SCRIPPS DISCOVERS
Accele rating Discove r ies, S a ving L ives
A Newsletter for Philanthropists Published Quarterly by The Scripps Research Institute
SPRING 2011
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VOL 7
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NO 2
California-Florida
I N S T I T U T E U P D AT E
Scripps Research Names Michael Marletta as President
> Appointment Represents First Presidential Transition at the Institute in 25 Years
enowned biochemist Michael A. Marletta,
Ph.D., has been named by the Board of
Trustees as the next president of The
Scripps Research Institute, effective January 1,
2012. He will succeed President Richard A. Lerner,
M.D., who has led the institution for 25 years.
Marletta, past Chair of the Department
of Chemistry, Co-Director of the Chemical
Biology Graduate Program, Aldo DeBenedictis
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and
Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of
Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of
California (UC), Berkeley, will join the Scripps
Research faculty on July 1, 2011, and become
President and CEO January 1, 2012.
“We are thrilled Michael is assuming this
important role,” said Dick Gephardt, President/
CEO of Gephardt Government Affairs and Lead
Trustee of the Scripps Research Board of Trustees.
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Michael A. Marletta
“We are confident Michael’s leadership and vision
will ensure the Institute’s continued preeminence in
biomedical research and graduate education.”
“I am honored to be named to lead one of the
premier research institutions in the world,” said
Marletta. “Richard Lerner’s leadership over the past
25 years has been nothing short of brilliant. His
accomplishments as President coupled with a long
and distinguished research career, are simply
amazing. In addition to my excitement about being
asked to serve as president, I am thrilled about
moving my research program to Scripps Research
and working with my new Scripps Research
colleagues to push forward the Institute’s legacy
of creating knowledge, improving healthcare, and
educating the next generation of scientists.”
Like The Scripps Research Institute as a whole,
Marletta – a former recipient of the prestigious
continued on page 2
I N S T I T U T E U P D AT E
Inside:
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. . . Scripps Research Scientists Develop
Groundbreaking Technology to
Detect Alzheimer’s Disease
. . . Scientist Profile: Jamie Williamson
. . . Scripps Research Compound
Blocks Brain Cell Destruction in
Parkinson’s Disease
. . . Scripps Research Scientists Convert
Skin Cells to Beating Heart Cells
. . . Scripps Research Study Ranked
Among Time Magazine’s Top 10
. . . Remember Us in Your Will
BACK COVER:
Partners, Contact Us
Major Gift from Alex and Renate
Dreyfoos to Expand Research in Arthritis
and Joint Diseases at Scripps Florida
major new gift from a Trustee promises to expand the scope of research on the
Jupiter campus of The Scripps Research Institute. Alex Dreyfoos and his wife
Renate have announced plans to support a Program in Musculo-Skeletal Research
in the Department of Metabolism and Aging under the direction of Dr. Roy Smith.
Dr. Smith was recruited to the Scripps Florida faculty in 2008 from Baylor College
of Medicine where he directed the Huffington Center on Aging and where he taught
in both clinical and basic science departments. He has long been interested in speeding
continued on page 2
A
Michael Marletta,
CONTINUED
MacArthur Fellowship—has focused his research on the
intersection of chemistry and biology. He is acknowledged as a
pioneer in discovering the role of nitric oxide, a critical player
in communication between cells.
Lerner, who will continue to lead his groundbreaking research
program at the Institute after his tenure as president, said,
“Please join me in welcoming Michael Marletta to Scripps
Research. I have great confidence in his abilities and look
forward to working with him during the transition and beyond.
Given Michael’s expertise, we can be secure in the knowledge that
the flagship programs of the Institute will continue to thrive.”
“We are extremely pleased to announce Michael Marletta
as the next president of The Scripps Research Institute,” said
Alex and Renate Dreyfoos,
CONTINUED
Alex and Renate Dreyfoos
Julie and Amin Khoury
the flow of basic science discoveries to their clinical use, as shown
by his earlier service in the pharmaceutical industry as vice
president of biochemistry and physiology for Merck & Co.
The Scripps Florida study will explore metabolic processes
that affect the development and repair of bone and cartilage,
and the impact of arthritis and other joint diseases on healthy
tissue. Also participating in the study will be the first adjunct
faculty member on the Jupiter campus, Dr. Andrew Hodge,
who is a noted orthopedic surgeon in Palm Beach County.
