the three-year study will be Kendall
Nettles, an associate professor, and Pat Griffin, professor and chair of the Department of Molecular
Therapeutics, both on the Florida campus of TSRI. They will work with Professor Ian Wilson and the
Joint Center for Structural Genomics on TSRI’s La Jolla campus.
The focus of the new project is nuclear receptors, a superfamily of proteins that mediate hormone, lipid
and fatty acid activity inside the cell. Nuclear receptors have been implicated in a number of cancers,
including prostate, breast and colon cancers. They also represent excellent targets for drug development,
including cancer drugs, birth control and anti-inflammatory agents and treatments for diabetes and
metabolic syndrome.
To conduct this research, the team will use x-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance
(NMR), methods that provide a three-dimensional picture of a molecule’s atomic structure. The team
will draw on the high-throughput screening resources at Scripps Florida, as well as the high-throughput
structural biology resources of the Joint Center for Structural Genomics based on the La Jolla, California
campus.
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Scripps Florida Team Awarded $10.6 Million to Decipher Root Causes of Human Aging
While aging may be one of the most familiar (and certainly one of the most discussed) aspects of human
biology, it remains one of the least understood. We age but no one really knows precisely how we get
there. Thanks to an August 2013 $10.6 million National Institute on Aging grant to a team on the
Florida campus of TSRI, the puzzling questions of human aging may soon receive some answers. TSRI
Professor Paul Robbins will be principal investigator of the five-year study, which will focus on
identifying just how damage that accumulates over time drives the human aging process. Scientists from
the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California, Riverside, will also participate in the
study.
Robbins compares that cellular response to calling 911 for help to put out a small fire. While the
firefighting response could lead to a lot of collateral damage, if firefighters identify steps to minimize
the damage—say, keeping water use to a limited area—the collateral damage can be minimized.
Similarly, Robbins says, there will be a lot of new opportunities to minimize the widespread
degenerative changes that occur with aging.
The scientists will focus their research on stress caused by DNA damage, specifically by looking at the
effects of taking away a cell’s ability to repair this damage. TSRI Associate Professor Laura
Niedernhofer, a co-investigator on the grant, showed several years ago that taking away a cell’s ability
to repair DNA damage causes very rapid aging in humans and in animal models. The question to be
addressed now is: how to stop it?
Although not the primary focus of the research, Robbins is also looking at compounds and even stem
cells that could affect these stress response pathways in a therapeutic way. It is estimated that in the
next 20 years, the number of individuals in the United States over the age of 65 will double, reaching
over 70 million individuals, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. More than
90 percent of Americans over 65 years of age have at least one chronic disease, while more than 70
percent have at least two, according to the National Council on Aging. These chronic diseases account
for three-quarters of our healthcare spending, amounting to approximately $3 trillion in costs last year
alone.
Scientific Awards
Several Scripps Florida scientists won scientific awards to note their scientific breakthroughs or
research. Often these awards were coupled with a substantial monetary award.
Scientists Awarded Special Collaborative Grant to Develop Anti-Addiction Therapies
As part of an unprecedented national effort to develop new drugs to treat neurological disorders,
scientists from Scripps Florida were awarded an innovative grant from the National Institute of
Neurological Disorders and Stroke to help people break their addiction to nicotine. Paul Kenny, a TSRI
associate professor, is the principal investigator for the new study, which aims to develop anti-smoking
drug candidates to the point of Phase I clinical trials, which focus on human safety testing. Also helping
to guide the work are TSRI scientists Ted Kamenecka, Patricia McDonald and Michael Cameron.
The new study is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Blueprint for Neuroscience Research
Grand Challenge, a collaborative effort that includes the NIH Office of the Director and the 14 NIH
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institutes and centers that support research on the nervous system. As part of the project, The TSRI
scientists will have access to industry-style drug development services and expertise—what the NIH is
calling a “virtual pharma” to help develop these new compounds.
“An innovative feature of this grant is the fact that we will have access to a panel of experts to help us
advance these compounds into human testing,” Kenny said. “The people on the panel are senior industry
experts with considerable experience in drug development programs, who are eager for us to succeed.
What’s more, if the drug is successful in Phase I trials, we will receive help from the NIH in establishing
appropriate relationships with industry to advance the drug into the later stages of clinical testing, and
eventually to marketing a novel smoking cessation medication.”
Tobacco smoking is a global scourge, killing more than 5 million people each year worldwide,
according to the World Health Organization. It is estimated that if current trends continue, by 2020
smoking will become the largest single health problem worldwide. The World Bank estimates that in
high-income countries, smoking-related healthcare accounts for between 6 and 15 percent of all
healthcare costs, some $160 billion annually. Nicotine addiction is notoriously hard to break. Even with
the most effective smoking-cessation agents available, more than 80 percent of smokers who quit or
attempt to quit will relapse.
Scripps Florida Scientist Awarded Prestigious Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award
In February 2013, Ron Davis, PhD, chair of the Neuroscience Department on the Florida campus of The
Scripps Research Institute, was selected to receive a prestigious $3.5 million Jacob K. Javits
Neuroscience Investigator Award for his work on the complex biology of memory formation and the
disorders that disrupt it.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), one agency within the National
Institutes of Health (NIH), awards the special merit grant to investigators “who have a history of
exceptional talent, imagination and preeminent scientific achievement in the field of neurological
science, and who are expected to be exceptionally productive during the tenure of the grant.” The initial
award is for a period of four years, with a three-year extension upon request. Seven-year grants are
unusual within the NIH system.
The new study will focus on an area of memory formation that has remained relatively mysterious—the
role that active forgetting plays in learning and memory. Davis and his colleagues recently showed that
dopamine signaling to specific neurons in the brain provides a signal to forget.
“We really know very little about the molecular and cellular biology of active forgetting,” Davis said,
“but we believe that it has profound importance for understanding a host of disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, and even some aspects of autism.”
The award, which was mandated by an act of Congress in 1983, honors the memory of the late Senator
Jacob K. Javits of New York who suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a severe
neurological disorder also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Senator Javits was a passionate advocate for
research into a variety of disorders of the brain and nervous system. Scientists receiving the award are
selected by the Advisory Council for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
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Two Scripps Research Institute Scientists Honored by American Chemical Society
Matthew Disney and Kate Carroll were selected by the American Chemical Society (ACS) to receive a
pair of prestigious awards honoring early-career research in biological and enzyme chemistry. Associate
Professors Matthew Disney, PhD, and Kate Carroll, PhD, were recognized at the fall 2013 ACS
symposium, held in Indianapolis.
Disney has won the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry, first awarded in 1934. The award is given
to a young scientist under the age of 38 for outstanding research in biological chemistry of unusual merit
and independence of thought and originality. Previous winners of the Eli Lilly Award include TSRI
faculty members Nobel laureate Gerald Edelman, Peter G. Schultz and Benjamin Cravatt.
One of the major promises of the human genome project has been to identify and exploit diseaseassociated genes for therapeutic intervention, but these studies are sparse. The Disney group is working
to fill this void by designing therapeutics targeting gene products that are disease-associated from only
sequence. The team has developed compounds to target a variety of genetic abnormalities that cause
diseases including myotonic dystrophy, Huntington's disease and cancer.
Carroll has received the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry, established in 1945. The award, given to
an individual under 40 who has accomplished outstanding work in enzyme chemistry, is aimed at
stimulating fundamental research in enzyme chemistry. Previous Pfizer Award winners include TSRI’s
Frank Huennekens, Paul Schimmel and Gerald Joyce.
The award recognizes Carroll’s pioneering work using the tools of chemistry and biology to elucidate
protein cysteine oxidation as a new paradigm for the regulation of cell signaling pathways. Her work has
important implications for understanding how post-translational modification, the chemical modification
of a protein after its synthesis, affects its function. Her team is also leveraging these discoveries to
develop new strategies for treating diseases that have a strong oxidative stress component, including
cancer and diabetes.
Scripps Florida Postdoctoral Fellow Receives Prestigious Career Development Award
The career of Antonio (Tony) Amelio, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Cancer Biology at The
Scripps Research Institute, received a boost from the National Institutes of Health in the form of a
Howard Temin Pathway to Independence Award in Cancer Research. The multiyear award from the
National Cancer Institute—worth around $1 million over five years—is designed to accelerate the
progress of promising junior scientists to scientific independence.
“Tony is one of the best young scientists we have at Scripps Florida,” said John Cleveland, chair of the
Scripps Research Department of Cancer Biology and one of Amelio’s mentors. “This award is a
complete validation of not only the work he’s been doing, but of everything our mentoring is about—
producing great science from terrific young investigators.”
The Pathway to Independence Award is split into two phases. The initial phase provides one to two
years of mentored support for postdoctoral fellows; the next phase is three years of independent support
contingent on securing an independent tenure-track or equivalent research position. The NIH issues only
between 150 and 200 of these awards per year, making them highly competitive and relatively rare.
Amelio, who completed his graduate work at the University of Florida’s College of Medicine, is,
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understandably, excited. He’s grateful, too, that during an interruption in the grant review process due to
gridlock over the federal budget, the Scripps Florida Department of Philanthropy and the local PGA
National Women’s Cancer Awareness Day in nearby Palm Beach Gardens stepped in to support him.
Amelio’s research has been focused on the cell signaling proteins CREB and the CRTC coactivators.
His current work bridges these studies and investigations in the Cleveland lab on a cancer-causing gene
known as MYC (activated in up to 70 percent of all cancers) in human B cell lymphoma and leukemia to
create his own independent research program. He hopes to decipher the role of the CREB and the
CRTCs (which regulate key aspects of cell survival) in cooperating with the pathway of MYC to drive
the creation and progression of tumors.
NIH New Innovator Award
Scott Hansen, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Therapeutics won a
prestigious New Innovator Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of
the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award, which was announced in September 2013 by the
NIH, provides Hansen with $2.8 million in research funding over the next five years. Hansen is one of
only 41 scientists selected nationally for the 2013 award.
Hansen will use the award to study mechanosensation, a process that transforms external stimuli into
neural impulses, focusing on two of the five major senses—touch and hearing. Surprisingly, our sense of
touch lacks a complete explanation, particularly on the molecular level. How do molecules in a cell
actually sense touch and how do they communicate that sensation to the brain? Hansen plans to spend
the next five years exploring those issues—with a secondary goal of looking for potential targets for
therapeutic intervention in pain and hearing loss.
ABOUT THE BIOTECH CLUSTER SURROUNDING SCRIPPS FLORIDA
With no state income tax and a friendly business environment, Florida continues to develop, attract and
maintain a vibrant biotech industry. In the 2013 Florida legislative session, the Research and
Development Tax Credit Program initially adopted in 2011 was extended. Additionally, the Legislature
passed a three year repeal on taxes for manufacturing companies and continued the allocation of the
cigarette sales tax surcharge dollars to biomedical research.
Palm Beach County boasts numerous successful companies that span medical devices, pharmaceuticals,
manufacturers, therapeutics, and biotechnology including: Anspach Synthes, Atlas Spine, BIOMET 3i,
BioTools, Biotest Pharmaceuticals, CHS Pharma, Dyadic International, Cytonics Corporation, Dyadic
International, Inc., Envoy Therapeutics, Opko Health and Sancilio and Company. Several of these
companies were present prior to the arrival of Scripps Florida and several relocated to the County or
expanded its operations in the County due to the proximity of not only Scripps Florida, but also its
neighbor and fellow collaborative institute – the Max Planck Florida Institute.
Scripps Florida participates in the effort to develop the biotech cluster and maintains strong involvement
in statewide organizations, such as BioFlorida and the Florida High Tech Corridor, and local
organizations, such as the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County. Detailed reports from
some of these organizations may be found in Appendix 2 and Scripps Florida’s support of these
organizations and other organizations may be found in Appendix 4.
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Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Tenth Annual Report
Itemized Report for the Year Ended September 30, 2013
INTRODUCTION
Florida Statute 288.955, referred to as the Enabling Statute, sets forth certain information that is required
to be included in the SFFC Annual Report. The information that follows has been organized to
correspond to the sections of the Enabling Statute that address information to be included in the SFFC
Annual Report. As not every section of the Enabling Statute relates to the SFFC Annual Report, only
the sections of the Enabling Statute that apply are referenced herein. For convenience, the text of the
Enabling Statue that describes the information to be reported in the SFFC Annual Report is set forth
next to each Enabling Statute section reference.
Florida Statute 288.955
Subsection (14)
ANNUAL REPORT
By December 1 of each year, the corporation shall prepare a report of the
activities and outcomes under this section for the preceding fiscal year. The
report, at a minimum, must include:
Subsection (14) (a)
A description of the activities of the corporation in managing and enforcing
the contract with the grantee.
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation Board of Directors Meetings
Purpose: To oversee the disbursement of the State’s funds invested in Scripps Florida, the Florida
Legislature created the Scripps Florida Funding Corporation, hereto referred to as SFFC, a non-profit
entity governed by a nine-member Board of Directors and one ex-officio member.
Membership: Of the Board of Directors, three members were appointed by each of the Governor, the
House Speaker and the Senate President. Former Governor Bush’s appointees are Mr. David Gury,
former President and CEO of Nabi Pharmaceuticals, of Boca Raton, and Dr. Pamella Dana, Senior
Strategic Advisor for Institute for Human & Machine Cognition, of Destin. Governor Crist reappointed Mr. David Gury in March 2008 and Dr. Pamella Dana in February 2009. Governor Scott
appointed Mr. Art Wotiz, CEO of Novabone, of Jacksonville on March 25, 2013. Former Senate
President Jeff Atwater named Mr. Ed Sabin, Vice-President Biomet, Inc., of Palm Beach Gardens, on
February 9, 2009 and Mr. Gerry Goldsmith, Chairman of First Bank of the Palm Beaches, of Palm
Beach, on November 15, 2009. Former Senate President Mike Haridopolos appointed C. Glen Ged, a
founding partner of Ellis, Ged, & Bodden, P.A., of Boca Raton on November 5, 2012. Former speaker
Dean Cannon appointed Dr. Richard M. Luceri, Vice President of Healthcare Services for JM Family
Enterprises, Inc., and Mr. Thomas G. Kuntz, Chairman, President and CEO of SunTrust Bank,
Florida, on August 3, 2011. Speaker Will Weatherford reappointed Dr. Luceri on January 24, 2013 to
serve until November 14, 2016. Speaker Weatherford appointed Mr. Mark J. Kasten, CEO of Kasten
Insurance, of Tequesta on August 9, 2013.
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
32
An ex-oficio member of the Board of Directors, the head of the Florida’s Department of Economic
Opportunity or his designee, has not been participating in the SFFC meetings.
Meetings and activities: From October 1, 2012 through September 30, 2013, the SFFC Board of
Directors (“BOD”) met via conference call on October 9, 2012, November 28, 2012, January 28, 2013
and in-person on March 13, 2013. At the October meeting, the Audit Committee updated the Board on
its review of the unaudited financial statements and TSRI and SF’s 2013 budget. The Audit Committee
also explained its follow up to the annual meeting on the topic of remediation. Former Audit Committee
Chairman Michael Crook explained that over the course of the past few months that the audit committee
had worked with Scripps to find a resolution and remediation of the compliance report issues. He stated
that the one page document provided for the Board offered a good summary of the process both sides
had worked to achieve. Furthermore, both sides had scrutinized the employee details, so the audit
committee recommended that the remediation be accepted as complete. The Board voted to accept the
compliance report’s remediation. Furthermore, at this meeting, a subcommittee of Chairman Gury, Vice
Chair Dana, Ms. Misselhorn, Ms. Deutsch and Ms. Carol Licko was formed to evaluate the future of
SFFC as the corporation is nearing its last disbursement of monies. At the November meeting, the
Board met to approve the SFFC audit and the SFFC annual report. When the Board met in January, it
approved the SFFC 2013 budget and made committee assignments. At the annual in-person meeting in
March, the SFFC Board of Directors reviewed the SFFC financial statements as previously reviewed by
the Audit Committee, and then Ms. Deutsch outlined the conditions to funding - the requirements that
Scripps Florida must meet in connection with the annual grant award. Those conditions were all met
satisfactorily, and, thus, the annual grant was approved for the 2013 year. To conclude the board
activities of the annual meeting, the Board unanimously approved the nomination of Marshall M. Criser
III to the TSRI Board of Trustees. The Board also had the opportunity to tour the Scripps Florida
campus and over dinner, heard from Scripps Florida scientist Thomas Kodadek on his research
endeavors.
