Li Ye, PhD, assistant professor in the departments of Neuroscience and Molecular Medicine, has been named the inaugural holder of The Abide-Vividion Chair in Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Scripps Research. The chair will support his innovative imaging techniques and investigations into the relationship between metabolism and neurons. “There is still very little known about how the brain and the body work together to coordinate behavior and physiology, and that’s partly because there aren’t many techniques available to tackle this problem,” says Ye.

The chair was initiated by Scripps Research chemist Ben Cravatt, PhD, co-founder of Abide Therapeutics and Vividion Therapeutics, and Tom Daniel, MD, a member of the institute’s Board of Directors, to support a mid-career faculty member at the institute in perpetuity. Support for the chair also came from Alan Ezekowitz, MD, DPhil, president and CEO of Abide, and John K. Clarke, co-founder of Cardinal Partners who served as co-founder and chair of the boards of directors for both Abide and Vividion. Faculty members Phil Baran, PhD; Paul Schimmel, PhD; and Jin-Quan Yu, PhD, also made generous contributions toward endowing the chair.

“This endowed chair is a way of giving back,” says Cravatt. “Scripps Research has created a remarkably rich culture of innovation from which the novel technologies that launched Abide and Vividion emanated. Tom Daniel and I wanted to further strengthen this environment and generate opportunity for a promising faculty member at a critical stage in their career development.”