Dr. Hodge has published dozens of articles in medical journals
and in 1987 he founded BioMotion’s Institute of Mobility
and Longevity, a research and education not-for-profit. He
also has designed and patented several orthopedic implants
2 | SCRIPPS DISCOVERS
Lawrence C. Horowitz, M.D., member of the Board of Trustees
and Chair of the Presidential Search Committee, who spoke
on behalf of the Committee as a whole. “His extensive and
distinguished professional background, passion for science and
education, and ability to lead strategically embody the ideal mix
of talent and vision to carry Scripps Research into the future.”
Horowitz added that the Board is deeply grateful to
Lerner for his extraordinary contributions, and expresses
confidence Lerner and Marletta will work together to assure
a seamless transition.
Celebrations welcoming Marletta, honoring Lerner,
and marking the 50th anniversary of the institute’s focus on
biomedical research are planned throughout the year.
SPRING 2011
and techniques which are being used successfully throughout
the world.
Through his international practice, Dr. Hodge has developed
a remarkable data base on bone and cartilage injury and disease
that spans America, Asia and the Middle East. He is fascinated
by the way in which joint injury and disease present in
different cultures. Alex Dreyfoos, an MIT graduate and MIT
life Trustee, came to know Dr. Hodge when Dr Hodge was
based at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital and
MIT’s Newman’s Laboratory for Bioengineering and Human
Rehabilitation. When Dr. Hodge relocated his practice to Palm
Beach County, they renewed their friendship. Alex was the
matchmaker that brought together the interests of the clinician
Hodge with the basic scientist Roy Smith.
Alex and Renate Dreyfoos are noted philanthropists in Palm
Beach County. The founder of Photo-Electronics Corporation,
Alex has served on the Board of Trustees of The Scripps
Research Institute since the earliest days of Scripps Florida.
Since making south Florida his home in the late 1960s, he
has worked to make the region an attractive community by
devoting his time and giving to education, the arts, and,
through Scripps Florida, to biomedical science. He founded
the Palm Beach County Council of the Arts, now the Palm
Beach County Cultural Council, and was instrumental in the
founding in West Palm Beach of the Kravis Center for the
Performing Arts, and in making the Dreyfoos School for the
Arts one of the nation’s leaders as a public magnet high school
focused on the visual and performing arts.
The Dreyfoos family’s support of musculo-skeletal research
builds on the earlier generosity of friend and fellow Trustee,
Amin Khoury, who is also funding the collaboration of Drs.
Smith and Hodge. Amin and Julie Khoury are residents of
Jupiter Island, and Mr. Khoury is CEO of BE Aerospace, one
of the leading technology firms in south Florida.
R E S E A R C H U P D AT E
Scripps Research Scientists Develop Groundbreaking
Technology to Detect Alzheimer’s Disease
> New Study Confirms Concept of Antibody Biomarkers to Diagnose Disease
cientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps
Research Institute, have developed a novel technology
that is able to detect the presence of immune molecules
specific to Alzheimer’s disease in patients’ blood samples.
While still preliminary, the findings offer clear proof that this
breakthrough technology could be used in the development
of biomarkers for a range of human diseases.
The study, led by Scripps Research Professor Thomas
Kodadek, Ph.D., was published in the January 7, 2011 edition
of the journal Cell.
Traditionally, antigens—a substance such as a protein
from a virus or bacteria that stimulates an immune response
—have been necessary for the discovery of antibody biomarkers.
There has previously been no way to identify an antibody
(a type of targeted immune molecule) without first knowing
the antigen that triggers its production. The new study,
however, challenges conventional wisdom and uses synthetic
molecules rather than antigens to successfully detect signs
of disease in patients’ blood samples.
These synthetic compounds have many advantages –
they can be modified easily and can be produced quickly in
relatively large amounts at lower cost.
“Dr. Kodadek has conceived of a new approach for identifying
antibody biomarkers of human disease that bypasses the
conventional, but difficult, step of identifying the natural
antigens or antigen mimics,” said James M. Anderson, M.D.,
Ph.D., director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic
Initiatives, who helps oversee the NIH Common Fund’s
Pioneer Award Program. “The results in the paper suggest
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Professor
Thomas Kodadek
great potential for using this approach to rapidly develop
diagnostic biomarkers for a variety of significant human
diseases. Such boldness to challenge conventional paradigms
to achieve important scientific advances is a hallmark of the
NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Program, which supported
much of this research.”