SFFC Committee Meetings
Investment Committee
Purpose: The Investment Committee receives and reviews monthly investment reports from the State
Board of Administration (SBA) to ensure that SFFC’s investments are consistent with the objectives
established in the Trust Agreement and that the SFFC is able to make the disbursements anticipated in
the Operating and Funding Agreement between SFFC and TSRI.
Membership: Dr. Thomas was Chairman of the Investment Committee and Mr. Ed Sabin and Mr. Gerry
Goldsmith were Committee members, until their appointment to the Audit Committee. In January 2013,
Mr. Kuntz was appointed to the Investment Committee. Mr. Rob Smith, Mr. Ben Latham and Mr. Mike
McCauley from the State Board of Administration (“SBA”) participate in Investment Committee
meetings.
Meetings and activities: Since the grant monies at the State Board of Administration have been
apportioned through the last disbursement, the Investment Committee did not meet. Analysis of the last
monies to SFFC will be handled by this Committee.
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
33
Audit Committee
Purpose: The Audit Committee reviews financial information and monitors the financial condition of
TSRI and Scripps Florida. The Audit Committee also engages the SFFC auditor, provides oversight for
the annual audit of SFFC and compliance monitoring of TSRI and Scripps Florida with the terms of the
Operating and Funding Agreement. The Audit Committee provides direction on the scope of the audit
engagements and reviews any finding or recommendations related to the audits. The Audit Committee,
in turn, reports its recommendations on the reports to the full Board.
The SFFC receives and the Audit Committee reviews the following reports:
 TSRI and Scripps Florida unaudited quarterly financial statements
 TSRI and Scripps Florida audited annual financial reports
 TSRI and Scripps Florida annual budgets
 Scripps Florida Annual Report
 Scripps Florida Annual Scientific Report
There are three types of annual audit reports that are received and reviewed by the Audit Committee:
I. Scripps Florida and TSRI provide the following reports to SFFC:
1) Audited financial statements of TSRI, including the operations of Scripps Florida.
2) Audited financial statements of Scripps Florida as a separate division, including a
report on internal control and compliance in accordance with Government Auditing
Standards.
3) A Federal Single Audit of TSRI in accordance with OMB Circular A-133.
The audits are prepared by Deloitte and Touche (“D&T”), the independent auditors for TSRI.
SFFC’s independent auditor has been granted access to the D&T workpapers in order to assess
the application of generally accepted accounting principles and the significant assumptions made
by TSRI management in the preparation of its financial statements.
II. SFFC receives the following reports prepared by an independent auditor engaged by the SFFC:
1) Audited financial statements of SFFC, including a report on internal controls and
compliance in accordance with Government Auditing Standards.
2) A Federal Single Audit of SFFC in accordance with OMB Circular A-133.
III. A contractual monitoring and compliance audit of the Operating and Funding Agreement
between TSRI and SFFC (“contractual monitoring and compliance audit”) to address the
Monitoring Checklist (Exhibit A-1 to the Funding and Program Agreement between OTTED
(now known as the Department of Economic Opportunity) and SFFC). The contractual
monitoring and compliance audit is completed by an independent auditor contracted by the SFFC
who verifies many of the items covered in this Annual Report, including, but not limited to:
 the number of jobs created
 the salaries and their consistency with the approved Business Plan
 designation of a person to assist in collaborative efforts with OTTED and compliance
with OTTED’s requests for cooperation
 purchase of equipment consistent with the approved budget
 achievement of collaborative efforts with Florida universities
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
34
The independent auditor contracted by the SFFC also prepares the annual not-for-profit organization tax
return (Form 990) for SFFC, which is reviewed by the Audit Committee prior to submission to the
Internal Revenue Service.
Membership: Mr. Mike Crook served as Chairman of the Audit Committee from January 2009 to
January 2013 when Mr. Sabin was appointed as the Chairman. Dr. Pamella Dana remained on the
Committee and Mr. Goldsmith agreed to serve on the Audit Committee in January 2013. Other
participants in the Audit Committee meetings include SFFC’s auditor, Mr. Scott Porter from Caler,
Donten, Levine, Porter & Veil, P.A., TSRI’s Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Donna Weston and TSRI’s
Controller Mr. Jared Machado.
Meetings and activities: During Fiscal 2013, the Audit Committee met on October 4, 2012, November
27, 2012, March 7, 2013 and March 13, 2013. In general at these four meetings, the Audit Committee
reviewed, discussed and approved the financial reports provided by TSRI and the auditing and
compliance matters of SFFC. In October, the audit committee received the 2013 budget and filed it. It
was noted that the Committee appreciated the level of detail in the budget and the presentation of it.
This meeting also included the follow-up to the annual meeting and TSRI Amendment to the Business
Plan. The Audit Committee created a one page summary of the remediation and Scripps agreed that it
reflected the remediation properly. Mr. Crook said the committee would finalize this document for
presentation to the full Board. At the November meeting, the Audit Committee reviewed and approved
the SFFC financial audit for inclusion in the SFFC annual report. In March, Ms. Weston reviewed the
December 31, 2012 TSRI and SF unaudited financial statements for the Audit Committee and then Mr.
Porter reviewed the SFFC complete single audit. At the annual meeting on March 13, the Audit
Committee heard Ms. Weston’s presentation of the September 30, 2012 year end TSRI and SF audited
financial statements issued by Deloitte & Touche and Mr. Porter explained his review of SF auditor
workpapers, indicating that consistent with prior years there were no areas of concern identified in his
review of the Deloitte & Touche workpapers. A substantial amount of time was spent at the annual
meeting going through the Agreed Upon Procedures / Monitoring Instrument Compliance Report in
preparation for the Board meeting that same afternoon. The March annual meeting concluded with a
review of the SFFC tax return form 990.
Reports Committee
Purpose: The predominant purpose of the Reports Committee is to review, edit and approve the SFFC
Annual Report before it is reviewed and approved by the SFFC Board of Directors.
Membership: Mr. David Gury served as the head of this committee in 2012 and in January 2013, Dr.
Luceri and Mr. Ged agreed to serve on the Reports Committee.
Meetings and Activities: Mr. Gury reviewed drafts of the annual report and Ms. Deutsch edited drafts of
the annual report during the fall of 2012.
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
35
Subsection (14) (b)
An accounting of the amount of funds disbursed during the preceding fiscal
year to the grantee.
Disbursement Date
Principal
Interest
TOTAL
December 15, 2012
$3,691,500
$679,899.38
$4,371,399.38
March 15, 2013
$1,250,000
$362,112.64
$1,612,112.64
June 17, 2013
$1,250,000
$362,112.64
$1,612,112.64
September 17, 2013
$1,250,000
$362,112.64
$1,612,112.64
TOTAL
$7,441,500.00
$1,766,237.30
$9,207,737.30
Since inception, the total amount disbursed to Scripps Florida is $349,073,073.50, which includes
interest in the amount of $40,323,073.50.
Subsection (14) (c)
An accounting of the expenditures by the grantee during the fiscal year of
funds disbursed under this section.
Category
Amount
Scientific Salaries & Benefits
$9,462,866
Supplies
$1,718,748
Scientific Equipment
$4,152,398
External Affairs & Other Program Support
$2,508,510
Project Commencement, Facilities, Administration & Capital Expenditures
$7,977,693
Total
$25,820,215
This schedule reflects cash expenditures charged to the grant from the State of Florida from October 1,
2012 through September 30, 2013. The expense categories set forth above reflect those used by Scripps
to report grant activity to grantors. This schedule excludes unpaid commitments, unspent grant funds
received of approximately $108 million (including interest income) and expenditures funded by other
sources.
Subsection (14)(d)
Information on the number and salary level of jobs created by the grantee,
including the number and salary level of jobs created for residents of this
state.
On September 30, 2013, Scripps Florida employed 528 people.
Employee Count
Year 10 Target
Position
as of September 30, 2013
(December 31, 2013)
Faculty
54
> 38
Scientific Staff
337
> 298
Administration
137
> 89
Current Total 528
Job Creations Target 545
In the above chart, faculty includes tenure track professors, associate professors and assistant professors.
Scientific staff includes non-tenure track scientists (research faculty and staff scientists), research
associates/ post-docs, lab technicians, and Scripps paid graduate students. Administration includes all
other support personnel.
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
36
The job creations target number is to be measured on December 31, 2013, the end of the tenth employee
hire year. A downward deviation of 25% may be agreed to by the SFFC board to satisfy the job creation
deliverable, except with respect to the year ending December 31, 2013. Scripps Florida management
anticipates that the target head count will be met on December 31, 2013.
Scripps Florida hired 137 employees between October 1, 2012 and September 30, 2013. Of the 137
employees, 46 were Florida residents of which 34 were Palm Beach County residents at the time of hire.
Category
(as set forth in the
Revised Business Plan)
Hired
in
Fiscal
2013
Professors / Chairs
2
Associate
Professors
2
Assistant
Professors
2
Research Faculty
Required Salary
Range
Actual Salary in
Fiscal 2013
Florida
Residents
(using CPI 6.30.13)
Palm
Beach Co.
Residents
$159,847 - $382,244
$200,013
0
0
$97,298 - $205,022
$150,010 - $160,014
0
0
$83,399 - $149,424
$105,019 - $130,000
0
0
0
$83,399 - $306,955
N/A
N/A
N/A
Staff Scientists
2
$62,550 - $130,890
$72,446
0
0
Research
Associates
65
$39,383 - $63,708
$39,270 - $65,000
6
4
Administration*
64
$56,295 average
$41,752*
40
30
TOTAL
137
46
34
* Administration is a combination of Scientific Support (non-Ph.D.) and Administrative Support
positions. The average expected salary for this employee category is given, rather than the range that
would result in combining all Administrative position salaries. An expected average salary, rather than
a range, is a better representation because the various job classifications and range of salaries are broad.
** This average salary represents the amount for new hires only, not for all Administration employees.
When all Administration employees are counted, the average is approximately $63,015 at September 30,
2013, which exceeds the required amount. This amount includes graduate student stipends.
Breakdown of Administration Category
Hired in fiscal 2013
Average Salary
Administrative Support
32
$42,522
Scientific Support
32
$40,982
TOTAL
64
$41,752
The required salary range is adjusted annually from that stated in the revised Business Plan based on
increases in the CPI for the annual period. The base salary of all persons employed in a particular
category falls within the range for that category, as adjusted by the cumulative change to the CPI. The
CPI adjustment to salary ranges for June 2013 was 1.8%. Certain employees of Scripps Florida may
receive additional compensation for assuming administrative responsibilities beyond their scientific
duties. For example, a faculty member who also serves as an Associate Dean of the Graduate School
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
37
will receive additional compensation for that service. The ranges set forth above do not incorporate
such additional compensation.
Subsection (14) (e)
Information on the amount and nature of economic activity generated
through the activities of the grantee.
See Appendix 1, which is a report on the economic impact of Scripps Florida on Florida’s economy
prepared by the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County in November 2013.
Subsection (14) (f)
An assessment of factors affecting the progress toward achieving the
projected biotech industry cluster associated with the grantee’s operations,
as projected by economists on behalf of the Executive Office of the Governor.
See Appendix 2, which contains an assessment of factors affecting the progress toward achieving the
projected biotech industry cluster prepared through information provided by state and local economic
development organizations and biotech organizations.
Subsection (14) (g)
A compliance and financial audit of the accounts and records of the
corporation at the end of the preceding fiscal year conducted by an
independent certified public accountant in accordance with the rules of the
Auditor General.
See Appendix 3, which contains the audited financial statements and supplementary financial
information for SFFC for the year ended September 30, 2013. This will be provided as an addendum to
this annual report.
Subsection (14) (h)
A description of the status of performance expectations under subsection (9)
and the disbursement conditions under subsection (10).
Subsection (9)
PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS
Subsection (9) (a)
The number and dollar value of research grants obtained from the Federal
Government or sources other than this state.
Between October 1, 2012 and September 30, 2013, Scripps Florida scientists were awarded 25 research
grants from non-Florida sources. Those 25 grants were for a total of $45,505,000.
Subsection (9) (b)
The percentage of total research dollars received by TSRI from sources other
than this state which is used to conduct research activities by the grantee in
this state.
For fiscal 2013, the percent of research funding from sources other than SFFC was 78%.
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
38
Subsection (9) (c)
The number or value of patents obtained by the grantee.
In fiscal 2013, 22 foreign and domestic patent applications were filed. Since inception, 77 “families” of
patent applications have been filed covering Scripps Florida technology, with each family containing 1-6
patent applications. The patents are still under review and no value has been assigned to them.
Subsection (9) (d)
The number or value of licensing agreements executed by the grantee.
Nine license agreements were executed during fiscal 2013 with respect to Scripps Florida technologies.
Subsection (9) (e)
The extent to which research conducted by the grantee results in commercial
applications.
Because of the early stage of the technology being developed at Scripps Florida, no commercial
applications have emerged to date. Several research reagents developed at Scripps Florida are now
commercially available through license agreements.
Subsection (9)(f)
The number of collaborative agreements reached and maintained with
colleges and universities in this state and with research institutions in this
state, including agreements that foster participation in research
opportunities by public and private colleges and universities and research
institutions in this state with significant minority populations, including
historically black colleges and universities.
The Scripps Research Institute has developed a template entitled the Joint Cooperation Agreement
(JCA) to encourage and support research collaborations with Florida institutions. Provisions are
included to make it easier to collaborate on filing patents for jointly developed technologies and to share
revenues from commercialized innovations. By executing these agreements in advance, TSRI expects to
streamline the scientific collaboration process between Florida organizations and Scripps Florida as they
work together on biomedical research. Nine Florida institutions have currently executed this formal
agreement with TSRI: Florida International University, University of Florida, Florida Atlantic
University, University of Central Florida, University of Miami, Florida State University, Nova
Southeastern University, University of South Florida and Max Planck Florida Institute.
2-Oct-12
3-Oct-12
Paul Kenny
Paul Kenny
3-Oct-12
Davis, Page
4-Oct-12
5-Oct-12
5-Oct-12
9-Oct-12
12-Oct-12
13-Oct-12
Paul Kenny
Peter Hodder
Paul Kenny
John Cleveland
Peter Hodder
Kirill Martemyanov
13-Oct-12
Roy Smith
16-Oct-12
Dawn Johnson
Invited speaker - Institute for Brain Potential Seminar, Ft. Myers, FL
Invited speaker - Institute for Brain Potential Seminar, Bradenton, FL
Jupiter Neuroscience Facutly Forum (TSRI, FAU and MPFI faculty), MPFI,
Jupiter, FL
Invited speaker - Institute for Brain Potential Seminar, Clearwater, FL
David Reisman, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
Invited speaker - Institute for Brain Potential Seminar, Tampa, FL
Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute of Florida
Peter Kima, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
Presentation at CURE Symposium in Boca Raton
CURE (Cutting-Edge Understanding Research & Education) - Panel Speaker, Boca
Raton, FL
VGTI Visit/Meeting
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
39
24-Oct-12
Roy Smith
25-Oct-12
Cleveland, Davis,
Page
Thomas Burris
1-Nov-12
Paul Robbins
7-Nov-12
Davis, Page
8-Nov-12
16-Nov-12
16-Nov-12
20-Nov-12
20-Nov-12
2-Dec-12
2-Dec-12
5-Dec-12
Glenn Micalizio
Dawn Johnson
Patricia McDonald
Paul Robbins
Brock Grill
Gavin Rumbaugh
Courtney Miller
Thomas Kodadek
9-Dec-12
Paul Kenny
18-Dec-12
Peter Hodder
9-Jan-13
9-Jan-13
Peter Hodder
Peter Hodder
9-Jan-13
Davis, Page
9-Jan-13
Paul Kenny
25-Oct-12
10-Jan-13
11-Jan-13
16-Jan-13
16-Jan-13
Robbins,
Niedernhofer
Damon Page
Laura Niedernhofer
Brian Paegel
Michael Farzan
18-Jan-13
Matthew E. Pipkin
22-Jan-13
1-Feb-13
Peter Hodder
Srinivasa
Subramaniam
Grill, Subramaniam,
Tomchik,
Puthanveettil,
Martemyanov,
Rumbaugh
Dawn Johnson
9-Feb-13
Davis, Page
10-Feb-13
10-Feb-13
11-Feb-13
13-Feb-13
17-Feb-13
John Cleveland
Burris, Ja, Hoxha
Gavin Rumbaugh
Dawn Johnson
John Cleveland
10-Jan-13
23-Jan-13
25-Jan-13
ResearchFest Vendor & meeting with Keith Wood, Head of Research-Advanced
Technologies, Promega Group
Research Fest, TSRI
Florida Tech.
