Richard Lerner
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Richard A. Lerner (b.1938) is an American research chemist. Best known for his work on converting antibodies into enzymes, Lerner is currently President and Chief Executive Officer of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, California.
After attending Northwestern University as an undergraduate, Lerner obtained an MD from Stanford Medical School in 1964 then undertook postdoctoral training at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation (an early incarnation of the institute he would eventually lead). In the 1970s Lerner carried out research at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia then returned to La Jolla to the, now renamed, Research Institute of Scripps Clinic. In 1982 he was appointed Chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology, then five years later assumed the directorship. In 1991, when the TSRI was established as a nonprofit entity, Lerner became its first president.
In addition to his research into catalytic antibodies, providing a method of catalyzing chemical reactions thought impossible using classical techniques, Lerner has led extensive studies into protein structure [1], characterised cis-9,10-octadecenoamide, a novel lipid hormone that induces sleep [2], and provided the first evidence of a role for ozone in human disease. [3]
In addition to his role as President of TSRI, Lerner is the Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Immunochemistry and Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Chair in Chemistry. He was the recipient of, among others, the Parke-Davis Award in 1978, the San Marino Prize in 1990, the Wolf Prize in Chemistry for 1994 (with Peter Schultz), the California Scientist of the Year Award in 1996 and the University of California Presidential Medal in 2002. He has also been elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the United States National Academy of Sciences.
Under Lerner's leadership, The Scripps Research Institute has grown three-fold in terms of laboratory space and more than quadrupled its staff levels, making it among the largest nonprofit biomedical research organizations in the world. He also oversaw the establishment of a sister research campus, called Scripps Florida, in Palm Beach County. Lerner has announced that he will leave his position as President and CEO of TSRI in 2009 to assume Chairmanship of its Board of Trustees for a two further years. In 2011 he intends to "return to full-time research in [his] laboratory." [4]
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- ^ Wilson IA, Niman HL, Houghten RA, Cherenson AR, Connolly ML, Lerner RA. The structure of an antigenic determinant in a protein. Cell. 1984 37(3):767-78. PMID 6204768
- ^ Cravatt BF, Prospero-Garcia O, Siuzdak G, Gilula NB, Henriksen SJ, Boger DL, Lerner RA. Chemical characterization of a family of brain lipids that induce sleep. Science. 1995 268(5216):1506-9. PMID 7770779
- ^ Wentworth P Jr, Nieva J, Takeuchi C, Galve R, Wentworth AD, Dilley RB, DeLaria GA, Saven A, Babior BM, Janda KD, Eschenmoser A, Lerner RA. Evidence for ozone formation in human atherosclerotic arteries. Science. 2003 302(5647):1053-6. PMID 14605372
- ^ The Scripps Research Institute Begins Presidential Succession Process. The Scripps Research Institute Press Release, February 13, 2006.