“This study essentially puts an end to the
notion that the only way to pull a potentially
useful antibody from blood samples is with a
specific antigen,” said Kodadek. “Because
the antigen identification problem has proven
to be so difficult, we decided to take it out
of the equation.”
To test the concept, Kodadek and his colleagues used
comparative screening of combinatorial libraries of synthetic
molecules – peptoids – against serum samples obtained from
mice with a multiple-sclerosis-like condition or healthy controls.
Those synthetic molecules that retained more immunoglobulin
(IgG), a major type of antibody, from the blood samples of
the diseased animals were identified as potential agents for
capturing diagnostically useful molecules. This worked well.
The team next turned to serum samples from six Alzheimer’s
patients, six healthy individuals, and six Parkinson’s disease
patients. Three peptoids were identified that captured at least
three-fold higher levels of IgG antibodies from all six of the
Alzheimer’s patients than any of the control or Parkinson’s
patients. The results showed that two of the peptoids bind the
same IgG antibodies; a third binds different antibodies, resulting
in at least two candidate biomarkers for the disease.
“We use these peptoids as a lure to capture the IgG
antibodies,” Kodadek said. “Some of these synthetic molecules
recognize the antigen-binding sites of disease-specific antibodies
well enough to pull them from blood samples, although they
almost certainly don’t bind as well as the native antigens. This
ability should make it possible to short circuit the discovery
of the natural antigens.”
SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
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SCIENTIST PROFILE
Jamie Williamson:
Nurturing the Scientists of Tomorrow
> Scripps Research’s Kellogg School of Science and Technology graduate program has a single
educational objective: to train the next generation of scientists in the biological and chemical sciences.
hrough curricular and laboratory research experiences,
Scripps Research provides the multidisciplinary, creative
and dynamic environment necessary to enable its
graduate students to thrive in the rapidly evolving endeavor
that is top-level scientific research.
The Kellogg School, which has consistently maintained its
ranking in the top ten graduate programs in the country in
biology and chemistry by U.S. News & World Report, has two
campuses in La Jolla, California and Jupiter, Florida. Its peers
include Caltech, MIT, UC Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford,
Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Princeton, UCSF, and
Yale. The school has a prestigious scholarship program with
Oxford University in England, the first partnership in Oxford’s
800-year history.
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Jamie Williamson,
Dean of Graduate and
Postdoctoral Studies
Jamie Williamson has served as dean of the school since
2008. He served as associate dean from 2001 until then. He
came to Scripps Research in 1998 after seven years in the
chemistry department at MIT.
First started in 1989, the school has been growing rapidly in
both size and reputation and currently enrolls about 200 students,
while boasting more than 400 accomplished alumni, who hold
prominent positions in both academia and industry. The school
accepts about 30 new students each year. In 2002, it was named
the Kellogg School of Science and Technology, in honor of
philanthropists Janet R. (“Jean”) and W. Keith Kellogg II.
“The Kellogg School offers our students both an
interesting curriculum and the opportunities to join stellar
research laboratories for their thesis work,” said Jamie.
“Graduate work here is a special opportunity, and many of the
4 | SCRIPPS DISCOVERS
SPRING 2011
features of our program are different than at a traditional
university. We encourage opportunities for our students to
craft research projects that encompass several laboratories, not
bounded by department walls, enabling the students to move
about more freely than at other academic institutions. Our
students have the amazing luxury of working across laboratories.
There are also no undergraduate students here, so our graduate
students have no teaching requirements. Our faculty is also
unique in that they don’t receive any compensation for the hours
they spend teaching. They teach because they want to. A lot
of other programs around the country have now adopted our
cross-disciplinary approach,” said Jamie.
Jamie grew up on the east coast. As the only child of a
Methodist minister, he spent his early years moving from one
small New England town to the next, until his family eventually
settled near Groton, Connecticut, where his father ministered
to the Naval community. “I love the daily contact with the
students,” said Jamie. “It’s tremendously rewarding to see each
student develop and flourish during their graduate education
and subsequent careers. I think our true success can be
measured in the growth of our students as scientists.”
When asked why he took on the position of dean, Jamie
said, “I’ve always had an altruistic streak. “Back when I was a
young assistant professor at MIT, not much older than the
students, the students and I naturally gravitated toward each
other. I became an informal advisor and found that the faculty
was sending students to me for advice. Plus with my father
being a minister, it runs in the family! It seemed natural to
step into the position here. I enjoy working with students and
adding value to their graduate experience. It is very satisfying,
and the environment here is supportive for them.”