Seminar - Scripps Florida Mini-Symposium on Immunochemistry - Targeting the
IKK/NF-kB Pathway for Treating Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases.
Jupiter Neuroscience Facutly Forum (TSRI, FAU and MPFI faculty), TSRI,
Jupiter, FL
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
VGTI Meeting
Stetson University, Biology Honor Society, Presenter, Deland, FL
Scripps Florida Immunochemistry Symposium - Invited Speaker
University of Miami, Department of Physiology seminar series
ARNP Conference, Hollywood, FL
American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Meeting, Hollywood, FL
Seminar-University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
Council Meeting, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Hollywood,
FL
Richard Houghten,Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, Port St. Lucie, FL,
USA
Sandy Westerheide, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA
Keith Choe University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
Jupiter Neuroscience Facutly Forum (TSRI, FAU and MPFI faculty), TSRI,
Jupiter, FL
Invited speaker - Department of Psychology, Florida State University (FSU),
Tallahassee, FL
Meeting with Herb Weissbach, FAU - Aging to discuss collaborations
Nova Southeastern's Autims Program talk, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Meeting with Janet Blanks, FAU - Age-related retinal degeneration
SLAS Conference and Exhibition, Orlando, FL
with Susana Valente - meet with Ron Desrosiers at University of Miami, FL
Seminar/Meetings with Dr. Elias Haddad, Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute, Port
St. Lucie, FL
Herb Weissbach, Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter, FL, USA
FAU Boca Raton Campus speaker/presentation: Rhes, a Multifunctional GTPase, is
Essential for
Leadership Palm Beach County
VGTI, Mel Rothberg
Jupiter Neuroscience Facutly Forum (TSRI, FAU and MPFI faculty), MPFI,
Jupiter, FL
Symposium Director, 2013 Miami Winter Symposium
Miami 2013 Winter Symposium: The Molecular Basis of Metabolism & Nutrition
Speak at Max Planck
John W. Newcomer, M.D., Florida Atlantic University
Invited Speaker - Frontiers in Biomedical Research Symposium
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
40
18-Feb-13
26 Scripps FL
scientists
20-Feb-13
Corinne Lasmezas
20-Feb-13
20-Feb-13
Seth Tomchik
Paul Thompson
25-Feb-13
Sathya Puthanveettil
27-Feb-13
Christoph Rader
28-Feb-13
John Cleveland
4-Mar-13
Paul Robbins
15-Mar-13
Paul Kenny
21-Mar-13
27-Mar-13
2-Apr-13
Davis, Page
Brian Paegel
Scott Hansen
Ron Davis, Damon
Page
Srinivasa
Subramaniam,
Patricia McDonald
3-Apr-13
6-Apr-13
15-Apr-13
Christoph Rader
20-Apr-13
25-Apr-13
1-May-13
Many SF scientists
Philip LoGrasso
Miller, Davis, Page
3-May-13
Paul Robbins
9-May-13
24-May-13
Peter Hodder
Laura Niedernhofer
29-May-13
Peter Hodder
7-Jun-13
7-Jun-13
Paul Robbins
Laura Niedernhofer
Monthly
Laura Niedernhofer
Monthly
Paul Kenny
7-Jul-13
19-Jul-13
8-Aug-13
23-Aug-13
23-Aug-13
23-Aug-13
29-Aug-13
4-Sep-13
Christoph Rader
Courtney Miller
Smith, Ullrich
Brock Grill
Davis, Page
Subramaniam
Baoji Xu
Dawn Johnson
Xu, Grill, Page,
Subramnaiam
27-Sep-13
Max Planck Florida Institute Sunposium
BioFlorida Palm Beach/Treasure Coast Chapter: Taking a Molecule from the Lab
to the Clinic
Flies on the Beach: local Drosophila meeting
University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL
FAU Medical School - Boca Raton presentation “ Molecular basis of initiation and
persistence of long-term memory storage”
Meeting with collaborators at the Palm Beach Cancer Institute, West Palm Beach,
FL
Research presentation, FAU Boca, medical students
FAU/Charles Schmidt College of Medicine; Search Committee for chair
Biomedical Sciences
Invited speaker - Academic Leadership & Lab Management Workshop, Max
Planck Florida Institute, Jupiter, FL
Strosberg Symposium, TSRI, Jupiter, FL
Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
Jupiter Neuroscience Faculty Forum, Presenter, Jupiter, FL
Jupiter Neuroscience Facutly Forum (TSRI, FAU and MPFI faculty), MPFI,
Jupiter, FL
Cure Symposium, speaker and chair personTHE BRAIN ON THE CUTTINGEDGE OF SCIENCE
Meeting with grant collaborator, Dr. Ronan Swords, University of Miami, Miami,
FL
Flies on the Beach, Miami University, Miami, FL
Seminar Speaker @ Florida Institute of Technology
Host of Jupiter Neuroscience Faculty Forum at Scripps
Meeting with Camillo Ricordi, Universit of Miami - Diabetes - to discuss
collaborations
Joyce Slingerland, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA
Meeting with Janet Blanks, FAU - Age-related retinal degeneration
Dmitriy Minond, Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies, Port St. Lucie, FL,
USA
Meeting with Steve Ghivzzani, UF - Arthritis - to discuss collaborations
Meeting with William Hauswirth, UF - Age-related retinal degeneration
Monthly Conference Call with FASEB Board of Directors to discuss science
advocacy in FL
Jupiter Neuroscience Faculty Forum
Collaboration with Moduation Therapeutics of Tampa, FL with respect to an
NIH/SBIR grant award
Meeting with David Nees, Cellactis
Sam Young, Max Planck Florida Institute
Scripps Florida Faculty Colliquium, TSRI, Jupiter, FL
Scripps Florida Faculty Colliquium (Davis: Host), TSRI, Jupiter, FL
Scripps Florida Faculty Colliquium, TSRI, Jupiter, FL
Seminar Speaker - National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Jupiter Neuroscience Faculty Forum
Scripps Florida Faculty Colliquium, TSRI, Jupiter, FL (Xu: Host)
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
41
Subsection (9) (g)
The number of collaborative partnerships established and maintained with
businesses in this state.
Scripps Florida continues to maintain collaborative relationships with four Florida based biotechnology
companies: Envoy Therapeutics, Opko Health, Dyadic and Protix.
Envoy Therapeutics
Envoy Therapeutics is a drug discovery company located in Jupiter, FL. Envoy was founded by
scientists from Rockefeller University (NY, NY) and investors from 5AM Ventures (Menlo Park, CA)
and is located in Jupiter to access the high-throughput drug screening capabilities of Scripps Florida.
Envoy was acquired by the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company in November 2012 and in March 2013, a
new agreement extended the initial collaboration launched in 2010 between Scripps Florida scientists
and Envoy Therapeutics that led to several breakthroughs in identifying potential new compounds for
neurological and psychiatric diseases.
Opko Health
Opko Health, Inc., based in Miami, is a publicly traded healthcare company involved in the discovery,
development, and commercialization of pharmaceutical products, vaccines and diagnostic products.
Opko and Scripps are currently collaborating in three major areas: the area of novel diagnostic products
to detect Alzheimer’s and other diseases, the development of novel drug candidates to treat Parkinson’s
Disease, and the discovery of novel antibodies.
Dyadic
A collaborative effort between scientists at Scripps Florida and Dyadic was established to provide a
complete annotation of the genome of Dyadic's proprietary fungal organism, Chrysosporium
lucknowense ("C1"). The knowledge gained from this effort is expected to facilitate further development
of the C1 Host Technology as a robust platform for the discovery, development and production of
various materials for medical and industrial applications. Furthermore, this collaboration promotes the
development of a successful biotechnology cluster in South Florida as Dyadic International, Inc. is a
global biotechnology company based in Jupiter, Florida.
Protix
Protix is a start-up company located in Palm Beach County that has platform technology for the
identification of amino-acids sites on protein targets that are required for their degradation within the
cell to facilitate certain cellular regulatory processes such as mitosis. The company is utilizing this
technology to identify sites on proteins that play a role in cellular processes, such as mitotic entry, which
can be further exploited as targets for therapeutic and diagnostic applications in a broad range of
diseases including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. The company was founded by Scripps
Florida professors Nagi Ayad and Donny Strosberg and is based on an invention made in the laboratory
of Professor Ayad at Scripps Florida.
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Subsection (9) (h)
The total amount of funding received by the grantee from sources other than
the State of Florida.
Since inception, Scripps Florida has been awarded approximately $305 million from non-State fund,
including state and federal agencies, such as the NIH, foundations, pharmaceutical companies and other
grantors.
During fiscal 2013, Scripps Florida received the following grants:
GRANT AWARDS ($305,217,826 since inception) 1
$69,543,800
2
OTHER REVENUE SOURCES
$7,928,183
3
CONTRIBUTIONS AT NET PRESENT VALUE
$3,866,180
TOTAL
$ 81,338,163
1
This amount includes federal funding of $63,675,566 for fiscal 2013.
2
Other Revenue Sources:
Other
$657,524
Investment Income on Florida funds
$7,270,659
Total
$7,928,183
Contributions include gifts not dedicated to a specific type of research; grants typically have a
dedicated area of research or are awarded to a specific scientist.
3
Please note: Palm Beach County provided the funding for the land and buildings for Scripps Florida.
The County funds expended to date by fiscal year are as follows: 2004 - $1,713,494, 2005 $11,419,527, 2006 - $12,557,455, 2007 - $59,215,156, 2008 - $90,353,050, 2009 - $34,810,750, for a
total of $210,069,431. Palm Beach County has completed work on the permanent facilities so it is
unlikely that there will be a change in the total amount of funds expended by the County in future years.
Subsection (9) (i)
The number or value of spin-off businesses created in this state as a result of
commercialization of the research of the grantee.
The three Florida companies that spun off from Scripps Florida and the additional Florida company
located in Jupiter to access Scripps Florida - Envoy Therapeutics - are described in Section (9)(g). In
February 2011, CuRNA, based on research by Claes Wahlestedt, a Professor in Molecular Therapeutics
Department of Scripps Florida, was one of the first spin-offs from Scripps Florida and was purchased by
Miami-based Opko Health for $10,000,000. In November 2012, Envoy Therapeutics was purchased by
Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceuticals for $140,000,000.
Subsection (9) (j)
The number or value of businesses recruited to this state by the grantee.
To assign a numerical value to business recruitment activities is virtually impossible, but it should be
noted that Scripps Florida willingly participated when tours or introductions were requested for business
recruitment activities. In Palm Beach County during the 2012 – 2013 fiscal year, the Business
Development Board of Palm Beach County (“BDB’) worked with 15 life sciences and healthcare
companies that were considering relocating or expanding in Palm Beach County. Please see Appendix 2
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for details on SF efforts to enhance the life sciences business atmosphere in Palm Beach County, the
South Florida region and the State of Florida.
Subsection (9)(k)
The establishment and implementation of policies to promote supplier
diversity using the guidelines developed by the Office of Supplier Diversity
under s. 287.09451 and to comply with the ordinances, enacted by the County
and which are applicable to this biomedical research institution and campus
located in this state.
Scripps Florida has adopted the following Mission and Vision Statements for Supplier Diversity:
Mission: Scripps Florida’s Supplier Relations and Diversity Program will integrate small and diverse
businesses into the procurement process - creating awareness, ownership, and an understanding of the
principals of a competitive supply base. These partnerships will maximize cost savings and efficiencies
within Scripps Florida’s internal processes and supply chain.
Vision: Scripps Florida recognizes the importance of a diverse supply chain and strives to develop
relationships with small and diverse life science and service suppliers who can assist in achieving
Scripps Florida’s biomedical research goals. Also, Scripps Florida expects its strategic suppliers to
establish business opportunities for small and diverse suppliers.
The TSRI Procurement Department & Mrs. Darci Garbacz, Procurement Manager/ Supplier Diversity
Coordinator, continue to pursue opportunities to partner with the diverse business community. Scripps
Florida continues to participate in county, state and national diverse supplier shows. These shows help
Scripps Florida to identify diverse businesses that can provide goods and services to the institute at a
competitive price. Participation in these shows has resulted in partnerships with local companies that
provide furniture, pipette calibrations, refrigeration services, relocation services, dry ice services,
landscaping and irrigation services, building maintenance services, printing services, shredding services
and more.
Subsection (9) (l)
The designation by the grantee of a representative to coordinate with the
Office of Supplier Diversity.
Mrs. Darci Garbacz serves in this position as the Scripps Supplier Diversity Coordinator. Mrs. Garbacz
represents Scripps in working with small and minority business enterprises in the State of Florida, and is
actively involved in many state and local supplier diversity outreach programs.
Subsection (9) (m)
The establishment and implementation of a program to conduct workforce
recruitment activities at public and private colleges and universities and
community colleges in this state which request the participation of the
grantee.
Scripps Florida has extended workforce recruitment efforts to Florida’s higher education institutions
throughout the state.
Event
Location
Attendee
Date
Career Fair FMU, Miami FL
3/21/2013 Linda Gavit
Career Fair Statewide, Orlando FL
5/09/2013 Linda Gavit
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Subsection (10)
DISBURSEMENT CONDITIONS
Subsection (10)(a)
Demonstrate creation of jobs and report on the average salaries paid.
See reply to Subsection (14) (d).
Subsection (10)(b)
Beginning 18 months after the grantee’s occupancy of its permanent facility,
the grantee shall annually obtain $100,000 of non-state funding for each fulltime equivalent tenured-track faculty member employed at the Florida
facility.
There was 54 faculty employed on September 30, 2013 and the three year award total was
$150,328,580, therefore each Scripps Florida faculty has obtained about $927,954 in non-Florida
funding.
Subsection (10) (c) No later than 3 years after the grantee’s occupancy of its permanent facility,
the grantee shall apply to the relevant accrediting agency for accreditation of
its Florida graduate program.
The re-accreditation of the Scripps Ph.D. program was successfully completed in early 2011, which is
approximately two years after Scripps Florida’s occupancy of its permanent facility. The Kellogg
School of Science in Technology is a bi-coastal Ph.D. program, reflecting the “one institution/two
campus” makeup of The Scripps Research Institute. Owing to the larger size and earlier date of
establishment of the Ph.D. program on the La Jolla campus, the reaccreditation process was handled by
WASC (the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges
and Universities). The re-accreditation process included a specific site visit and assessment of the
Scripps Florida graduate program in October, 2010, by Dr. Karen Holbrook, Senior Vice President for
Research, Innovation & Global Affairs, University of South Florida, and President, University of South
Florida Research Foundation. As a result of the overall review and re-accreditation process, the Kellogg
School of Science and Technology—including the graduate program at Scripps Florida—received reaccreditation for a 10-year period, effective March 7, 2011.
Subsection (10) (d)
The grantee shall purchase equipment for its Florida facility as scheduled in
its contract with the corporation.
The Scripps Florida business plan requires $10 million in equipment purchases within 18 months of
occupancy of the permanent facility and Scripps occupied the permanent facility on March 31, 2009, so
the effective date for the $10 million required equipment purchase is September 30, 2010. The amount
of equipment purchased as of September 2010 was $10.7 million, thereby meeting the required amount.
The Scripps Florida Revised Business Plan also requires that $6.158 million in equipment be purchased
over the last five years of funding.
Approximately $4,152,398 of equipment – acquired with State grant funds – was purchased from
October 1, 2012 through September 30, 2013. In addition, $2,009,037 of equipment was purchased
using non-state funds during this same time period.
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Subsection (10)(e)
No later than 18 months after occupying its permanent facility, the grantee
shall establish a program for qualified graduate students from Florida
universities permitting them access to the facility for doctoral, thesis-related
research.
Scripps Florida has established a Ph.D. program in 2005 as part of Scripps’ Kellogg School of Science
and Technology, well ahead of the September 2010 deadline, which was 18 months after the anticipated
occupancy of the permanent facility.
Thirty (30) graduate students are currently enrolled in the Scripps Florida graduate program. A total of
14 students have now completed Ph.D. degrees at Scripps Florida since the establishment of the Ph.D.
program in 2005 and 14 new graduate students entered the program on August 1, 2013. As the faculty
ranks continue to expand at Scripps Florida over the next several years, additional efforts will be made
to recruit highly qualified Florida students to the Scripps Florida Ph.D. program. Of the 14 new
students, one has an undergraduate degree from Florida Atlantic University Honors College campus in
Jupiter. Of the 41 graduate students who will be in the Scripps Florida graduate program as of
September 2013, at least eight will have a Florida connection (undergraduate degrees from Florida
colleges and universities, or is a native Floridian who took her/his undergraduate degree out of state).
