Scripps Florida

The Scripps Research Institute

TSRI's California and Florida Campuses
Established	1993 (1993)
Faculty	265
Staff	2,469
Location	San Diego, California Jupiter, Florida, US
Website	www.scripps.edu

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is a nonprofit American medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences. Headquartered in San Diego, California with a sister facility in Jupiter, Florida, the institute has 250 laboratories employing 2,400 scientists, technicians, graduate students, and administrative and other staff, making it one of the largest private, non-profit biomedical research organizations in the world.

The institute holds nearly 1,000 patents, produced 8 FDA-approved therapeutics, and has generated over 70 spin-off companies. According to the 2017 Nature Innovation Index, TSRI is the #1 most influential research institution in the world. The TSRI graduate program is ranked 9th globally in the biological sciences, 6th for organic chemistry, and 2nd for biochemistry.

TSRI began with the Scripps Metabolic Clinic, founded near the current site in the La Jolla area of San Diego in 1924 by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, who was inspired by the discovery of insulin. In 1946, the metabolic clinic separated from Scripps Memorial Hospital.

In 1956, TSRI was renamed Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation to reflect its broader focus and management's renewed commitment to biomedical research. Harvard biochemist A. Baird Hastings joined the institute in 1959, followed by immunologist Frank J. Dixon and colleagues William Weigle, Joseph Feldman, Charles Cochrane, and Jacinto Vazquez in 1961, biochemist Frank Huennekens and microbiologist John Spizizen in 1962. Dixon was appointed director of research operations in 1970, and in 1977 these operations assumed the name of The Research Institute of Scripps Clinic.

Upon Dixon's retirement in 1986, Richard Lerner, who had been chair of the Scripps Department of Molecular Biology, was appointed the research institute's new director. In 1989, the institute launched a graduate program. In 1991, as the result of a merger of hospitals, the research branch became part of a larger organization, the Scripps Institutions of Medicine and Science. In 1993, the research division separated from the clinical side, becoming an independent nonprofit organization under the name of The Scripps Research Institute. An additional campus in Florida was instituted in 2004.