The graduate program is currently undergoing a
reaccreditation process from the Western Association of
Schools and Colleges (WASC). Through the process, the
program has established metrics in such areas as laboratory
work, the writing of grant proposals and scientific papers, and
communicating science verbally to others, all vital tasks for
scientists. Students who are having trouble in any of these
areas will receive further training for their success.
When asked about the graduate program, Scripps Research
graduate students again and again cite the institute’s quality, its
interdisciplinary studies in the sciences, its research-intensive
environment, and its emphasis on collaboration.
And after they graduate from the program, they move on
continued on page 7
R E S E A R C H U P D AT E
Scripps Research Compound Blocks Brain Cell
Destruction in Parkinson’s Disease
> Findings May Open Door to First Protective Therapy
cientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps
Research Institute have produced the first known
compound to show significant effectiveness in protecting
brain cells directly affected by Parkinson’s disease, a progressive
and fatal neurodegenerative disorder.
Although the findings were in animal models of the disease,
the effectiveness of the compound, combined with its potential
to be taken orally, offers the tantalizing possibility of a potentially
useful future therapy for Parkinson’s disease patients.
The results were published in two separate studies in the
journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience.
“These studies present compelling data on the first oral,
brain-penetrating inhibitor to show significant efficacy in
preventing neurodegeneration in both mouse and rat models
of Parkinson’s disease,” said team leader Philip LoGrasso, a
professor in the Department of Molecular Therapeutics and
senior director for drug discovery at Scripps Florida. “The
compound offers one of the best opportunities we have for the
development of an effective neuroprotective treatment.”
The new small molecule –labeled SR-3306 –is aimed at
inhibiting a class of enzymes called c-jun-N-terminal kinases
( JNK). Pronounced “junk,” these enzymes have been shown
to play an important role in neuron (nerve cell) survival. As
such, they have become a highly viable target for drugs to treat
neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease.
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“A drug like SR-3306 that prevents
neurodegeneration would be a quantum
leap in the clinical treatment of Parkinson’s
because all current therapies treat only the
symptoms of the disease, not the underlying
pathologies,” LoGrasso said.
Patients with Parkinson’s disease suffer from the loss of
a group of neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc),
part of the midbrain involved in motor control. These cells
produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a key role in
motor reflexes and cognition. The disease also affects projecting
nerve fibers in the striatum, a part of the forebrain filled with
cells that interact with dopamine.
The SR-3306 compound, which has been in development
at Scripps Florida for several years, performed well in both
cell culture and animal models. In cell culture, the compound
showed greater than 90 percent protection against induced cell
death of primary dopaminergic neurons, while in mouse models
of induced neuron death, the compound showed protective
levels of approximately 72 percent.
The scientists went one step further, testing the new compound
in a rat model, which duplicates the physical symptoms often
seen with the human disease – a pronounced and progressive
loss of motor skills. The results showed SR-3306 provided a
protection level of approximately 30 percent in the brain, a
level that reduced the dysfunctional motor responses by nearly
90 percent.
“It was a surprise that level of neuroprotection
reduced the behavioral impact so strongly,”
LoGrasso said, “but it’s indicative of how it might
perform in human patients. While SR-3306
doesn’t represent a cure, it does appear to have
the potential of stopping the progression of
the disease.”
The new studies are part of a $7.6 million multiyear grant
awarded to LoGrasso in 2008 by the National Institutes of
Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). The grant will
enable Scripps Research and potential partners to file an
application for an investigational new drug (IND) – the first
step in the lengthy clinical trials process required by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration before a new drug can be
brought to market.
Both studies were supported by the National Institutes
of Health. Funding was also received from the Atlantic
Innovation Fund.
Professor Philip LoGrasso
SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
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R E S E A R C H U P D AT E
Scripps Research Scientists Convert Skin Cells
to Beating Heart Cells
> Breakthrough Discovery Offers Hope for New Therapies for Range of Diseases
cripps Research Institute scientists have converted adult
skin cells directly into beating heart cells efficiently
without having to first go through the laborious process
of generating embryonic-like stem cells. The powerful general
technology platform could lead to new treatments for a range
of diseases and injuries involving cell loss or damage, such
as heart disease, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s disease.
“This work represents a
new paradigm in stem cell
reprogramming,” said Scripps
Research Associate Professor
Sheng Ding, Ph.D., who led
the study. “We hope it helps
overcome major safety and other
technical hurdles currently
associated with some types
of stem cell therapies.”