Subsection (10) (f)
No later than 18 months after occupancy of the permanent facility, the
grantee shall establish a summer internship for high school students.
Since 2005, high school students, teachers, and university undergraduates have been provided an
opportunity to work with world class scientists at Scripps Florida in a six-week summer research
internship program. In the summer of 2013, 16 high school students participated in the summer
internship program. Students were placed in the Departments of: Neuroscience, Infectious Diseases,
Cancer Biology, Metabolism and Aging, Molecular Therapeutics, Chemistry and the Translational
Research Institute. Support for the internship program has been provided by the William R. Kenan, Jr.
Charitable Trust, the Kellogg School of Science and Technology, and the BallenIsles Charities
Foundation, Inc.
These students are placed at the research bench with the faculty, post-docs, and Ph.D. students working
at the cutting edge of basic biomedical research. They are awarded a gross compensation of $8.00 per
hour for the six-week summer program. The program culminated in a public presentation at the Scripps
Florida campus where each student presented their research findings to an audience that contained
Scripps research mentors, parents, teachers, and Palm Beach County students. During the course of the
internship, the participants may attend faculty seminars, and a comprehensive list of those seminars may
be found in Subsection (10)(k).
Scripps Florida Education Outreach Director, Ms. Deborah Leach-Scampavia, continues to work in
collaboration with the Palm Beach County School District, to insure that all county high schools,
principals, science teachers, science supervisors, and parents are aware of the annual high school
program. Faculty presentations, undergraduate “ambassadors” from the high school program, and
correspondence with department Chairs at targeted academic institutions provide information about the
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sponsored undergraduate program. Detailed descriptions and on-line applications can be found on the
Scripps Florida Education Outreach web pages.
Special emphasis is placed on providing opportunities for students from underrepresented populations
(i.e., female, minority). Since its inception in 2005 the eight year average for underrepresented
participation in the Scripps Florida summer internship programs is ~ 68%.
The Kenan Fellows Facebook page continues to allows Scripps Florida to maintain contact and track
alumni from the high school program. To date, 100% of the college age alumni are pursuing or have
completed post-secondary degrees, 96% within STEM fields. The following is a list of some of the
academic institutions Kenan Fellows now attend: UF, UCF, USF, University of Miami, FAU, MIT,
Harvard, Princeton, University of Penn, Yale, Cal Tech., Columbia, Brown, Berkeley, Stanford, Rice,
Emory, University of Rochester, Swarthmore, Duke, Washington University in St. Louis, and
Dartmouth.
Additional Education Outreach Programs at Scripps Florida
The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, The Quantum Foundation, The Robert and Mary Pew
Public Education Fund, The Berlin Family Foundation, the BallenIsles Charitable Foundation and The
Gardens Mall (Forbes Company) supply funding for the following K-12 education programs developed
through the efforts of Scripps Florida education outreach staff, faculty and research staff.
Scripps Florida Neuroscience Saturday Program
A program for freshmen and sophomores attending Palm Beach County’s Title I high schools was
offered during the academic year. Neuroscience Saturday was designed to immerse students in cuttingedge brain research, while introducing them to modern science in a way that is accessible, fun, and
inspirational. The program follows the success of Scripps Florida’s Title I “Science Saturday” high
school lesson which was initiated in 2005. Expanding the theme to highlight basic neuroscience and
neuroimaging, Scripps Florida invited colleagues from The Max Planck Florida Institute (MPFI) to join
in this Saturday program that brought together world-class scientists and Palm Beach County high
school students.
This all-day workshop explored brain function and dysfunction, pondering such questions as: How do
we learn and form memories? How is the brain structured? What is a neuron and how does it work? The
curriculum is designed for 9th and 10th grade students with and coupled with resource information for the
classroom teacher. Neuroscience Saturday takes place at Scripps Florida’s and MPFI’s research
facilities in Jupiter.
Scripps Florida Introduction to Science Program
This interactive middle school lesson serves to tie together the basics of Math, Chemistry, Biology, and
Physics for a student age group found to be at academic risk in math and science. Using inexpensive,
everyday objects, Scripps Florida Education Outreach has leveraged its Introduction to Science program
to community education partners allowing a significant expansion of the middle school lesson in Palm
Beach County. A Spanish language version of the lesson has been completed and is now presented at
Palm Beach County middle schools.
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The Scripps Florida Biotechnology Tour
An up-close view of the biomedical technologies used in the battle against human diseases at Scripps
Florida continues to be presented to Neuroscience Saturday high school students. The “Biotechnology
Tour” provides students an opportunity to see basic biology and chemistry research laboratories. As
students move through the laboratories, they gain an understanding of how genomics based research and
the processes of organic synthesis lead contemporary efforts in the therapeutic drug discovery process.
The Scripps Florida – Middle School Wow Chemistry
The middle school Wow Chemistry is now a part of Scripps Florida’s annual science festival,
“Cellebrate Science with Scripps Florida” where approximately 3,000 community members participate
each year. This allows SF education outreach programs to reach not only middle school students, but
their families as well, as their goal is to enlist parents and guardians in encouraging their children to
study science in school. Student interaction is encouraged and the exciting demonstrations include:
chemical clock reactions, vacuum experiments with eggs, freezing and shattering objects with liquid
nitrogen, and exploding hydrogen balloons!
The Scripps Florida High School Career Panel
In an after-school interactive panel with Scripps Florida Ph.D. graduate students and post-doc fellows,
Scripps scientists share experiences about their undergraduate and graduate careers and the type of
research they are conducting at Scripps. The intent is to demystify the higher education/science process,
encourage relationships, and answer student questions. The panel concludes with a tour of the Scripps
Florida research laboratories.
Scripps Florida Middle School Genomics with Kenan High School Fellows
High school students from the summer intern program visit Palm Beach County middle schools, sharing
their love of science, their experience as a summer researcher at Scripps and a lesson in genomics,
geared for the middle school classroom. The high school students are enthusiastic role models for the
younger students and are well received by the classroom teachers.
CELLebrate Science Day with Scripps Florida
Since 2009, Scripps Florida researchers have hosted an annual public science day, sponsored by and
held at the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. More than 100 Scripps Florida research
faculty, post doctoral fellows, graduate students and staff interact with thousands of Palm Beach County
students, parents, teachers and interested community members - all excited to learn about the science of
Scripps and to have an opportunity to meet research scientists.
Six fun, interactive science booths dot the mall grand court, each themed around Scripps Florida’s
research and technology. These booths include:
 “Chemistry”- with an interactive chemistry demonstrations, including an electronic periodic
table,
 “Technology” – showing engineering and robotics,
 “Science of Safety” – trying on a lab coat, goggles and respirator to see how safe science is done
in the lab,
 “Model Organisms” – questioning what zebra fish, fruit flies, worms and slugs tell us about
human biology and disease,
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

“Disease Biology” – demonstrating the difference between a viral and bacterial infection and
how Scripps scientists study and use each to understand disease, and
“Inner Life of a Cell” – crawling inside a human cell, an inflatable dome, with animation from
Harvard University and narration by Scripps Florida PhD students and postdoctoral fellows.
Scripps Florida also uses their Cellebrate day to provide a public opportunity for Palm Beach County
School District middle and high school Science Fair winners to display their winning posters before
moving on to the Florida state competition.
Scripps Florida Undergraduate Internships
In addition to high school internships, Scripps Florida provides internship opportunities for a variety of
undergraduate students. The ten-week undergraduate program continues to elevate the intensity and
independence of the research experience. Working with faculty and post-doc mentors, students are
provided the research and laboratory experience needed to successfully compete in graduate school
admissions and gain valuable experience outside the context of basic undergraduate laboratory
instruction. The program culminates in a Scripps-wide research poster competition.
Students return to their academic institutions possessing the knowledge and experience to participate in
campus undergraduate poster sessions, to act as ambassadors for the research and graduate programs
offered at Scripps Florida, and to enjoy an enhanced knowledge base as they continue their classroom
instruction.
This past year, three of the undergraduate summer interns were accepted to present their research posters
at national scientific conferences. One of the undergraduate posters received a “Best in Category”
award at the National American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology conference. Two
former undergraduate summer interns are now PhD graduate students in the TSRI Kellogg School of
Science and Technology on the Florida campus. The Undergraduate Facebook page allows Scripps
Florida to continue their mentorship with this talented group of students and promote an ongoing interest
in the research and graduate efforts at Scripps Florida.
Sponsored Undergraduate Internships
In the summer of 2013, 13 undergraduates participated in the sponsored internship program, two from
Florida schools, nine from schools out of the State, and two from a US territory. Undergraduates are
awarded gross compensation of $10.00 per hour for the ten-week summer program.
Summer Undergraduate Interns
In addition to the sponsored summer undergraduate initiative on the Scripps Florida campus, Scripps
Florida attempts to accommodate as many students as possible who contact them for research
opportunities during the summer months. 17 undergraduate students from 14 universities sought
opportunities/incentives to return to Florida to further their research experience in the summer of 2013.
FAU Wilkes Honors College Program
In 2006, Scripps Florida established an intern program for FAU Honors College students to perform
research in the laboratories of Scripps Florida faculty members. The students can receive FAU
academic credit or a stipend (if research funds are available from the Scripps Florida faculty member)
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for research performed during the school term or summer months. During the fiscal year, 23 FAU
undergraduate students participated in research internships at the Scripps Florida research facility.
Palm Beach State College (PBSC)
PBSC offers two degree programs in biotechnology in response to the community need for research
technicians and associates. Students enrolled in the PBSC program can receive academic credit for
additional experience in the laboratory. To help students gain this experience, internships have been
made available at the Scripps Florida facility as space has been available. Three PBSC biotechnology
students participated in this program in the 2012 – 2013 reporting period.
Undergraduate Travel Award
The undergraduate poster competition awards the top three students an opportunity to submit their
winning research poster to a national conference of the intern and faculty mentor’s choice. Expenses are
paid for registration, travel, and housing for the intern and their faculty advisor so that the undergraduate
student intern may present their poster. As was presented earlier, this past year, three of the
undergraduate summer interns were accepted to present their research posters at national scientific
conferences and one of the undergraduate posters received a “Best in Category” award at the National
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology conference.
Subsection (10) (g)
No later than 3 years after occupancy of the permanent facility, the grantee
shall establish a research program for middle and high school teachers.
Scripps has established a professional development science workshop for secondary science teachers, as
well as, a workshop for middle school teachers. In addition, Scripps Florida offers summer internships to
secondary science teachers.
Scripps Florida High School Teacher Summer Internship Program
Continued support from the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, has allowed Scripps Florida
Education Outreach to continue to expose teachers to current laboratory techniques and procedures,
provide information on a variety of contemporary issues in basic biomedical research, create ties and
linkages to working scientists who can assist them in curriculum development, and create opportunities
for teachers to share information and knowledge with their peers.
High school science teachers in the Palm Beach County School District conduct basic biomedical
research in a laboratory under the supervision of a Scripps Florida scientist. The program emphasizes
the scientific process, research planning, bench experience, experimental design, data analysis and
interaction with laboratory personnel. As an adjunct to their day-to-day responsibilities, participants are
required to attend specially designed seminars throughout the course of the summer. In addition to the
intensive, hands-on six-week summer program, teachers are expected to use the laboratory experience as
a springboard to create opportunities in discovery-based learning for their students, effect change in their
classrooms and serve as a resource for other educators. Each participant gives a presentation and writes
a scientific abstract on his/her project at the end of the summer.
To extend information about the summer program to all PBC eligible high school teachers, the Scripps
Florida Education Outreach Director, Ms. Leach-Scampavia, supplied program information flyers to
each of the PBC high schools Principals for display at the schools and gave an information presentation
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about the summer intern program to a meeting of the high school science supervisors. In addition,
working through the PBC school district’s science coordinator, flyers were emailed to each of the
science teachers in the district.
Research internships are awarded on a competitive basis to United States citizens or permanent residents
teaching science at the secondary level in Palm Beach County. The application time period for the
internship program is from January until March. Teachers are awarded gross compensation of $20.00
per hour for the six-week program (not to exceed 240 hours). After receipt of completed packages and
due date expiration, the PBC science coordinator, the Scripps Florida education administrator and
several scientists reviewed each application package. Scripps Florida faculty mentors then reviewed and
selected from the pool of interns the “best candidates” for the summer teacher internship.
Scripps Florida Secondary and Middle School Teacher Workshops
Scripps Florida is directing greater efforts to address the needs of the classroom science teacher by
establishing Teacher Workshops in basic science, math and laboratory skills. The “InSPIRE” programs
(Instructional Support Program for Innovative Research Education) programs offer direct interaction
with the bioscience researchers at Scripps Florida and provide greater professional development
opportunities for pre-service and in-service middle and high school science teachers in a supportive
engaging environment. Institutes are designed around curriculum units that integrate lessons, activities
and laboratory-based biological and chemical experiments designed by research scientists at Scripps
Florida. Portability of the lessons allows teachers to leverage the institute curriculum to their own
classrooms during the course of the school year.
The programs provide opportunities for teachers from all of the secondary and middle schools within the
Palm Beach County school district to attend the Teacher Workshops. Through its partnership with the
school district, Scripps Florida emphasizes teacher recruitment from schools with limited resources in
rural and urban Palm Beach County, particularly in areas with large underrepresented and disadvantaged
student populations.
Subsection (10) (h) No later than 18 months after occupancy of the permanent facility, the
grantee shall establish a program for adjunct professors.
Many current Scripps Florida faculty have received adjunct faculty appointments with the University of
Florida, University of Miami and/or Florida Atlantic University. Such adjunct appointments are
intended to provide a mechanism for graduate students enrolled in Florida research universities to
collaborate with, to be co-mentored by, and to perform research in the laboratories of a Scripps Florida
faculty member.
A mechanism has been established for faculty members at Florida institutions who have established
collaborative research programs with Scripps Florida faculty to be appointed to an Adjunct Professor
position. The process is initiated by a Scripps Florida faculty member who submits a nomination to
his/her department chair. If the chair concurs, the chair submits the nomination to the Office of the
President for review and approval.
Current adjunct faculty are:
Dr. Chris Liang of Xcovery in West Palm Beach, FL
– Adjunct Associate Professor, Molecular Therapeutics
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Dr. Andrew Hodge of BioMotion Institute in Jupiter, FL
– Adjunct Professor, Metabolism and Aging
Dr. Samuel Young of Max Planck Florida Institute in Jupiter, FL
– Adjunct Assistant Professor, Neuroscience
Dr. Jason Christie of Max Planck Florida Institute in Jupiter, FL
– Adjunct Assistant Professor, Neuroscience
Dr. James Schummers of Max Planck Florida Institute in Jupiter, FL
– Adjunct Assistant Professor, Neuroscience
Subsection (10) (i)
No later than 6 months after commissioning its high throughput technology,
the grantee shall establish a program to allow open access for qualified
science projects.
Scripps Florida initiated the “Access to Technologies” program in January of 2006 to invite scientists
from Florida universities and other academic research institutions to use state-of-the-art screening
technologies at Scripps Florida’s facilities in Jupiter for qualifying projects. A seventh “Core” platform
is now available at the Scripps Florida facility that combines basic research with advanced technology.
Access to Technologies
Scripps Florida was created to interface cutting-edge high throughput technologies with pioneering
research programs relevant to current medical needs in human diseases. One of its key goals is to
develop dynamic relationships with Florida institutions to foster a knowledge-based economy that will
transcend traditional barriers to moving scientific discoveries into the clinic. Florida scientists who may
not have these technologies available at their respective institutions are encouraged to open the links to
learn more about these core technologies and opportunities to access them
(http://www.scripps.edu/florida/technologies/). A list of collaborative Florida researchers can be found
in Section (9)(f) - Collaboration with Florida Colleges and Universities.
Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography Facility
The macromolecular x-ray crystallography core facility of Scripps Florida offers state-of-the-art
equipment and resources to scientists inside and outside of the Scripps Florida campus by providing
crystallographic analysis of chosen biological macromolecules.
The core facility offers and operates as a full service core by performing protein crystallization, x-ray
diffraction data collection (both in-house and at various synchrotron sources) and processing, phasing,
crystallographic refinement, model building, and visualization. The structural data obtained by the core
provide scientists with a wealth of information including but not limited to biological functions, 3Dfolding, ligand binding (small molecule or protein), or mutational effect of target macromolecules of
their interest.
This past year, the core facility researchers produced six publications in major research journals and
acquired data for an additional two manuscripts. The core facility researchers supported six intramural
and two external laboratories for their on-going grant researches. The researchers were also actively
involved in preliminary studies for grant applications of these laboratories. During this period, the core
facility researchers produced and deposited multiple macromolecular structures.
