TSRI's California and Florida Campuses
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Established | 1993 |
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Faculty | 265 |
Staff | 2,700 |
Location |
San Diego, California Jupiter, Florida, USA |
Website | www |
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 is home to 2,700 scientists, technicians, graduate students, and administrative and other staff, making it among the largest private, non-profit biomedical research organizations in the world.
TSRI's roots can be traced to the Scripps Metabolic Clinic, founded near the current site in the La Jolla area of San Diego in 1924 by the philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps, who was inspired by the discovery of insulin. In 1946, the metabolic clinic separated from Scripps Memorial Hospital.
In 1956, the organization 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 four of his colleagues (William Weigle, Joseph Feldman, Charles Cochrane, and Jacinto Vazquez) in 1961, biochemist Frank Huennekens and microbiologist John Spizizen in 1962, then other scientists. 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. Lerner continued to expand the institute, both in size and reputation. 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. Plans for an additional campus in Florida were announced in October 2003 and research operations began there the next year.