As the human body develops,
embryonic-like stem cells multiply
Associate Professor
and transform themselves into
Sheng Ding
more mature cell types through
a process known as differentiation, producing all of the body’s
different cell types and tissues. Past the embryonic stage,
however, the human body has limited capacity to generate
new cells to replace ones that have been lost or damaged.
Thus, scientists have been trying to develop ways to
“reprogram” adult human cells back to a more embryonic-like,
or pluripotent, state, from which they are able to divide and
then change into any of the body’s cell types. Using these
techniques, scientists aim to someday be able to take a patient’s
own cells, say skin cells, change them into heart or brain cells,
and then insert them back into the patient to fix damaged
tissues. In 2006, Japanese scientists reported that they could
reprogram mouse skin cells to become pluripotent simply by
inserting a set of four genes into the cells.
Although the technology to generate these cells, dubbed
induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, represents a major advance,
there are some hurdles to overcome before it can be adapted
to therapies.
“It takes a long time to generate iPS cells and then
differentiate them into tissue-specific functional cell types,”
said Ding, “and it’s a tedious process. Also, what you generate
is not ideal.”
Specifically, it takes some two to four weeks for scientists
to create iPS cells from skin cells and the process is far from
efficient, with only one cell out of thousands making the
complete transformation. Furthermore, once scientists obtain
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6 | SCRIPPS DISCOVERS
SPRING 2011
iPS cells, they then have to go through the tricky procedure
of inducing the iPS cells to differentiate into desired types of
cells, which takes an additional two to four weeks.
In addition, the process of generating mature cells from iPS
cells is not foolproof. When, for example, scientists induce iPS
cells to become heart cells, the resulting cells are a mix of heart cells
and some lingering iPS cells. Scientists are concerned that giving
these new heart cells (along with the remaining pluripotent cells)
to patients might be dangerous. When pluripotent cells are
injected in mice, they cause cancer-like growths.
Because of these concerns, Ding and colleagues decided to
try to tweak the process by completely bypassing the iPS stage
and going directly from one type of mature cell (a skin cell) to
another (a heart cell).
The team introduced the same four genes initially used to
make iPS cells into adult skin fibroblast cells, but instead of
letting the genes be continuously active in cells for several weeks,
they switched off their activities just after a few days, long before
the cells had turned into iPS cells. Once the four genes were
switched off, the scientists gave a signal to the cells to make them
turn into heart cells.
“In 11 days, we went from skin cells to beating heart cells
in a dish,” said Ding. “It was phenomenal to see.”
Ding points out the protocol is fundamentally different
from what has been done by other scientists in the past and
notes that giving the cells a different kind of signal could turn
them into brain cells or pancreatic cells.
“It is like launching a rocket,” he said. “Until now, people
thought you needed to first land the rocket on the moon and
then from there you could go to other planets. But here we show
that just after the launch you can redirect the rocket to another
planet without having to first go to the moon. This is a totally
new paradigm.”
In addition to better understanding the basic biology of
stem cells, the next step will be to modify this technique
further to remove the need for inserting the four genes, which
have been linked to the development of cancer. As a result,
many scientists, including Ding, have been working on new
techniques to develop iPS cells without use of these genes.
That has proven difficult. But with the new protocol, which
bypasses the iPS cell stage, the genes are needed for a much
shorter time.
“Action for such a short period of time is a lot easier to
replace,” Ding noted.
The research was funded by The Scripps Research Institute,
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Fate Therapeutics,
and the Esther B. O’Keeffe Foundation.
AWARDS AND HONORS
Scripps Research Study Ranked Among
Time Magazine’s Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs for 2010
ime magazine ranked a paper
on a gene expression test for
coronary disease by Scripps
Research Institute investigators number
seven in the top 10 medical breakthroughs
for 2010. The paper, by Eric J. Topol,
Nicholas Schork, and Mary Winn, of
Scripps Research and the Translational
T
Sciences Institute (a collaboration
between Scripps Research, Scripps
Health, and other institutions in San
Diego), and colleagues, was published
in the Annals of Internal Medicine
(Volume 153, Number 7, Oct. 5, 2010).
According to the Time article, the
researchers identified a preliminary panel
of 23 genes “that code for blood proteins,”
which improved by 16 percent the ability
to classify heart disease patients at high
or low risk compared to traditional
methods alone. While not a heart-attack
predictor, the blood test “could serve as
an early warning call for patients who
register as high risk,” said Time.
