Arthur Riggs (geneticist)

Arthur Riggs
Born	1939 Modesto, California
Residence	California, United States
Nationality	American
Citizenship	U.S.
Alma mater	University of California, Riverside, California Institute of Technology
Scientific career
Fields	Genetics
Institutions	Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope National Medical Center
Doctoral advisor	Herschel K. Mitchell

Dr. Arthur Riggs (born 1939) Ph.D, is a geneticist who worked with Genentech to express the first artificial gene in bacteria. His work was critical to the modern biotechnology industry because it was the first use of molecular techniques in commercial production of drugs, and enabled the large-scale manufacturing of protein drugs, including insulin.

Riggs is a professor of biology and, as of 2014, founding director of the Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute of City of Hope National Medical Center. He was the founding dean of City of Hope's graduate school, the Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences. He is also director emeritus of the Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope National Medical Center, which he headed from 2000-2007. Riggs serves on the board of trustees at the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences. In 2006, Riggs was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Arthur Riggs was born in 1939 in a hospital in Modesto, California near his family's home in Ceres, California. After the family lost their farm during the Great Depression, they moved to San Bernardino, CA where Riggs attended San Bernardino High School. He helped his father, who managed a trailer park, to build and fix things. His mother, a nurse, gave him a chemistry set to encourage his interest in chemistry and biology.

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