

The mission of Scripps Research is to advance scientific understanding, educate the scientists of tomorrow and impact human health across the globe. Founded in San Diego, California nearly a century ago by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps to focus on metabolic and autoimmune disease, the institute has expanded its focus through the years to conducting biomedical research across many disease areas.
In 2003, the institute added a second campus in Jupiter, Florida. The largest department at the Scripps Research, Florida campus in Jupiter is Neuroscience. There, more than 100 Scripps Research scientists – faculty, staff scientists, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students – study the biology underlying brain diseases and make discoveries that point toward new and creative disease-modifying treatments, especially in Parkinson’s.
Here are just a few of those research programs:
Corinne Lasmezas, PhD, has discovered an underlying cause of Lewy body destruction in Parkinson’s, and has collaborated with Scripps Research medicinal chemists on potentially protective therapies.
Ron Davis, PhD, has discovered the genetic pathways involved in memory erasure. He has also found compounds able to protect mitochondria, the brain’s energy source.
Chemist Matt Disney, PhD, has received a major award from the National Institutes of Health to advance work on compounds that show promise for prevention of the production of a Parkinson’s associated toxic protein, alpha synuclein, in the brain.
Srinivasa Subramaniam, PhD, has discovered a cellular mechanism underlying medication-induced dyskinesia in Parkinson’s, and found that mitochondrial loss in neurons, a cause of brain cell death, can result from an overly aggressive cellular “cleaning” system.
Scripps Research scientists understand the impact that degenerative diseases of the brain have on our community, because they affect our families as well. These diseases—Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Fronto-temporal dementia, ALS—place a heavy burden on both patients and their caregivers and loved ones. We work every day toward meaningful cures.
After seventeen years, Scripps Research, Florida has already made important strides against multiple diseases with unmet medical needs, while its graduate program has trained dozens of new PhD scientists. A first-in-class potential treatment for a type of muscular dystrophy is in testing; a potential drug for ALS, initially funded through the ice-bucket challenge, is advancing. And a new treatment for multiple sclerosis, ozanimod, developed in California with Scripps Research, Florida scientists’ help, was just approved by the FDA. Scripps Research scientists collaborate to achieve life-changing results.
Scripps Research was recently ranked No. 1 in the world by Nature Index for influencing scientific innovation. U.S. News and World Report consistently ranks our graduate school in the top 10 in the United States.
Our unique structure merges foundational studies in biology, chemistry and computer science with translational research to advance new therapies for diseases with unmet medical needs. We train the next generation of scientific leaders, expand the frontiers of human knowledge and accelerate the development of new medicines to improve lives around the planet.
Charity Navigator has rated Scripps Research four stars, its highest rating. Your support is crucial to our success. Thank you.