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SCRIPPS RESEARCH HISTORY OF SUCCESS

2021
Neuroscientist Ardem Patapoutian, PhD, receives the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering receptors critical to temperature and touch.

2021
Biochemist Jeffery Kelly, PhD, wins the 2022 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for demonstrating that nervous system and heart diseases can be caused by protein clumping-associated toxicity, and for inventing tafamidis, a medication to slow the progression of such diseases.

2021
Donna Blackmond, PhD, professor and co-chair of the Department of Chemistry, is elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

2020
Scientists at Scripps Research make notable contributions toward combating the COVID-19 pandemic, including identifying the evolutionary origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, discovering antibodies that protect against the virus, creating key elements of the first experimental COVID-19 vaccines and launching a nationwide study using data from wearables to flag the onset of illness.

2020
ZEPOSIA® (ozanimod) is approved by the FDA for the treatment of adults with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis. Hugh Rosen, MD, PhD, and Edward Roberts, PhD, along with their laboratory teams discovered and developed the drug.

2020
Scripps Research scientists partner with peers in the U.S. and West Africa to establish the West African Research Network for Infectious Diseases. The center’s scientists aim to investigate the prevalence, dynamics and genomic epidemiology of viruses that pose the highest risk to national security and public health.

2019
Nature Index again ranks Scripps Research first in the United States, and second in the world, among stand-alone scientific institutes, based on discoveries by the institute’s researchers published in leading scientific journals.

2019
VYNDAQEL® (tafamidis) is approved by the FDA for the treatment of transthyretin familial amyloid polyneuropathy (TTR-FAP), a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disease. Work headed by Jeffery Kelly, PhD, the Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Chemistry at Scripps Research, results in the drug’s discovery and development.

2019
The Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences graduates 54 students, its largest class to date.

2018
Scripps Research ranks top stand-alone scientific institute in the United States for producing high-quality research by Nature Index, based on discoveries published in leading scientific journals.

2018
U.S. News & World Report ranks the graduate program at Scripps Research among the ten best in the nation. This is the 19th year in a row the graduate program earns top ten honors.

2018
Members of the Skaggs family, longtime supporters of the institute, make a lead gift through their foundations toward the institute’s $100 million campaign to establish endowed fellowships for all students in its graduate program. In recognition of this gift, the program is renamed the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences.

2017
Scripps Research launches its Scripps Fellows program, designed to identify the next generation of scientific leaders and set them up for impactful careers.

2017
Scripps Research is named the most influential research institution in the world, according to the Nature Index 2017 Innovation supplement, which sheds light on the impact of academic research on innovation.

2017
The institute’s nationally recognized graduate program holds its 25th commencement ceremony, with renowned chemist Christopher Walsh, PhD, and public health advocate and investor Gerald Chan, PhD, delivering keynote addresses. The graduates join more than 600 alumni who are making significant contributions to scientific innovation around the world.
Ardem Patapoutian, PhD, and Phil Baran, PhD, are elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Benjamin Cravatt, PhD, is elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

2016
The Scripps Translational Science Institute, a center run through Scripps Research, receives a record $207 million in National Institutes of Health funding as part of its national All of Us Research Program.

2016
Scripps Research establishes a strategic affiliation with Calibr, a nonprofit research institute, with the goal of accelerating the translation of basic research into new medicines that address unmet medical needs.

2016
Peter Schultz, PhD, is named chief executive officer and vice chair of Scripps Research.
Ian Wilson, DPhil, DSc, FRS, FRSE, is elected as a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences.

2015
UNITUXIN (dinutuximab)‎: Work in the lab of Ralph Reisfeld, PhD, leads to the approval of Unituxin by the FDA to treat high-risk cases of neuroblastoma, the second-leading form of childhood cancer.

2015
Times Higher Education, a weekly magazine based in London, ranks Scripps Research #1 in the world in the production of impactful scientific papers cited in patent applications.

2014
CYRAMZA (ramucirumab) is approved by the FDA as a treatment for gastric cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, marking another medicine with origins at Scripps Research.

2014
Dale Boger, PhD, chair of the Department of Chemistry, and Benjamin Cravatt, PhD, chair of the Department of Chemical Physiology, are elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

2013
Donna Blackmond, PhD, a professor in the Department of Chemistry, is elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering. The academy cites Blackmond for “kinetic and mechanistic studies of catalytic organic reactions for pharmaceuticals, and for studies of chiral amplification.”

2012
SURFAXIN (lucinactant): Stemming from two decades of work performed by Charles Cochrane, MD, Surfaxin is approved by the FDA to treat respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), a condition that strikes preterm infants whose lungs lack surfactant, a coating of rigid proteins that keeps the spherical air sacs in the lungs from collapsing. The drug subsequently helps thousands of premature infants.

2011
BENLYSTA (belimumab): Scientific findings and advances from the lab of Richard Lerner, MD, lead to the approval of Benlysta by the FDA to treat the most common type of systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus). Benlysta is the first new lupus therapy in more than 50 years.

2009
Biologist Kristin Baldwin, PhD, successfully creates live mice from mouse skin cells, without using embryonic stem cells or cloning techniques that require eggs. This innovation opens the door to the development of promising therapies, such as using a patient’s own cells to grow replacement organs.

2009
The new Florida facility, comprising three state-of-the-art buildings and more than 350,000 square feet of space, opens in Jupiter. Research on the new campus focuses on basic biomedical science, drug discovery and technology development.

2009
Scripps Research scientists Hugh Rosen, MD, PhD, and Edward Roberts, PhD, co-found Receptos, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company that advances ozanimod through Stage 3 clinical trials. Receptos is focused on the development of therapeutic candidates for the treatment of immune and inflammatory diseases, including relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS), Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

2008
Michael B.A. Oldstone, MD, and Peter Wright, PhD, are elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

2008
Scripps Research virologist Erica Ollmann Saphire, PhD, publishes the first study showing the shape of the Ebola virus spike protein, which is necessary for viral entry into human cells. The structure provides a major step forward in understanding how the deadly virus works, and may be useful in the development of potential Ebola virus vaccines or treatments for those infected.

2006
ABTHRAX: An experimental treatment for inhalation anthrax, developed by scientists at Scripps Research, is purchased by the U.S. government to protect against potential bioterror attack.

2005
Paul Schimmel, PhD, is elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

2004
Eric Topol, MD, is elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

2003

Scripps Research announces the establishment of a major science center in Palm Beach County, Florida, focusing on biomedical research, technology development and drug discovery, funded by the State of Florida via economic development funds as well as local government.
Francis Chisari, MD, and Peter Vogt, PhD, are elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

2002

HUMIRA (adalimumab): By searching among billions of antibody variants taken from human blood samples, a technique called “combinatorial antibody libraries” enables scientists to identify human antibodies that bind to specific targets involved in disease. This work, stemming from research in the lab of Richard Lerner, MD, leads to development of the drug, Humira, which is approved by the FDA to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Humira will later be approved for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis (2005), ankylosing spondylitis (2006), Crohn’s disease (2007), plaque psoriasis (2008), juvenile idiopathic arthritis (2008) and moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis (2012).
Kurt Wüthrich, PhD, receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution.
Chi-Huey Wong, PhD, and Francis Chisari, MD, are elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

2001
K. Barry Sharpless, PhD, receives the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions.