LA JOLLA, CA ­– January 2, 2012 – Renowned biochemist Michael A. Marletta, PhD, assumed the post of president and CEO of The Scripps Research Institute January 1, succeeding Richard A. Lerner, MD, who led the institution for more than two decades.

“I’m excited by the opportunity to advance the institute’s mission, creating knowledge in the biosciences and applying that knowledge to understanding and curing human disease,” said Marletta. “I also look forward to working with all the…

LA JOLLA, CA and ARMONK, NY, November 18, 2011 - IBM's Watson computing system broke new ground earlier this year when it defeated two celebrated human competitors on the Jeopardy! game show. Now, The Scripps Research Institute is hoping to do something equally novel but more critical to human health with part of the prize money from that tournament: Find a cure for drug-resistant malaria. And it's asking for the public's help.

To that end, Scripps Research and IBM (NYSE: IBM) are…

LA JOLLA, CA – November 17, 2011 - A international team led by scientists from the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) and The Scripps Research Institute has discovered a family of chemical compounds that could lead to a new generation of antimalarial drugs capable of not only alleviating symptoms but also preventing the deadly disease.

In a study published…

JUPITER, FL, October 27, 2011 – The Scripps Research Institute has appointed Damon Page as assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience.

Page, 36, will work on the Scripps Florida campus in Jupiter. Prior to his appointment, he was a senior analyst at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle, Washington.

“Damon’s research on autism makes a valuable addition to our department,” said Ron L. Davis, chair…

Funding Could Help Uncover Novel Therapeutic Target for Neurodegenerative Disorder

JUPITER, FL, October 26, 2010 — The Scripps Research Institute has been awarded a $500,000 grant by the Michael J. Fox Foundation to study a pair of genetic mutations that could lead to a new and potentially vital therapeutic target for Parkinson’s disease, a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disorder.

Philip LoGrasso, PhD, a professor…

ORLANDO, Fla., October 24, 2011-Cancer patients may benefit from the research findings borne out of the first medical research collaborations between the University of Central Florida (UCF) and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute at Lake Nona (Sanford-Burnham).

Two independent teams of cancer researchers, chemists, and bio-informatics engineers have published discoveries that…

LA JOLLA, CA, October 20, 2011 – A team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute has identified a new metabolic pathway for controlling brain inflammation, suggesting strategies for treating it.

The new report, which appears in the October 20, 2011 edition of Science Express, focuses on the type of inflammation normally treatable with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin or ibuprofen. The study shows this type of inflammation is…

LA JOLLA—The National Institutes of Health has announced that the Salk Institute will receive $4.5 million to establish a Neuroscience Core Center, a new research center intended to accelerate brain research that lays the foundation for developing new ways to treat congenital brain defects and neurological diseases.

The new center is one of three established nationally this year by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to focus on basic brain research. More than…

Bruce Beutler, M.D., Chair of the Department of Genetics at The Scripps Research Institute and professor and director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Bestowed annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, economics, and peace, the prize recognizes individuals who, as stipulated in Alfred Nobel's will, "have…

The newly revealed molecular structure of G protein-coupled receptors illustrate the September 29 cover of Nature. The findings were the result of a multi-institutional collaboration that included UC San Diego.

Three international teams of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California San…

Only 17 T-R01 projects were selected throughout the country and will be supported with a total of…

LA JOLLA, CA—Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered how a hormone turns on a series of molecular switches inside the pancreas that increases production of insulin.

The finding, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, raises the possibility that new designer drugs might be able to turn on key molecules in this pathway to help the 80 million Americans who have type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetic insulin resistance.

The molecular…

Board of Trustees votes unanimously to support $1 increase in state tobacco tax to fund biomedical research in California

LA JOLLA, Calif., September 19, 2011 – The Board of Trustees of Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) voted unanimously at their September 14 board meeting to endorse the California Cancer Research Act (CCRA), making it the first non-profit research…

LA JOLLA, CA, AND JUPITER, FL – September 20, 2011 – Two Scripps Research Institute scientists have won prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Awards. The recipients are Assistant Professor Michael Petrascheck of the institute’s La Jolla, California campus, and Assistant Professor Brian Paegel of the Jupiter, Florida campus.

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The awards, which were announced by NIH Director Francis S. Collins at the Seventh Annual NIH Director’s Pioneer…

Findings Show How Form Controls Function in Sought-After Therapeutic Target

JUPITER, FL, September 6, 2011 – In a joint study, scientists from the California and Florida campuses of The Scripps Research Institute have shown that changes in a protein's structure can change its signaling function and they have…

The Findings Open the Door to the Development of Novel Drugs for Early-Stage Tumors

LA JOLLA, CA – August 31, 2011 - Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have shown that a particular white blood cell plays a direct role in the development and spread of cancerous tumors. Their work sheds new light on the development of the disease and points toward novel strategies for treating early-stage cancers.

The…