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Genomics Core
The Scripps Florida Genomics Core was established to enable access by Scripps Florida and external
investigators to the latest technologies for gene expression analysis and high-throughput genotyping.
These technologies allow for interrogation and subsequent comparison of the role genetics play in
disease state at the global level, or at specified locations in the genome. Gene expression analysis
provides a profile of active and inactive genes in a given tissue sample or cell type. The technologies
used in the Genomics Core allow for a wide range of cost effective options for discovery on multiple
platforms.
The Cell Based Screening Core
Researchers in the Cell-Based Screening Core leverage high-throughput technologies towards a
systematic description of the function of genes encoded by the human genome, and a more
comprehensive understanding of the genetic basis for human disease. The CBS group provides Scripps
investigators, as well as select outside collaborators, with access to genome-wide collections of cDNAs
and siRNAs that can be used to interrogate cellular models of signal transduction pathways and
phenotypes.
The Proteomics Core
The Proteomics Core researchers at Scripps Florida examine the expression and action of proteins and
other gene products. Its faculty and staff focus on such questions as how proteins are modified by cells
in certain diseases. In particular, the scientists concentrate on developing and applying the techniques of
mass spectrometry for discovery and quantitative proteomic experiments. The core also supports the
small molecule mass spectrometry needs of the institute and collaborators.
The Flow Cytometry Core
Flow cytometry measures and analyzes the characteristics of single particles, normally cells, as they
move in a stream and are passed through a laser. Thousands of cells can be analyzed by a flow
cytometer in a single second. Among the measurements derived from flow cytometry are the size,
relative fluorescence and complexity of the particle. Flow cytometry can be used for a variety of
applications including complex cell analysis and cell sorting.
The Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Core
Nuclear magnetic resonance, known as NMR, uses the magnetic properties of certain nuclei to study
molecular structure. A wide variety of information can be gathered using NMR including protein and
nuclei acid structure and function. In early 2011, Scripps Florida added a new state-of-the-art 700 MHz
instrument to the NMR core, complementing the two 400 MHz instruments already on site. While the
two 400 MHz instruments are used primarily for small molecule (chemistry) studies, the new 700 MHz
instrument will be used primarily by biologists for studying structure and interactions among
biomolecular components (proteins, RNA, etc.). The three machines run 24 hours a day, 365 days of the
year. By connecting these highly sensitive instruments to the Internet via a proprietary Scripps Florida
server, scientists can access the data produced from their office or the laboratory.
High Throughput Screening Core Description Background
High Throughput Screening (HTS) is a drug-discovery process widely used in the pharmaceutical
industry. It leverages automation to quickly assay the biological or biochemical activity of a large
number of drug-like compounds. It is a useful for discovering ligands for receptors, enzymes, ionScripps Florida Funding Corporation
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channels or other pharmacological targets, or pharmacologically profiling a cellular or biochemical
pathway of interest. Typically, HTS assays are performed in “automation-friendly” microtiter plates
with a 96, 384 or 1536 well format.
Capabilities: The Lead Identification group at Scripps Florida has set-up a state-of-the art HTS
operation to support Scripps’ intramural HTS efforts. This Core has both HTS and compound
management automation, and expertise in adapting biological and biochemical bench-top assays
into high-throughput screens.
HTS users:
Leissring, M., Ph.D.
Minond, M., Ph.D.
Weissbach, H., Ph.D.
Zervos, A., Ph.D.
Ayad, N., Ph.D.
Westerheide, Sandy
Choe, Keith
Kima, Peter
Reisman, David
Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL
TPIMS
FAU
UCF
U Miami
University of South Florida
University of Florida
University of Florida
University of Florida
Behavior Core
The Behavior Core at Scripps Florida provides state-of-the-art equipment and software for measuring
rodent behavior. All behavioral rooms are fully equipped and supplied. Many of the behavioral tasks
are completely automated, with software providing control over hardware and trial protocols. Standard
protocols for the behavioral tasks have been developed by the Director; expertise for the development of
custom protocols is available. The behavioral experiments can be fully conducted by Behavior Core
staff, or individual labs can utilize the rooms and equipment for their own experiments. Training and
consultation are provided free of charge. Behavior Core resources are also available to non-Scripps
Florida scientists through collaboration with the Director.
The Behavior Core officially opened for business in June 2011. In the past year, the Behavior Core
resources and/or personnel have been included on multiple Scripps Florida Faculty grant applications
(many of which have been awarded funding), and data collected in the Behavior Core has been included
in multiple publications.
An Advisory Committee comprised of faculty members was formed in March 2013 to advise the Core
Director regarding research progress and future directions for the Core. As a result of this committee’s
input, equipment was updated to better meet the needs of the faculty, including the addition of some new
equipment.
Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases
The Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases is a multidisciplinary center designed to enhance the
research capabilities of faculty at TSRI whose research focus is in the area of diabetes and metabolic
diseases. The Center is designed to enhance interactions between faculty and other researchers in this
area so as to provide greater opportunities for fruitful collaborations that may yield new and improved
therapies for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity as well as other metabolic diseases.
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History: The Scripps Research Institute has a long history of critical discoveries in the area of
diabetes and metabolic diseases. As TRSI was expanded to Scripps Florida, several new faculty
were recruited whose research is focused on development of new and improved therapies for
metabolic diseases. The Center was established by Dr. Burris in late 2011 to coordinate and
enhance the metabolic research capabilities of TRSI. After its approval by the President of
TRSI, Dr. Marletta, the Center first focused on consolidating key equipment that was already in
place at Scripps Florida. In the second phase, the Center focused on expansion of metabolic
research capabilities by acquisition of addition critical equipment and hired Dr. Kanzantzis as a
staff scientist to oversee the core laboratories. Future phases will focus on further expansion of
research capabilities as well as establishing key services that will be available to all metabolic
disease researchers at TRSI to help enhance their productivity. The Center currently operates
two key laboratories at Scripps Florida.
Researchers can apply for access to Scripps expertise through the “Access to Technologies” program.
Subsection (10) (j)
Beginning June 2004, the grantee shall commence collaborative efforts with
Florida public and private colleges and universities, and shall continue
cooperative collaboration through the term of the agreement.
See the reply to Subsection (9) (f).
Subsection (10) (k) Beginning 18 months after the grantee occupies the permanent facility, the
grantee shall establish an annual seminar series featuring a review of the
science work done by the grantee and its collaborators at the Florida facility.
External Seminars
External seminars are part of the institute series, inviting prominent researchers from national and
international institutions to speak. The seminars serve as a major foundation for creating knowledgeand technology-sharing opportunities, team building, and collaborations among biomedical researchers
between Scripps Florida, Florida, and other research and academic institutions and companies. The
sessions are open to interested professionals within the Scripps Florida and Florida scientific
communities.
October 4, 2012
Speaker: Sheng Ding, Ph.D.
University of California, San Francisco
Lecture: “A Chemical Approach to Controlling Cell Fate”
October 11, 2012
Speaker: Osamu Nureki, Ph.D.
The University of Tokyo
Lecture: “Structural basis for Molecular Mechanism of Membrane Channels and
transporters”
October 25, 2012
Speaker: Eric M. Ferreira, Ph.D.
Colorado State University
Lecture: “Accessing and Harnessing Metalated Intermediates Toward Synthetic Utility”
November 1, 2012
Speaker: Adrian T. Keatinge-Clay, Ph.D.
The University of Texas at Austin
Lecture: “Visualizing and harnessing polyketide assembly lines”
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November 8, 2012
Speaker: R. Luke Wiseman, Ph.D.
The Scripps Research Institute – La Jolla
Lecture: “Developing and Implementing Small Molecule Regulated Transcription Factors to
Understand Stress-Responsive Signaling”
November 15, 2012
Speaker: Roger J. Davis, Ph.D.
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Lecture: “Signal Transduction by the JNK Signaling Pathway”
November 29, 2012
Speaker: Stephen J. Haggarty, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School
Lecture: “Chemical Neurobiology: Targeting Neuroplasticity in Neuropsychiatric
Disorders”
November 30, 2012 Speaker: Mark von Zastrow, M.D., Ph.D.
University of California, San Francisco
Lecture: “Regulation of signaling receptors by endocytosis and vice versa”
December 6, 2012
Speaker: Pankaj Kapahi, Ph.D.
Buck Institute for Research on Aging
Lecture: “Fat Metabolism, physical activity and aging – insights from Drosophila”
December 13, 2012 Speaker: John R. Yates, Ph.D.
The Scripps Research Institute
Lecture: “Protein Quantitation Using Stable Isotope Labeling in Mammals (SILAM)
to Understand Human Disease and Injury”
January 10, 2013
January 17, 2013
January 24, 2013
January 31, 2013
February 7, 2013
Speaker: Dewey McCafferty, Ph.D.
Duke University
Lecture: “Evaluating the Role of the Lysine-Specific Histone Demethylase (LSD1)
Complex in Breast Cancer SIgnaling Using Chemical Biology Approaches”
Speaker: Garry Nolan, Ph.D.
Stanford University
Lecture: “A Systems Structure for Immunity and Cancer at the Single Cell Level”
Speaker: Robert Kennedy, Ph.D.
University of Michigan
Lecture: “The Nanoliter Lab: Using Droplets for Screening and In Vivo
Neurochemical Sensing”
Speaker: Ulrike Heberlein, Ph.D.
University of California San Francisco (UCSF)
Lecture: “Flies and Alcohol: How Social Experience Affects Behavior.”
Speaker: Mark Mayford, Ph.D.
The Scripps Research Institute-La Jolla
Lecture: “Genetic Control of Memory Circuits.”
February 14, 2013
Speaker: Kathlynn Brown, Ph.D.
Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center-University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Lecture: “Mining for Tumor Targeting Peptides-New Ligands for Molecular
Imaging & Personalized Therapies”
February 28, 2013
Speaker: Robert C. Malenka, Ph.D.
Stanford University
Lecture: “Pain and pleasure: synaptic plasticity in mesolimbic reward circuitry.”
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March 7, 2013
March 14, 2013
March 21, 2013
Speaker: Ronald Raines, Ph.D.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lecture: “Ribonuclease A: From kcat/KM to the Clinic”
Speaker: Dr. Bruno Conti
TSRI – La Jolla
Lecture: “Central Temperature Regulation and Aging”
In memory of Dr. A. Donny Strosberg
“Biotechnology from Bench to Company: Strategy from Academia to Industry”
April 4, 2013
April 11, 2013
April 18, 2013
April 25, 2013
May 2, 2013
May 9, 2013
May 16, 2013
May 23, 2013
Lecture: Dr. Laura Ranum
University of Florida
Lecture: “Repeat associated non-ATG translation in SCA8 and C9ORF72 ALS/FTD”
Speaker: Dr. Tracy Johnson
University of California San Diego
Lecture: “A histone tail: Pre-messenger RNA splicing and the coordinated control of gene
expression”
Speaker: Philip Dawson
TSRI – La Jolla
Lecture: “Chemoselective approaches for protein synthesis and bioconjugation”
Speaker: Charles S. Craik, Ph.D.
University of California San Francisco
Lecture: “Inhibiting the uninhabitable: proteases in cancer and infectious disease”
Speaker: Dr. Kim Orth
University of Texas, Southwestern
Lecture: “Black Spot, Black Death, Black Pearl: The Tales of Bacterial Effectors”
Speaker: Joyce Slingerland, M.D., Ph.D.
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Lecture: “SCFSKP2 acts as dual ER coactivator & ubiquitin ligase to induce late target genes
that drive G1 – to – S progression”
Speaker: Dr. Joel Gottesfeld
TSRI – La Jolla
Lecture: “Development of therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases”
Speaker: Kevin Weeks, Ph.D.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Lecture: “The Chemical Biology of RNA Structure Analysis”
Collaborative Seminars
Collaborative seminars feature prominent Florida-based speakers from the academic, biotechnology or
pharmaceutical communities and focus on topics within the broad fields of biomedical science,
advanced technologies applied to biomedical research, drug discovery, and energy. They serve as a
major foundation for creating knowledge- and technology-sharing opportunities, team building, and
collaborations among biomedical researchers between Scripps Florida, Florida, and other research and
academic institutions and companies. The sessions are open to interested professionals within the
Scripps Florida and Florida scientific communities.
April 4, 2013 Dr. Laura Ranum
Professor, Dept. of Molecular Genetics, University of Florida
Lecture: “Repeat associated non-ATG translation in SCA8 and C9ORF72 ALS/FTD”
May 9, 2013 Speaker: Dr. Joyce Slingerland, M.D., Ph.D.
Division of Hematology/Oncology, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine
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Lecture: “SCFSKP2 acts as dual ER coactivator & ubiquitin ligase to induce late
target genes that drive G1 – to – S progression”
Summer Intern Seminars
The weekly summer intern series, an adjunct to summer intern day-to-day responsibilities, features
faculty members from Scripps Florida. High school and college undergraduate interns attend speciallydesigned seminars throughout the course of the summer. Each seminar highlights basic science
principles and the research focus/application efforts of the Scripps Florida biology, chemistry, and core
laboratories.
June 11, 2013
Sietsa Jonkman, Ph.D.
Research Associate, Dept. of Molecular Therapeutics
Lecture – “Drug addiction: definition, animal models and underlying biology”
June 12, 2013
William Roush, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Chemistry
Associate Dean, Kellogg School of Science and Technology
Lecture – “Ethics in Science”
June 18, 2013
Kristen Scott, Ph.D.
Research Associate, Dept. of Cancer Biology
Lecture – “What is cancer and why does it have a sweet tooth?”
June 19, 2013
Mark Sundrud, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Cancer Biology
Lecture – “Identifying and regulating pathogenic T cell subsets in autoimmunity”
June 25, 2013
Cullen Schmidt, Ph.D.
Research associate, Department of Molecular Therapeutics
High School Lecture – “Designer morphine: the development of pain relievers
without adverse side effects”
June 26, 2013
Laura Neidernhofer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Dept. of Metabolism and Aging
Lecture – “Approaches to studying aging”
Subsection (10) (l)
Beginning June 2004, the grantee shall commence collaboration efforts with
the Office of Tourism, Trade, and Economic Development (OTTED) by
complying with reasonable requests for cooperation in economic
development efforts in the biomed/biotech industry. No later than July 2004,
the grantee shall designate a person who shall be charged with assisting in
these collaborative efforts.
Scripps Florida has designated Ms. Dawn Johnson as its designee to assist the Department of Economic
Opportunity (“DEO”), nee OTTED, regarding collaborative economic development efforts between
Scripps and DEO.
See Appendix 4, “Scripps Florida Outreach Activities,” for a detailed listing of Scripps Florida outreach
activities, including education, community and business outreach.
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APPENDIX 1
Subsection (14) (e)
Information on the amount and nature of economic activity generated through the activities of the
grantee.
Please see separate attachment “SFFC annual report IMPLAN analysis 2013.”
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APPENDIX 2
Subsection (14) (f)
An assessment of factors affecting the progress toward achieving the projected biotech industry
cluster associated with the grantee’s operations, as projected by economists on behalf of the
Executive Office of the Governor
This subsection was completed with information provided by a variety of local, regional and state life
science and life science support organizations.
BioFlorida
525 Okeechobee Blvd, Ste. 1500
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
(561) 653-3839
www.bioflorida.com
BioFlorida is Florida’s bioscience industry association, operating as a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit
organization. Their mission is to represent and advocate for the state’s biotechnology, pharmaceutical
and medical device industries. Founded in 1997 as a means to unite and support a small group of
entrepreneurs, today the organization represents a broad range of companies and institutions in various
sectors of the bioscience industry. Membership within the organization also includes dozens of partner
organizations, service providers and suppliers committed to supporting the industry.
Please see BioFlorida’s website for information. www.bioflorida.com
Business Development Board of Palm Beach County
310 Evernia Street
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
(561)835-1008
www.bdb.org
The Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, Inc. (“BDB”) is a public-private
partnership established in 1982 to be the official economic development organization for Palm Beach
County. It is a non- profit organization that is funded in part by the Palm Beach County Board of
County Commissioners and in part by private corporate members. BDB is the official partner of
Enterprise Florida, Inc. in Palm Beach County.
During the 2012-2013 fiscal year, the Business Development Board (BDB) maintained its strong links to
the life science industry through its Life Sciences Strategic Steering Group (LSSSG), participation in
associations and events such as BIO 2013, BioFlorida, Life Sciences South Florida, Palm Beach State
College Biosciences Programs Industry Advisory Council, and the Life Science Technology HUB (LST
HUB). By striving to increase its outreach to the life science industry, the BDB is able to ensure that
emerging issues that could adversely affect Palm Beach County’s attractiveness to the life sciences
industry would be addressed.