Remember Us in Your Will
> Legacy income is vital to our work
The generosity of supporters who leave us a gift in their will means that we are able to fund medical research on a variety of
devastating diseases in order to better understand and treat these diseases. With your support, we aim to help find cures. If you have
any questions about leaving a gift to The Scripps Research Institute in your will, please contact Steve Abramson at (858) 784-9365 or
stevea@scripps.edu.
Jamie Williamson,
CONTINUED
to some pretty prestigious positions. “About two-thirds of our
alumni who have entered the workforce are in either biotech
or pharmaceutical firms,” said Jamie. “The other one-third—
over 50 alums—hold faculty positions at colleges or universities –
that’s a lot.” For the sake of comparison, Jamie’s Ph.D. class at
Stanford had 30 students and three hold faculty positions now.
“They’re sent off from here on fire and they really appreciate
the experience they had here,” said Jamie.
Financial support for graduate students is provided by Scripps
Research, the student’s advisor, and national fellowships. This
support covers tuition, benefits and stipend. The annual cost
to fund a graduate student this academic year is $39,980.
“We want to provide the support and resources so
that students can come to work everyday and not
worry about things like health coverage and money
to buy books.”
Generous gifts from donors have made many merit-based
fellowships available to students, including the Bagel Fellowship,
Norton B. Gilula Student Fellowships, Fletcher Jones Fellowships,
Pfeiffer Foundation Scholarships, a San Diego Foundation
scholarship from the Norman and Margaret Lassey Fund, the
Delia Baxter Fellowship, the Andrea Elizabeth Vogt Memorial
Award, and Eli Lilly and Company Foundation fellowships.
Scripps Research is especially grateful to the Skaggs family and
Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) for their
significant funding of many of its students over the years.
“One of the major fundraising goals of Scripps Research is
to endow the graduate program,” said Jamie. “This would allow
students to join any laboratory they choose without worrying
about the lab finances.”
In his other life at Scripps Research, Jamie runs a laboratory
that is conducting pioneering work unraveling the threedimensional structure and function of RNA, has made discoveries
that may help spur advances in the global challenges of antibiotic
drug resistance, and is aiming to develop novel therapeutic
strategies against HIV infection.
A big honor for Jamie was his recent election as a new
member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. The Society consists of distinguished individuals who
provide practical policy solutions to the pressing issues of
the day.
“We have amazing facilities here,” said Jamie. “Our goal is
to provide the most practical and conducive environment to
enable students to make important discoveries as a stepping stone
for their careers.”
SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
| 7
Partners
1
Scripps Florida kicked off the
second-annual “CELLebrate
Science with Scripps Florida,” a
public education outreach event held
at The Gardens Mall. Inspired by the
campus’s grand opening extravaganza
in early 2009, the Mall hosted the first
“CELLebration” in February 2010 to
an overwhelming response. For 2011,
the Forbes Group, which owns and
operates the 1.4-million-square-foot
high-end shopping center, eagerly
requested an encore. On February 5th,
nearly 100 Scripps Florida volunteers–
scientists and support staff alike –
turned out to bring the science of
Scripps Research to an estimated 4,000
South Florida residents. (top photo)
2
A special “Medals Ceremony”
was held to honor those Palm
Beach County 2010 Science and
Engineering Fair middle school and
high school awardees who have been
invited to compete in the 2011 State
Science and Engineering Fair of Florida.
Sidney Forbes, founding partner of
The Gardens Mall (standing at center),
and Deborah Leach-Scampavia, director
of education outreach programs for
Scripps Florida (seated at center)
recognized each student’s achievement
by presenting them with a special
commemorative medal, and applauding
the future scientists and engineers.
Scripps Florida donors Colin
and Gail Halpern pose for a
photo during “Sunset at Scripps
Florida,” an evening event and fundraiser
for the Frenchman’s Creek Women
for Cancer Research. Over 70 guests
received an update on the cancer
research they support, participated in
hands-on science experiments and a
behind the scenes tour, plus enjoyed
a “Garden of Eden” themed reception
on the Florida campus.
(center photo)
(bottom photo)
3
Contact Us:
• For more information about Scripps Research,
visit our web page at www.supportscrippsresearch.org
• To learn more about supporting Scripps Research’s
cutting-edge research, please contact:
CALIFORNIA
(858) 784.2037 or (800) 788.4931
burfitt@scripps.edu
FLORIDA
(561) 228.2013
abruner@scripps.edu