An interview with Pete Schultz, President and CEO of Scripps Research, on the next century of innovation

Last year, Scripps Research celebrated its centennial and reflected on the institute’s many contributions over its first century—from groundbreaking discoveries to life-saving medicines. As a modestly sized institute, what has enabled Scripps Research to have such an outsized impact?

Scripps Research has always prioritized innovation and impact. With around 130 faculty members, we’ve cultivated an environment that empowers exceptional scientists to tackle bold, high-risk questions. This focus on transformative discoveries sets us apart. Our size is actually an advantage; it allows for highly collaborative and interdisciplinary work. By fostering a culture of cooperation, we ensure that creative ideas are shared and developed across departments. And we minimize bureaucracy.

We also have a unique mix of expertise in the chemical sciences, protein chemistry, molecular and cellular biology as well as translational medicine. When you bring people with these different skills together, new opportunities are created at interfaces, and remarkable things happen. It’s led to major advances that have significantly expanded the scale and pace of scientific research, and when scientists see the success of this approach, they are inspired to think outside the box, creating a virtuous cycle of innovation.

The pace of scientific discovery has accelerated dramatically in recent decades, but translating those discoveries into new medicines still seems to lag. What’s holding back progress in this area?

While the field of medicine has made tremendous strides—think about how penicillin and polio vaccines transformed healthcare—clinical progress hasn’t always kept pace with advances in basic science. Technologies like high-throughput sequencing, genetic engineering and advanced microscopy have revolutionized our understanding of human biology and disease. Yet, the full potential of these tools is far from realized.

The disconnect lies in the differing missions and cultures of academia and industry. Academic institutions excel at basic science but often lack the infrastructure and expertise to turn their discoveries into new medicines. Conversely, pharmaceutical and biotech companies have the expertise to develop drugs but operate under different priorities, such as investor return. This gap leads to inefficiencies, and many promising ideas fail to reach patients. If we’re going to maximize the benefit of the recent explosion of knowledge and technology for humanity, we need to do things differently.

Under your leadership, the institute has greatly expanded its translational research capacity. What value does a nonprofit institute bring to the field of drug discovery?

At Scripps Research, we’ve developed an integrated model to bridge the gap between basic research and its translation to innovative medicines. By combining our strengths in basic science and translational research—the Calibr-Skaggs Institute for Innovative Medicines and the Scripps Research Translational Institute—we’re turning discoveries into real-world medical solutions.

This approach offers several advantages. First, it allows us to quickly test new ideas emerging from our labs for their potential as innovative therapies. Unlike collaborations with outside pharmaceutical companies, our process is faster and more efficient, removing many of the barriers and silos that slow the journey from the laboratory bench to the patient bedside. When an experimental therapy shows promise, we can de-risk it by advancing it through preclinical stages and to early clinical trials, making it more appealing to industry partners for further development. This pipeline ensures a steady flow of therapeutic candidates, accelerating their journey to patients.

The drug development process can take years. How do you measure the success of Scripps Research’s approach in its relatively early days?

Since the merger of Calibr-Skaggs and Scripps Research in 2018, 12 investigational new drugs (INDs) have advanced into clinical trials—an extraordinary achievement for a nonprofit research institute. We have another five therapies in late-stage preclinical development and a rich pipeline behind those. For example, CMR316, a first-in-class regenerative medicine for lung repair, entered phase 1 clinical trials for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis last year. There are other examples of regenerative medicine programs aimed at repairing damage affected by age-related diseases, including heart, gut and eye, and new drugs being advanced to treat metabolic, neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases.

Another exciting program is our switchable CAR-T cell therapy, which has shown strong efficacy in treating blood cancers. We’re expanding its applications to breast cancer and autoimmune diseases like lupus and systemic sclerosis. In collaboration with the Gates Foundation, we’re also addressing unmet medical needs in developing regions. For instance, a novel malaria drug entered phase 1 trials in the U.K. last year, and our tuberculosis treatment, which could dramatically shorten therapy duration, has recently moved into clinical trials. These programs focus on global health challenges that are often overlooked by for-profit companies, emphasizing the unique role nonprofits can play.

In addition to human health benefits, you’ve highlighted how this model provides sustainable funding for nonprofit research. What does this mean for Scripps Research as it enters its second century?

Traditionally, government grants have been the primary funding source for research institutions like ours, with philanthropy and licensing revenues playing smaller roles. However, government funding often focuses on incremental advances, and its availability can fluctuate. To make transformative leaps, we need a more sustainable and robust funding model that provides unrestricted resources to pursue high-risk, high-reward science.

Our approach at Scripps Research is to reinvest revenues generated from licensing and drug development partnerships back into our programs. By turning scientific discoveries into new medicines, we’re creating a self-renewing revenue stream that supports further innovation. For example, royalties from successful therapies can outpace the returns of traditional endowments, enabling us to fund creative and ambitious research projects. This creates a flywheel effect: As scientific breakthroughs lead to medical advances, they generate resources to fuel the next wave of discoveries.

In this way, we’re building a model that not only amplifies investment in science but also ensures financial stability for the institute. As we embark on our second century, this strategy positions Scripps Research to continue leading the way in science and medicine, delivering transformative solutions to global health challenges.

What more does Scripps Research need to reach its full potential?

People often tell me that Scripps Research is the best-kept secret in science. We need to change that. There are many ways people can engage with the institute, whether it’s through spreading the word of what we’re doing to interested friends and colleagues, hosting outreach events, or helping to support scientific programs, graduate education or the development of new therapies. We’ve always punched well above our weight, but we can do much more with the support and advocacy of individuals and organizations who share our vision.