The BDB’s LSSSG was restructured during the 2010 - 2011 fiscal year to include a new chair and a new
set of goals that would assist the BDB in its efforts to develop and grow the life sciences industry cluster
in Palm Beach County. Early in 2011, the LSSSG was given seven new, primary goals: (1) assist in the
outreach to life sciences companies at trade shows, specifically BIO; (2) the creation and expansion of a
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life sciences recruitment prospect pipeline database; (3) the development of a Life Sciences Industry
Report; (4) development of a new Life Sciences marketing collateral piece; (5) developing and
maintaining a Life Sciences Assets Map (map of existing life sciences companies in PBC); (6) providing
assistance to the Banner Center for Life Sciences; and (7) the development of a Life Sciences Industry
Focus Lunch Event to take place within the first quarter of the new fiscal year.
During the 2012-2013 fiscal year the BDB’s LSSSG continued to build on all of the tasks that were
accomplished during the previous fiscal years. The LSSSG met several times throughout the fiscal year
to monitor the development of the industry in Palm Beach County. By the end of the 2012 – 2013 fiscal
year the LSSSG had done all that it could to assist the BDB in its economic development mission based
on its scope and participants. Therefore, it was decided that the LSSSG would have its membership
expanded in the 2013-2014 fiscal year to include representatives from the major hospitals in Palm Beach
County, as well as representatives from medical and healthcare research. The LSSSG will then have its
name changed to the Life Sciences and Healthcare Industry Cluster Task Force.
The Life Sciences and Healthcare Industry Task Force (Task Force) will have all of the same tasks as
the LSSSG had, with the exception of supporting the Employ Florida Banner Center for Life Sciences,
since that is no longer present at Palm Beach State College, and the Task Force will not be producing an
Industry Report. The Task Force will be updating the BDB’s Life Sciences marketing collateral,
website, and provide asset mapping for use by the BDB in its efforts in recruitment, retention, and
expansion of life sciences companies to Palm Beach County.
BDB staff attended BIO 2013 in Chicago, Il. The continuing trend of this trade show/convention has
been toward more economic development officials and business development staff being represented on
the floor of the convention as opposed to scientists and corporate leaders, which are tending more
towards the partnering sessions off of the trade show exhibit floor. Thus, the BDB again chose not to
have an exhibit on the floor, but instead partnered with Enterprise Florida to be one of the sponsors of
the Governor’s Breakfast, as well as arranging meetings with companies in advance and during
networking events at the conference from many different countries and regions of the US to discuss the
possibility of relocation or expansion into Palm Beach County. The BDB continues to seek more
effective ways of reaching its target audience for 2014 and beyond.
In the fiscal year 2012 – 2013, the BDB continued its participation in three industry and educational
associations and initiatives in the life sciences industry. First, BDB staff serves on the Industry Advisory
Council (IAC) for the Biosciences Programs at Palm Beach State College. Palm Beach State College
uses its IAC to assist with its curriculum development and advises PBSC of the skills and workforce
needs of the industry in Palm Beach County.
Another initiative that the BDB staff has participated on in the fiscal year is the Life Sciences South
Florida (formerly Life Tech Florida) regional initiative. The Life Sciences South Florida (LSSF)
initiative is a consortium of all public and private universities along the Interstate 95 corridor from
Miami to Port St. Lucie, and it involves academia, research institutes, and the biotechnology industry in
southeast Florida. This consortium provides an overarching umbrella for the entire Southeast region.
The intent of this initiative is to increase cooperation and collaboration in life sciences research in the
region and includes Florida Atlantic University, Palm Beach State College, Florida International
University, the Scripps Research Institute, Max Planck Florida Institute, The Research Park at Florida
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Atlantic University, and other economic development organizations, universities, and colleges in the
South Florida region. BDB Staff participated in the Annual BioFlorida Conference in Tampa in
September 2013 as one of the economic development organizational sponsors of LSSF and assisted with
staffing its exhibit.
BDB staff also regularly attends the LST HUB monthly networking events in Palm Beach Gardens. The
LST HUB continues to grow organically in support of the life sciences and technology industries in
Palm Beach County. BioFlorida partnered with the group soon after its formation in order to extend its
reach across the state. LST HUB now has regularly scheduled events in Boca Raton and Miami, in
addition to its Palm Beach Gardens meetings. LST HUB was created by two professionals who moved
to Florida from San Diego with the intent to grow the cluster specifically in Palm Beach County. LST
HUB is modeled on a San Diego organization credited with the growth of the high-tech and life science
cluster there. In Palm Beach County, LST HUB is gathering resources such as investors, business and
marketing professionals, and integrating them with life science and technology professionals, students,
and educators with the goal of creating an ecosystem for the growth of new companies and jobs.
Attendance at these monthly meetings provides another opportunity for the BDB to gain more contacts
and insight in the life sciences industry in Palm Beach County and the surrounding areas.
The BDB continues to witness an interest from life sciences companies that are considering relocating,
starting, or expanding in Palm Beach County. During the 2012 – 2013 fiscal year, the BDB worked with
at least fifteen life sciences and healthcare companies that were considering relocating or expanding in
Palm Beach County. The BDB continues to work with many of those companies while two of them have
established their corporate offices or expanded their facilities in Palm Beach County by the end of the
2012 – 2013 fiscal year:
Palm Beach Orthopedic Institute
Palm Beach Gardens
27 jobs
Navinta
Boca Raton
25 jobs
Throughout Palm Beach County the county and municipal governments have maintained their interest in
developing a sustainable life science cluster and the BDB has engaged with many partners to ensure that
infrastructure and programs are developed to create an attractive environment for entrepreneurs to establish
their life science (and other) companies while creating high paying jobs and creating new inventions to better
the human condition. In particular, Palm Beach County, the Town of Jupiter, the City of Palm Beach
Gardens, the City of Boca Raton, and other municipalities maintain or have created their incentives programs
and expedited permitting ordinances for companies in this industry that are relocating or expanding.
Enterprise Florida, Inc.
800 N. Magnolia Ave., Suite 1100
Orlando, FL 32803
(407)956-5600
www.eflorida.com
Enterprise Florida, Inc. (“EFI”) is a public-private partnership serving as Florida's primary
organization devoted to statewide economic development. The organization’s mission it to facilitate job
growth for Florida's businesses and citizens leading to a vibrant statewide economy. EFI accomplishes
this mission by focusing on a wide range of industry sectors, including clean energy, life sciences,
information technology, aviation/aerospace, homeland security/defense, financial/professional services,
manufacturing and beyond. In collaboration with a statewide network of regional and local economic
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development organizations, EFI helps to improve Florida's business climate, ensuring the state's global
competitiveness.
Please see EFI’s website for information.
Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research
3651 FAU Blvd., Suite 400, Boca Raton, FL 33431
(561)368-8889
747 SW 2nd Ave, Suite 258, Gainesville, FL 32601
www.florida-institute.com
Institute for Commercialization of Public Research (“Institute”) was founded in 2007 as a non-profit
organization. The Institute is Florida’s One-Stop-Shop for investors and entrepreneurs who seek to
identify new opportunities based on technologies developed through publicly-funded research, and is
focused on new company and job creation based on research conducted at Florida’s universities and
research institutions. The Institute collaborates with its research partners, working with promising
technologies, and providing company formation and support services as well as seed capital to qualified
companies. During this reporting period, the Institute identified over 90 new company projects that are
being supported towards commercialization and growth. The Institute also received a $10M
appropriation and developed and launched the Seed Capital Accelerator Program (SCAP) which is now
well underway. Through this program the Institute provides “repayable upon liquidity” loans ranging
between $50,000 - $300,000 to Florida companies that must match the state funding with private
investment capital. The SCAP program helps bridge funding gaps faced by early-stage companies,
enabling them to reach critical development milestones and raise additional equity or debt financing
when needed. Fourteen companies were approved for funding, with six actually receiving their funds
during this reporting period. The Institute continues to administer the Florida Research
Commercialization Matching Grant Program, which during fiscal year 2009/10 awarded $2.7M to 13
companies across the state. Although all available funds have been granted, the Institute continues to
collect progress reports from the 13 grantees to monitor and report on their progress.
During the October 2012 through September 2013 reporting period, the Institute continued to deliver
both Company Building and Company Funding programs, with nearly 100 new applications received
from companies seeking commercialization, business development and funding support. The Institute
continued to manage the Seed Capital Accelerator Program (SCAP), deploying loan funding to fifteen
additional companies (six companies were funded during the inaugural program year), for a total of
twenty-one companies funded. Through this program the Institute provides “repayable upon liquidity”
loans ranging between $50,000 - $300,000 to Florida companies that must match the state funding with
private investment capital, and companies funded through the Seed Capital Accelerator Program have
leveraged state funding to raise as much as three to four times that amount in private investment capital
and are created jobs at an average annual salary of $74,000. The SCAP program helps bridge funding
gaps faced by early-stage companies, enabling them to reach critical development milestones and raise
additional equity or debt financing when needed. With nearly all SCAP funding committed, this past
legislative session the Florida Legislature appropriated $4.5MM to create the Florida Technology Seed
Capital Fund, to be administered by the Institute. The Institute continues to administer the Florida
Research Commercialization Matching Grant Program, which during fiscal year 2009/10 awarded
$2.7M to 13 companies across the state, and although all available funds have been dispersed to thirteen
grantees, the Institute continues to collect progress.
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Palm Beach State College
Eissey Location - 3160 PGA Boulevard
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
(561)207-5059
www.palmbeachstate.edu
Palm Beach State College (“PBSC”) is Florida's first public community college. Established in 1933,
PBSC has been recognized as a premier two-year institution, lauded for achievement at the local, state
and national level. PBSC has over 48,000 students enrolled in over 100 programs of study. Currently,
PBSC offers an Associate in Science degree, Associate in Arts degree and a College Credit Certificate in
Biotechnology. PBSC has four campuses in Palm Beach County: Belle Glade, Boca Raton, Lake Worth
and Palm Beach Gardens. Plans for a fifth PBSC campus to be built in Loxahatchee Groves were
recently announced.
Biotechnology Program
The Biotechnology Program is embarking on its seventh year with over 140 students. The program
continues to work closely with industry and institutional partners to deliver an innovative work-force
specific curriculum. The faculty is comprised of experienced scientists involved in academic research or
local bioscience companies. Scripps Florida scientists serve as Adjunct Professors in the Biotechnology
Program and provide valuable input regarding curriculum development and internships. PBSC continues
its paid internship program where students complete a research project at one of many regional research
or industrial laboratories. The program currently offers over 30 different internship opportunities for its
graduates and has successfully placed graduates in full-time employment. The program was awarded a
grant from the National Science Foundation to implement outreach programs to increase student
enrollment and retention in biotechnology programs and careers.
Connecting to the Community
The Biotechnology Program at Palm Beach State College (PBSC) has expanded its outreach efforts
deeper into the education sector of Palm Beach County. Program staff connects with local elementary
and high schools, giving young aspiring scientists an opportunity to conduct hands-on science
experiments such as isolation of DNA from strawberries, mammalian cell culture, and RNA isolation.
Program staff brought equipment and reagents to Palm Beach Lakes High School and outreached to
Suncoast High School, and gave the students the opportunity to learn about the scientific method and
record-keeping. Several high schools visited the lab facilities this year including Olympic Heights High
School, Seminole Ridge High School, John I Leonard High School, Forest Hill High School, and
Boynton Beach High School, iGeneration Empowerment Academy, Greenacres Elementary School, and
Prime Time. The program recently implemented a high school internship program, where local high
school students can work on real scientific projects and gain lab management experience in the
Biotechnology facilities.
The award-winning, no-cost, and highly competitive 8-week Math & Science Institute (MSI) was held
on campus this summer, bringing in dozens of students to gain hands-on training in Biotechnology,
Anatomy & Physiology, Mathematics (Calculus and Statistics), Environmental Sciences, and Physics.
But it wasn’t just students working in the labs during their summer break. The College also hosted over
30 high school science teachers for the Science Path Institute sponsored by a grant from the Quantum
Foundation. The teachers developed curricula and worked in the laboratory on chemistry modules they
could take back to their classrooms.
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This year the College also hosted the induction ceremony for the Palm Beach Gardens High School
chapter of the Science National Honor Society (SNHS). Chapter advisor Mr. Eric Edwards started off
the ceremony by introducing student officers, followed by short motivational talks by PBSC Associate
Dean Dr. Robert J. Van der Velde, Biotechnology Director Dr. Becky Mercer, and Palm Beach Gardens
Community School Director Mr. Arty Falk. Following the ceremony students and their parents enjoyed
cake and a tour of the biotechnology labs.
The College also held several scientific events including the bi-annual Student Poster Symposium,
Biotechnology Awareness Week, a Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) workshop with Nutrition
students, a Food Fraud webinar, and a Biotechnology Oktoberfest which included live demonstrations of
beer, wine, cheese, and bread production-- food items whose production requires fermentation involving
biotechnology. The program is working with the art department on the Art of Science exhibit on
campus next Spring, which will showcase student art focusing on the themes of DNA & Genetics, The
Cell, and Scientific Containers. The goal is to increase awareness of the beauty, power, and human
applications of science.
Student Employment Growth
The Biotechnology program has seen significant gains in student employment following graduation. In
2013, students and recent and graduates received full-time employment offers from numerous county
biotechnology companies including Somahlution (Jupiter), Sancilio & Company (Riviera Beach), Akron
Biotech (Boca Raton), Biotest Pharmaceuticals (Boca Raton), Boca Biolistics (Boca Raton), Dyadic
International (Jupiter), as well as the non-profit Scripps Research Institute, Florida (Jupiter). We are
thrilled that our students’ efforts are paying off in exciting careers in the biotechnology field. These
successes validate the rigor and quality of our faculty, facilities, and curriculum, and confirm the ability
of Palm Beach County to provide a trained life sciences workforce.
Strengthening Chemistry Education
Academically, the Biotechnology program is modifying the curricula to increase student success and
completion. Chemistry is a central foundation science for fields such as biology, biochemistry,
biotechnology, and professional programs such as nursing, pharmacy, medical and graduate schools.
The Biotechnology AA and AS degrees require two years of chemistry, starting with General Chemistry
1 and ending with Organic Chemistry 2. Unfortunately, many students delay enrolling in chemistry,
which delays graduation and creates knowledge gaps. As a result, the program is modifying the pre- and
co-requisite courses to require early Chemistry coursework, starting in the student’s first year. This will
help students graduate on time and improve preparedness for higher level courses.
Research Park at Florida Atlantic University
3651 FAU Boulevard, Suite 400
Boca Raton, FL 33431
(561)416-6092
www.research-park.org
The Research Park at Florida Atlantic University is the only state university affiliated research park
in South Florida, and is home to 22 high tech, high wage companies and five support organizations. In
addition, the Research Park at Florida Atlantic University operates the premier Technology Business
Incubator (TBI) in the region which is managed by a very successful regional economic development
engine, Enterprise Development Corporation of South Florida (EDC). Also housed in the TBI, New
World Angels, a structured angel investor group and the Institute for the Commercialization of Public
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
65
Research, a clearing house for Florida’s technology transfer offices and other publicly funded research
institutes.
The Research Park at Florida Atlantic University (Research Park) has continued to collaborate with
FAU to bring discoveries to market in order to foster economic development of South Florida. The
Technology Business Incubator® works with both INTERACT II and Eco Neurologics. These
companies are products of FAU’s faculty. The former is a software that helps hospital and long-term
care facilities coordinate better patient care, minimizing unneeded re-hospitalizations, which are
penalized under the Affordable Care Act. Eco Neurologics develops novel drugs that are medically
relevant for febrile epilepsy, migraine and brain injury during stroke.
The critical mass of companies in the Research Park itself has developed around healthcare IT and
health sciences. Mobile Help has a device that allows those with disabilities to remain independent in
their own homes. Modernizing Medicine uses the iPad to generate accurate and efficient electronic
health records, and is ranked by Forbes as one of the most promising companies in the United States.
Modernizing Medicine recently secured a new round of investment totaling $14M. FAU’s simulation
center is housed in the Research Park and allows first responders and healthcare professionals simulate
various scenarios in order to be better prepared to treat patients under stress.
The Research Park is actively pursuing an expansion of its footprint to northern Palm Beach County in
order to be better positioned to help the state maximize the return on its investments in Scripps Florida
and Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience. It aims to create an incubator focused on the life
sciences, to bring discoveries to the market place in close proximity to their founders. In addition it
hopes create a research park campus where the life sciences private sector can interact with education
and research institutes.
