Richard A. Lerner, M.D., Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board

Dr. Lerner is President of The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., one of the largest private nonprofit research organizations in the United States. In addition to directing the Institute's scientific activities, Dr. Lerner is the Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Immunochemistry, the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Chair in Chemistry, and a member of The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at Scripps Research. He also serves on the boards of Kraft Foods Inc. , Opko Health, Inc., formerly eXegenics Inc., and Sequenom, Inc.

Prior to assuming his current role as President of The Scripps Research Institute, Dr. Lerner served as chair of the Department of Molecular Biology of Scripps Research from 1982 to 1986. He has held staff appointments at The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and at the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic, formerly The Scripps Research Institute.

Dr. Lerner has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Wolf Prize in Chemistry in 1994, the California Scientist of the Year Award in 1996, and the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize in 2003 for his achievements in connection with the development of catalytic antibodies and combinatorial antibody libraries. He is on the editorial boards of several research journals and has been elected to many prestigious scientific societies, boards, and academies, including the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Lerner graduated from Northwestern University and Stanford Medical School. He interned at Palo Alto Stanford Hospital and received postdoctoral training at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in experimental pathology.

Gerald F. Joyce, M.D., Ph.D., Consultant

Dr. Joyce is the Dean of the Faculty and a Professor in the Departments of Molecular Biology and Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). In addition, Dr. Joyce is an investigator at The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology.
 
He has published over 125 scientific papers and is the inventor or co-inventor of 12 issued patents. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2001, and in 2005 received the H.C Urey Award, presented every six years by the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life. Dr. Joyce has lectured extensively around the world, including at the Pontifical Academy and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Joyce graduated from the University of Chicago (B.A.) and the University of California, San Diego (M.D.; Ph.D.). He conducted his postgraduate medical training at Mercy Hospital and completed his postdoctoral research training at The Salk Institute before joining the faculty of The Scripps Research Institute in 1989.