Workforce Alliance, Inc.
315 South Dixie Hwy., Suite 102
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
(561)340-1061
www.pbcalliance.com
Workforce Alliance, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation chartered by the State of Florida. The organization
operates a workforce development system in Palm Beach County that is responsive to the needs of both
business customers and job seekers. Together with leaders from business, government, education and
community agencies, Workforce Alliance links businesses in need of qualified employees with
individuals seeking employment opportunities. Workforce Alliance operates three Career Centers
(South, Central and West) and two Professional Placement Network locations in Palm Beach County.
The organization administers an annual budget of approximately $20 million.
During the period October 1, 2012 to September 30, 2013, Workforce Alliance worked with life science
companies, industry organizations and other stakeholders to promote both the awareness of this targeted
cluster and the growth of the talent pool needed to help these businesses grow in a highly competitive
marketplace. We accomplished this by building a talent pipeline, providing training grants and placing
qualified talent into available positions.
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
66
Specifically, Workforce Alliance has:
1.
Provided just over $101,370 in training grants to life science and healthcare companies to
facilitate job placement and avoid layoffs.
2.
Conducted a BioFlorida Emerging Leaders Network event at Scripps Florida in January,
attended by all but one university in the Palm Beach/Treasure Coast region. A change in
leadership in BioFlorida led to a delay in further activity as additional direction is needed.
3.
Served as co-chair for the Palm Beach/Treasure Coast chapter of BioFlorida. Assisted with
the chapter’s refocused efforts and with the development of two events, with a third coming
up in November 2013.
4.
Posted job orders for companies seeking talent. Recruited, screened and assessed applicants
for life science companies.
5.
Collaborated with BioFlorida, LST Hub and BAS Florida, with promoting local life science
events, such as the Neurons and Networking event held at Max Planck on July 24th.
6.
Used regional events to introduce local talent to businesses. These introductions help inform
and educate businesses as to the talent available locally and are critical to making talent aware
of local companies and career opportunities
7.
Member of the Palm Beach State College Biotechnology Program’s Business Partnership
Council. The Council seeks industry and partner input to insure the program’s alignment with
industry needs.
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
67
APPENDIX 3
Subsection (14) (e)
A compliance and financial audit of the accounts and records of the corporation at the end of the
preceding fiscal year conducted by an independent certified public accountant in accordance with
rules of the Auditor General.
Please see “SFFC 2013 Audit.”
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
68
APPENDIX 4
Detailed Listing of Scripps Florida Outreach Activities, including Education, Community and
Business Outreach.
Education Outreach Scientists at Scripps Florida have offered education outreach programs to Palm
Beach County’s middle and high school science teachers and students since 2004. The programs
described in Subsections (10)(f) and (10)(g) define the goals of Scripps Florida’s K-12 education
programs: to work directly with students and teachers, to help develop instructional materials, and to
contribute to science literacy in Palm Beach County and the State of Florida. Since initiating its
outreach program, Scripps Florida has been invited to speak about its efforts in science education with
Florida State Department of Education, Florida Council of 100, State University System of Florida
Board of Governors, and STEM Florida. To date, more than eight thousand students, teachers, and
community members of Palm Beach County have participated in the Scripps Florida Education
Outreach programs.
Following is a list of Scripps Florida Education Outreach activities from the past fiscal year:
3-Oct-12
10-Oct-12
14-Oct-12
15-Oct-12
16-Oct-12
17-Oct-12
17-Oct-12
17-Oct-12
22-Oct-12
24-Oct-12
25-Oct-12
30-Oct-12
1-Nov-12
3-Nov-12
5-Nov-12
7-Nov-12
13-Nov-12
14-Nov-12
6-Dec-12
8-Dec-12
10-Dec-12
12-Dec-12
13-Dec-12
Laura Niedernhofer
Dawn Johnson
Brian Paegel
William R. Roush
Leach-Scampavia, Pyle
Dawn Johnson
William R. Roush
Leach-Scampavia, Pyle, Stowe,
Pedzisz, Weiser, MacConnell
Gavin Rumbaugh
Leach-Scamapvia, Stowe,
Voren, Weiser, MacConnell
Paul Kenny
Leach-Scampavia
Leach-Scampavia
Leach-Scampavia, Pyle,
Albarran-Zeckler, Walsh,
Feretti, Scampavia, Peterson,
Sitaula
Dawn Johnson
Leach-Scampavia, Weiser,
Ferretti, MacConnell, Marciano
Katrin Karbstein
Leach-Scampavia, Stowe,
Hardy, Voren, Pedzisa
Paul Robbins
Leach-Scampavia, Pyle
Johnson, Leach-Scampavia
Leach-Scampavia, Pyle, Stowe,
MacConnell, Lizote, Weiser
Jeremy Pyle, Brian Paegel
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
Thesis committee meeting Kaitlin Farrell Tufts University
Florida Atlantic University LCME Prep
TSRI Kellogg School of Science and Technology Retreat, Lake Arrowhead, CA
TSRI Kellogg School of Science and Technology Retreat, Lake Arrowhead, CA
Showcase of Schools, P.B. Co. Fairgrounds
Florida Atlantic University LCME Site Visit
LCME Site Visit - Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL
Career panel at Palm Beach Gardens High School
Thesis Defense with graduate student Cristin Gavin
Career Panel A.W. Dreyfoos High School
Judge - poster presentations - Research Fest, TSRI
DIL high school P.B.County School District
DIL middle school P.B.County School District
Science Saturday Title I High Schools P.B. Co.
Florida Atlantic University Honors College Board Meeting
Career Panel at Jupiter High School
Invited Speaker - TSRI Retreat, La Jolla, CA
Career Panel
Lillian Laemmie - Thesis committee meeting, University of Pittsburgh
Public Education Day - MFPI/Scripps FL
Meeting with Drs. Mark Goldstein and Julie Servoss, Florida Atlantic University
Career Panel Spanish River HS
Science Fair Awards P.B. Co.
69
17-Jun-13
16-Jul-13
12-Aug-13
29-Aug-13
Leach-Scampavia, AlbarranZeckler
Brock Grill
Brock Grill
Leach-Scampavia, Pyle
Leach -Scampavia, AlbarranZeckler
Leach-Scampavia, Pyle,
Albarran-Zeckler,
Leach -Scampavia, AlbarranZeckler, Trivigno, Walsh
Deborah Leach-Scampavia
Deborah Leach-Scampavia
Leach-Scampavia, AlbarranZeckler
Leach-Scampavia, AlbarranZeckler, Pyle, Stowe
Deborah Leach-Scampavia
Paul Robbins
Leach-Scampavia, AlbarranZeckler
William R. Roush
Leach-Scampavia
Johnson, Noble
Leach-Scampavia, AlbarranZeckler, Pyle, Johnson, Stahl,
Rios, Kondur
Rosie Albarran-Zeckler
Spicer, Baillargeon
Deborah Leach-Scampavia
Laura Niedernhofer
William R. Roush
Corinne Lasmezas
Leach-Scampavia, AlbarranZeckler
Paul Robbins
Roy Smith, Andrew Butler
Andrew Butler
Kate Carroll
20-Sep-13
25-Jul-13
17-Sep-13
2-Jul-13
3-Jul-13
3-Jul-13
15-Jul-13
16-Jul-13
25-Sep-13
Katrin Karbstein
Damon Page
Srinivasa Subramaniam
Smith, Zheng
Smith, Dolores Lamb
Smith, Garcia, MD, Ph.D.
Roy Smith
Smith, Andrew Butler
Dawn Johnson
17-Dec-12
20-Dec-12
20-Dec-12
28-Dec-12
10-Jan-13
11-Jan-13
18-Jan-13
28-Jan-13
8-Feb-13
14-Feb-13
16-Feb-13
21-Feb-13
28-Feb-13
14-Mar-13
16-Mar-13
4-Apr-13
4-Apr-13
6-Apr-13
11-Apr-13
7-May-13
15-May-13
28-May-13
3-Jun-13
6-Jun-13
10-Jun-13
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
Okeeheelee Middle School
Ph.D. Committee for Erik Tulgren
Ph.D. candidacy exam for Scott Baker
Palm Beach County Education Commission
Spanish DNA lesson - Santaluces HS
Career Fair Suncoast HS
InSPIRE Middle School Teacher Workshop
Palm Beach County School District Accreditation
Roosevelt Middle School Advisory Board
International Teacher/Scientist Conference
AAAS Nat'l Conference
Palm Beach County School Board
Lolita Nidadavolu - Thesis committee meeting, University of Pittsburgh
Girl Scout science lesson
plenary speaker, 1st South Florida Academic Leadership Symposium
Magnet Board Meeting - PB Gardens HS
Youth Leadership Presentation for Leadership Palm Beach County
Neuroscience Saturday Title I High Schools in PB County
NSTA Nat'l Conference
Marshe Point Elementary School visit
PB Gardens Advisory Board
Thesis committee meeting for Lolita Nidadavolu, University of Pittsburgh
Ph.D. Examination Committee - Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL
Summer Undergraduate Intern - Gautam Satishchandran - University of MA
Teacher professional development for PB County School District
Mentor Ashley McMichaels
Meeting - Diana Williams, Assistant Professor of Psychology, FSU
Advisory Committee Member Meeting for Sadichha Sitaula Thesis Defense
Rockefeller University, New York, NY - Dr. Howard Hang
The Benjamin School - presentation for 2nd graders: "The awesome power of
yeast"
Florida Theme Committee Meeting (Graduate Program), TSRI, Jupiter, FL
FAU Boca Raton campus speaker: Mechanisms for selective neurodegeration.
Collaborative meeting at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Collaborative meeting at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Collaborative meeting at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX
Thesis Committee/Ph.D. Defense - Sid Borregowda
Meeting - Diana Williams, Assistant Professor of Psychology, FSU
Palm Beach County State College Meeting
70
Community Outreach Scripps Florida community outreach has offered opportunities for the public to
gain insight into cutting edge biomedical research while providing opportunities for Scripps Florida
faculty and staff to respond to the interest in Scripps Florida biomedical research from the residents of
Palm Beach County.
This Fiscal Year’s Community Outreach included the following events:
18-Sep-12
20-Sep-12
Barbara Noble
Briana Weiser
26-Sep-12
Kirill Martemyanov
2-Oct-12
9-Oct-12
Barbara Noble
Laura Niedernhofer
12-Oct-12
John Cleveland
13-Oct-12
15-Oct-12
18-Oct-12
11-Nov-12
13-Nov-12
13-Nov-12
13-Nov-12
14-Nov-12
15-Nov-12
20-Nov-12
3-Dec-12
4-Dec-12
5-Dec-12
5-Dec-12
John Cleveland
Paul Kenny
Alex Bruner, Ben Starling,
Barbara Noble, Susan Rode
Barbara Noble
Deborah Leach-Scampavia,
Alex Bruner
John Cleveland
Alex Bruner
Alex Bruner, Ben Starling,
Barbara Noble
Roy Smith
Christoph Rader
Bruner, Starling, Noble, Rode
Peter Hodder
Tim Tellinghuisen
Bruner, Starling, Noble
Christoph Rader
Noble, Rode
Barbara Noble
Alex Bruner
Krishnappa, Boregowda
5-Dec-12
13-Dec-12
17-Dec-12
20-Dec-12
27-Dec-12
28-Dec-12
9-Jan-13
9-Jan-13
15-Jan-13
Roy Smith
Roy Smith
John Cleveland
Barbara Noble
Bruner, Noble
John Cleveland
Ben Starling
Roy Smith
Bruner, Starling, Noble, Rode
Prader Willi Foundation Golf Classic Kickoff Party - Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Seaview Radio Interview to promote Prader Willi Classic
Cancer and Aging working group
BB&T Community Outreach Event, Scripps Florida
WFCR Community Outreach Event, Scripps Florida
ACSRelay for Life kick off
Association of Fundraising Professionals Board Meeting
Palm Beach Post Interview re: Prader Willi Classic and research project
Scripps Florida Council Meeting
15-Jan-13
15-Jan-13
17-Jan-13
17-Jan-13
17-Jan-13
Paul Robbins
Laura Niedernhofer
Ben Starling
Damon Page
Christoph Rader
Scripps FL Council presentation.
Scripps FL Council presentation
Association of Fundraising Professionals Meeting
Mental Health Association of Palm Beach County, FL
Invited Speaker - Merrill Lynch visit at Scripps Florida
23-Oct-12
23-Oct-12
24-Oct-12
3-Nov-12
11-Nov-12
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
Boynton Beach Chamber of Commerce Community Event Presentation
Connecting Emerging Leaders in the Life Sciences (CELLS) Large-scale
networking event Scripps Florida
Heart Talk Future of Medicine Summit, Palm Beach Medical Society
Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Meeting
CBS Channel 12 evening news television interview on telomere-lengthening
drug
Frenchmen's Creek for Cancer Research (FCWCR) and PGA Women's Cancer
Awareness Day (WCAD) Meetings
Key Speaker C.U.R.E. Cutting-Edge Understanding of Research & Education
Society for Neuroscience Press Conference
Scripps Florida Council Executive Committee Meeting
North Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce Women's Awards Luncheon
CCIM presentations
American Cancer Society (ACS) Relay For Life/Tequesta
Jewish Community Center of the Greater Palm Beaches Groundbreaking
TSRI Trustee Dinner - O'Keeffe Founders Room Dedication
Ester O'Keefe Foundation Dinner
Invited Speaker - Scripps Florida Counsel
Scripps Florida Council Meeting
Global A-T Neuroscience and Drug Discovery Forum panelist, Herndon, VA
TARAS Foundation - Jupiter Seminar
Association of Fundraising Professionals - National Philanthropy Day Luncheon
Invited Speaker - Immunochemistry Symposium at Scripps Florida
WFCR Community Outreach Event
PNC Community Outreach Event South Florida Science Museum
The Alpert Jewish Family and Children's Services Honoree luncheon
Interview in Phinney Lab provided to Alex Sanz, WPTV News
71
18-Jan-13
19-Jan-13
19-Jan-13
20-Jan-13
23-Jan-13
31-Jan-13
Barbara Noble, Smith
Barbara Noble
Roy Smith
Barbara Noble
Noble, Rode
Noble, Bruner, Starling, Rode
Prader Willi Dinner & Auction to Benefit Prader Willi Research at SF
LPGA Pro Am Prader Willi golf tournament
Prader Willi Foundation Golf Tournament, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Fraternal Order of Eagles Community Outreach Presentation
PGA WCAD Shop and Share Day for Cancer Research
Kick-Off Cocktail Reception: Scripps Education Day, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
2-Feb-13
4-Feb-13
5-Feb-13
5-Feb-13
Cellebrate Science Community Outreach Event, Palm Beach Gardens Mall
Scripps Discovers Virtual Exploration Community Outreach Event
Courageous Science - Colony Hotel - Palm Beach
Courageous Science Community Outreach Event
5-Feb-13
9-Feb-13
18-Feb-13
20-Feb-13
20-Feb-13
Scripps-wide
Alex Bruner
Grill, Subramaniam, Tomchik
Bruner, Starling, Noble, Rode,
Davis, Rumbaugh,
Martemyanov, Puthanveettil,
Davis, Page
Srinivasa Subramaniam
Noble, Rode
Laura Niedernhofer
Ben Starling
Laura Niedernhofer
20-Feb-13
25-Feb-13
Ron Davis
Laura Niedernhofer
26-Feb-13
Courageous Science Community Outreach Event
10-May-13
Bruner, Starling, Noble, Rode,
Cleveland
Ben Starling
Alex Bruner
John Cleveland
Tim Tellinghuisen
Bruner, Nettles
John Cleveland
Bruner, Starling, Noble, Rode,
Blinder
Bruner, Starling, Noble, Rode,
Smith, Blinder, Robbins,
Niedernhofer, Smith, Miller,
Rumbuugh
Srinivasa Subramaniam
Laura Niedernhofer
John Cleveland
Bruner, Duckett
Noble, Page
Gavin Rumbaugh
Ron Davis, Damon Page
John Cleveland
Derek Duckett
Bruner, Starling, Noble,
LoGrasso, Johnson, Rode,
Johnson, Leach-Scampavia
Bruner, Starling, Noble, Rode,
Blinder
John Cleveland
14-Jun-13
20-Jun-13
Noble, Page
Ben Starling
FOE Conference, Daytona, Florida
Association of Fundraising Professionals Meeting
27-Feb-13
6-Mar-13
6-Mar-13
7-Mar-13
9-Mar-13
11-Mar-13
19-Mar-13
19-Mar-13
23-Mar-13
25-Mar-13
27-Mar-13
7-Apr-13
11-Apr-13
17-Apr-13
17-Apr-13
20-Apr-13
22-Apr-13
2-May-13
9-May-13
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
"How the Brain Works" - Colony Hotel
PGA WCAD Community Events for Scripps Florida Cancer Research
Forum Club at Palm Beach Convention Center
PBA: Women of Distinction Awards Ceremony
Press conference with Congressmen Patrick Murphy, Ted Deutsch and Lois
Frankel on sequestration
VIP tour and presentations, TSRI Scripps Florida
CBS evening news television interview on Sequestration
BallenIsles Charitable Foundation Meeting
BallenIsles Golf Tournament for Prostate Cancer Research at Scripps Florida
Tour of Miami Children’s Hospital, Round table
Science Fair Judge at the Western Academy Charter School
W. B. Ingalls Memorial Prostate Seminar Community Outreach Event
PGA WCAD Meeting
Scripps Florida Council Meeting
Courageous Science Community Outreach Event
Radio interview with Anita Finley: Brain and disorders
Interviewed by Palm Beach Post on Sequestration
FCWCR meeting and Madeline Albright, Palm Beach County Convention Center
Florida Brain Cancer 5k
PNC Wealth Management Community Outreach Presentation, Vero Beach, FL
Richard and Carolyn Sloane Event
Ocean Via Realty, Palm Beach, FL
American Cancer Society Relay For Life
Rendina Family Foundation/Speaker on Brain Cancer, Jupiter, FL
Courageous Science Community Outreach Event
Donor Recognition Community Outreach Event
Think Pink Kids Dance, Wellington High School
72
18-Jul-13
24-Jul-13
26-Jul-13
29-Jul-13
5-Aug-13
7-Aug-13
13-Aug-13
13-Aug-13
14-Aug-13
19-Aug-13
22-Aug-13
27-Aug-13
27-Aug-13
30-Aug-13
3-Sep-13
Alex Bruner
Courtney Miller
Dawn Johnson
Courtney Miller
Paul Kenny
Roy Smith
Paul Kenny
Paul Kenny
Paul Kenny
Dawn Johnson
Alex Bruner
Paul Kenny
Dawn Johnson
Paul Kenny
Dawn Johnson
6-Sep-13
17-Sep-13
Dawn Johnson
Ben Starling
La Posada Community Outreach Event - Jupiter, FL
Palm Beach Post lab tour
Tour for Senator Latvala and University of Miami
Palm Beach Post Interview
Interview with Jamie Talan, Neurology Today
Ira Levine - Prader Willi Research Donor
Interview with Ruth Williams, The Scientist
Interview with Cristy Gelling, Science News
Interview with Brenda Goodman, Healthday News
Forum Event with Senator Bill Nelson
Parkland Community Outreach Event - Scripps Florida
Interview with Brigitta Gundersen, Nature Neuroscience
Workshop in Palm Beach County Commission Chambers
Interview with Daniel Weiner, Yale Daily News
Tour for Greg Langowski, Regional Director Senator Marco Rubio and Michelle
McGovern, Regional Director Senator Bill Nelson
Tour for Senator Negron
Jay Ministries Community Outreach Event - Lake Park, FL
Business Outreach
Business outreach efforts include participation in meetings facilitated by local business and government
agencies such as the Palm Beach County Business Development Board. Additionally, Scripps Florida is
active with the Florida Research Consortium, BioFlorida and the South Florida Science Museum. Local
efforts involve presentations to community groups, various cultural organizations, and specialty groups.
The following list contains those efforts on behalf of SF in terms of business outreach:
7-Oct-12
9-Oct-12
10-Oct-12
11-Oct-12
14-Oct-12
15-Oct-12
16-Oct-12
18-Oct-12
22-Oct-12
24-Oct-12
26-Oct-12
30-Oct-12
7-Nov-12
7-Nov-12
9-Nov-12
12-Nov-12
17-Nov-12
19-Nov-12
20-Nov-12
26-Nov-12
27-Nov-12
1-Dec-12
1-Dec-12
Dawn Johnson
Dawn Johnson
Thomas Burris
Dawn Johnson
Paul Kenny
Thomas Burris
John Cleveland
Laura Niedernhofer
Thomas Burris
Thomas Burris
Bruner, Noble
Davis, Page
Ben Starling
Laura Niedernhofer
Bruner, Starling, Noble
John Cleveland
Ben Starling
Laura Niedernhofer
Ron Davis
Davis, Page
Thomas Burris
Ben Starling
Thomas Burris
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
BioFlorida Annual Meeting
North Palm Beach County Chamber Event-Bill Nelson
Debiopharm Group
Meeting with Jack Sullivan, Florida Research Consortium
Pariticpant - Pfizer Corporation SfN Scientific Exchange
Osage Ventures
CyVek meeting, Per Hellsund, Rajiv Pande
Meeting with Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. in Jupiter
Merck & Co., Inc.
Osage Ventures
Forum Club of the Palm Beaches
Renaissance Learning Center Board Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
YMCA Breakfast Meeting
Conference call with Cell Research Laboratories LLC
Forum Club of the Palm Beaches
Marcia Pounds, Sun Sentinel
PBA Alumni Board Meeting
Conference call with Ken Beer - West Palm Beach Dermatologist
St. Mary's Board of Governor's Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
Renaissance Learning Center Board Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
Novartis
Palm Beach County Medical Society
Index Ventures
73
5-Dec-12
12-Dec-12
12-Dec-12
19-Dec-12
3-Jan-13
7-Jan-13
8-Jan-13
10-Jan-13
15-Jan-13
17-Jan-13
18-Jan-13
21-Jan-13
22-Jan-13
23-Jan-13
25-Jan-13
25-Jan-13
25-Jan-13
25-Jan-13
28-Jan-13
29-Jan-13
29-Jan-13
29-Jan-13
4-Feb-13
5-Feb-13
6-Feb-13
8-Feb-13
11-Feb-13
12-Feb-13
14-Feb-13
18-Feb-13
19-Feb-13
21-Feb-13
22-Feb-13
25-Feb-13
26-Feb-13
27-Feb-13
6-Mar-13
7-Mar-13
7-Mar-13
9-Mar-13
9-Mar-13
11-Mar-13
12-Mar-13
12-Mar-13
13-Mar-13
13-Mar-13
14-Mar-13
15-Mar-13
15-Mar-13
Laura Niedernhofer
Dawn Johnson
John Cleveland
Paul Kenny
Thomas Burris
Bruner, Starling, Noble
Alex Bruner
Dawn Johnson
Peter Hodder
Dawn Johnson
John Cleveland
Christoph Rader
Ron Davis
Ben Starling
Dawn Johnson
Johnson, Bruner, Noble
Peter Hodder
Ron Davis, Damon Page
Thomas Burris
Susana Valente
Peter Hodder
Davis, Page
Alex Bruner
Dawn Johnson
Peter Hodder
Michael Farzan
Bruner, Noble
Alex Bruner
John Cleveland
Ben Starling
Ron Davis
Thomas Burris
Ben Starling
Thomas Burris
Ron Davis, Damon Page
Bruner, Starling, Noble
Ron Davis
Seth Tomchik
Dawn Johnson
Ben Starling
Ben Starling
Laura Niedernhofer
Alex Bruner
Thomas Burris
John Cleveland
Thomas Burris
Thomas Burris
Dawn Johnson
Thomas Burris
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
Conference call with Cell Research Laboratories LLC
Hal Valeche, Campus tour
Hal Valeche, PBC Commissioner
Pfizer, Cambridge, MA
Astra Zeneca
Forum Club of the Palm Beaches
Planned Giving Council Meeting
BIOFL Call: proposed 2013 BioFlorida Legislative Priorities
Takeda California, San Diego, CA, USA
Slovak Ambassador, Mr. Peter Kmec
Korman meeting
Meeting with industry collaborators - MacroGenics, Inc., Rockville, MD
St. Mary's Board of Governor's Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
Palm Beach Round Table
BioFlorida January Board Meeting
Forum Club of the Palm Beaches
Ember Therapeutics, Boston, MA, USA
Leadership Palm Beach County FOCUS Class, TSRI, Jupiter, FL
Phenex Pharmaceuticals
GSK, Raleigh meeting
Virscidian, Raleigh, NC, USA
Renaissance Learning Center Board Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
Forum Club of the Palm Beaches
BioFlorida Legislative Day
BioMotiv, Cleveland, OH, USA
meet with P01 collaborators and sub-contractors, Boston, MA
Forum Club of the Palm Beaches
Planned Giving Council Meeting
Fundraiser, PGA WCAD luncheon at PGA Resort
Pundits - US Chamber of Commerce
St. Mary's Board of Governor's Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
Phenex Pharmaceuticals
Palm Beach County Medical Society
Osage Ventures
Renaissance Learning Center Board Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
Forum Club of the Palm Beaches
Miami Children's Hospital, Miami, FL
NIH Special Emphasis Panel ZRG1 BBBP-T (52) Meeting
Speak to BDB/Site Consultants plus local politicians at Max Planck Florida Institute
Palm Beach County Medical Society Committee Meeting
PBA Alumni Board Meeting
DNA Repair Advisory Board: Biomarkers in Homologous Recombination
Planned Giving Council Meeting
Phenex Pharmaceuticals
Korman meeting
Index Ventures
Merck & Co., Inc.
4th annual Women’s Leadership Forum, Florida Atlantic University
Index Ventures
74
19-Mar-13
19-Mar-13
19-Mar-13
20-Mar-13
21-Mar-13
21-Mar-13
21-Mar-13
Ron Davis, Damon Page
Ron Davis
Thomas Burris
Michael Farzan
Christoph Rader
Ben Starling
Susana Valente
26-Mar-13
28-Mar-13
29-Mar-13
29-Mar-13
3-Apr-13
4-Apr-13
9-Apr-13
9-Apr-13
10-Apr-13
17-Apr-13
17-Apr-13
18-Apr-13
22-Apr-13
23-Apr-13
24-Apr-13
24-Apr-13
26-Apr-13
29-Apr-13
30-Apr-13
1-May-13
2-May-13
6-May-13
7-May-13
8-May-13
9-May-13
9-May-13
9-May-13
10-May-13
16-May-13
24-May-13
28-May-13
31-May-13
7-Jun-13
8-Jun-13
8-Jun-13
11-Jun-13
12-Jun-13
13-Jun-13
13-Jun-13
18-Jun-13
19-Jun-13
Barbara Noble
Gavin Rumbaugh
Bruner, Starling, Noble
Thomas Burris
Seth Tomchik
Alex Bruner
Roy Periana
Alex Bruner
Sathya Puthanveettil
Dawn Johnson
Paul Robbins
Michael Farzan
Bruner, Starling, Noble
Periana, Hashiguchi
Roy Periana
Paul Kenny
Peter Hodder
Paul Kenny
Ron Davis
Barbara Noble
Barbara Noble
Periana, Policastro
Roy Periana
Peter Hodder
Starling, Noble
Dawn Johnson
Dawn Johnson
Peter Hodder
Roy Smith
Bruner, Starling, Noble
Davis, Page
Thomas Burris
John Cleveland
Laura Niedernhofer
Laura Niedernhofer
Ben Starling
Michael Farzan
Barbara Noble
Dawn Johnson
Peter Hodder
Baoji Xu
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
Renaissance Learning Center Board Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
St. Mary's Board of Governor's Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
Osage Ventures
Meeting with P01 collaborators and sub-contractors, Boston, MA
Meeting with industry collaborators (NBE-Therapeutices, Inc., Basel, Switzerland
Palm Beach County Medical Society Committee Meeting
In Memory of Dr. A. Donny Strosberg: FROM BENCH TO BOARDROOM:
Strategies for Building a Thriving Biotechnology Sector
Women & Wealth Luncheon & Presentation by Wilmington Trust
Washington DC for NIH grant review
Forum Club of the Palm Beaches
Eli Lilly and Company
54th Annual Drosophila Research Conference
Fellowship of Christians and Jews Meeting
First Green Partners meeting at Scripps Florida
Planned Giving Council Meeting
Washington DC to be on panel review for NSF
Northern Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce
TissueGene SAB meeting
meet with P01 collaborators and sub-contractors, Boston, MA
Forum Club of the Palm Beaches
FPL Experiment Demo at Scripps Florida
First Green Partners meeting at Scripps Florida
Conference with Karen Dodge of The Hanley Center, West Palm Beach, FL
Cenexys, San Francisco, CA, USA
Invited speaker - Pfizer, Cambridge, MA
Renaissance Learning Center Board Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
Palm Beach County School District Meeting
Executive Women of the Palm Beaches Women in Leadership Awards luncheon
Braemar Energy Ventures Meeting at Scripps Florida
First Green Partners meeting at Scripps Florida
Roche, Nutley, NJ, USA
Palm Beach County Medical Society Heroes in Medicine Awards Luncheon
BioFlorida Board Meeting
Florida Research Consortium Board Meeting
DavosPharma, Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA
Claudio Pietra and Robert Northrup, Helsinn
Forum Club of the Palm Beaches
Renaissance Learning Center Board Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
Pharma Partnering in Research & Strategy
Press Conference with Congressman Deutsch, RE: NIH sequestration, FAU, Boca
Conference call with Cell Research Laboratories LLC
Conference call with Cell Research Laboratories LLC
PBA Breakfast Meeting
Meeting with P01 collaborators and sub-contractors, Boston, MA
North Palm Chamber Leadership Awards Dinner
North Palm Beach County Chamber Leadership Awards Dinner
Ardelyx, Fremont, CA, USA
NSD-C study section
75
21-Jun-13
22-Jun-13
25-Jun-13
25-Jun-13
27-Jun-13
3-Jul-13
19-Jul-13
21-Jul-13
7/22-23/13
24-Jul-13
24-Jul-13
24-Jul-13
25-Jul-13
30-Jul-13
31-Jul-13
7-Aug-13
19-Aug-13
20-Aug-13
23-Aug-13
27-Aug-13
8-Sep-13
9/16-17/13
18-Sep-13
19-Sep-13
19-Sep-13
20-Sep-13
Alex Bruner
Ben Starling
Ben Starling
Ron Davis, Damon Page
Alex Bruner
Ron Davis, Damon Page
Kate Carroll
Kate Carroll
Roy Smith
Ron Davis. Dawn Johnson
Dawn Johnson
Dawn Johnson
Dawn Johnson
Damon Page
Ron Davis
Alex Bruner
Alex Bruner, Ben Starling
Roy Smith
Dawn Johnson
Damon Page
Kate Carroll
Dawn Johnson
Ben Starling
Alex Bruner, Ben Starling
Ben Starling
Dawn Johnson
23-Sep-13
24-Sep-13
25-Sep-13
Ben Starling
Ron Davis, Damon Page
Dawn Johnson
Planned Giving Council Board Meeting
Palm Beach Atlantic Alumni Board Meeting
PBC Medical Society - Strategy Meeting
Renaissance Learning Center Board Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
Palm Beach Investment Research Group Meeting
Meeting with Renaissance Learning Center Principals, Scripps Florida
Invited Speaker, Pfizer Inc., Cambridge, MA
Invited Speaker, The Protein Society, Boston, MA
Scientific Advisory Board Meeting - Ammonett Pharm - Reson, VA
Meeting and Tour with CEO of Economic Council on Scripps Florida campus
Danny Martell, new CEO of the Economic Council
Life Science Technology (LST Hub) Networking Event
Northern Palm Beach Chamber Board of Directors Meeting
Renaissance Learning Center Board Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
St. Mary's Board Orientation, West Palm Beach, FL
Harvard Club of the Palm Beaches Luncheon
Forum Club of the Palm Beaches
Teleconference: Ammonett Pharma and Novartis Venture Funds
Florida Research Consortium Committee Conference Call
Renaissance Learning Center Board Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
Invited Speaker, American Chemical Society, Indianapolis, IN
BioFlorida Annual Meeting and Board Meeting
HOW Advisory Board Meeting - West Palm Beach, FL
Forum Club of the Palm Beaches
Palm Beach Medical Society Meeting
Northern Palm Beach Chamber / Government Affairs Meeting re: Life Sciences
Funding
Bear Lakes Country Club w/ Gov. Rick Scott
Renaissance Learning Center Board Meeting, West Palm Beach, FL
Palm Beach County Business Development Board Meeting
This concludes the SFFC Annual Report.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at
(561)655-9669 or scrippscorp@bellsouth.net.
Scripps Florida Funding Corporation
Annual Report 2013
76