INSIGHTS | PERSPECTIVESPHOTO: SCRIPPS RESEARCHscience.org SCIENCEBy Peter SchultzR
ichard Lerner, physician-scientist
and president of Scripps Research
from 1987 to 2012, died on 2
December 2021. He was 83. Richard
had an enormous impact on science,
both through his powerful intellect
and creativity in the laboratory and as the
bold, inspirational leader who grew Scripps
Research into one of the world’s preemi-
nent research institutes.
Richard was born on 26 August 1938 and
raised on the south side of Chicago, where
he was a lifeguard on the beaches of Lake
Michigan. After attending Northwestern
University as an undergraduate, he earned
his MD at Stanford University in 1964 and
then interned for a year at Stanford before
accepting a postdoctoral position in the
Department of Experimental Pathology at
Scripps Research (then known as Scripps
Clinic and Research Foundation) in La
Jolla, California. After his fellowship, dur-
ing which he discovered the role of anti–
glomerular basement membrane anti-
bodies in Goodpasture syndrome (a rare
autoimmune disease), he joined the Wistar
Institute in Philadelphia but returned to
Scripps Research a year later, in 1970, as a
faculty member. He was named president
of the institute in 1987 and served in that
capacity for 25 years before retiring to his
laboratory, where he continued doing re-
search until his death.
Every conversation with Richard began
with some fresh scientific insight or ob-
servation—he loved science above all. His
own science showed remarkable creativity
and breadth, spanning organic chemistry,
immunology, and medicine. Despite be-
ing trained as a physician, Richard always
thought on the molecular level, starting
with his early work on using synthetic pep-
tides as vaccine antigens. My first interac-
tion with Richard was in 1986 when we
independently generated the first catalytic
antibodies—Richard as an immunologist
learning chemistry and I as a young assis-
tant professor learning immunology. When
I serendipitously discovered that we were
competitors, I nervously called Richard
and introduced myself. Richard easily couldhave overwhelmed me with the resources at
his disposal, but instead he suggested that
we copublish and offered to help my lab at
the University of California, Berkeley, make
monoclonal anti bodies. That phone call
started a lifelong collaboration and close
friendship—and it typified the scientific
spirit and generosity that made him a great
leader of Scripps.
Richard’s work in catalytic antibodies,
which reflected his early insights into the
power of bridging chemistry and biology, was
a tour de force. He used mechanistic prin-
ciples to generate antibodies that catalyzed
reactions ranging from aldol condensationsto disfavored cyclization reactions, and in do-
ing so he proved fundamental notions of ca-
talysis. He was one of the first to understand
and exploit molecular diversity (in this case,
immunological diversity) as a powerful new
approach to advance biology, chemistry, and
medicine. He then went on to create the earli-
est antibody libraries and later was the first
to publish the concept of DNA-encoded li-
braries. These technologies have had an enor-
mous impact on science and on the discovery
of novel therapeutics in the pharmaceutical
and biotechnology industries. Richard him-
self used these tools to create new medicines
and played a key role in the development of
two Food and Drug Administration–approved
drugs. He continued to push the boundaries
of science even after being incapacitated by
a major stroke; just recently, he published a
highly cited paper on the molecular mecha-
nism of anesthetic drugs.While doing all of this, Richard was
president of Scripps. During his tenure, he
grew the institute into a scientific power-
house—creating a world-class chemistry
department from scratch, founding a top-
10 graduate school, and recruiting some of
the world’s leading scientists. He created an
environment that enabled innovation and
groundbreaking science. Richard funded
people, not projects. He was remarkably
adept at identifying both established and
young scientists who would thrive in the
“push the envelope” environment at Scripps.
I believe most of us came to Scripps because
of Richard’s energy, enthusiasm, and focus
on enabling great science.
Richard was also a leader in creating
industry–academia partnerships and in-
ternational collaborations. He used these
relationships to build the institute while
advancing science and medicine. He also
played a leading role in building San
Diego’s now-thriving life sciences com-
munity. Foremost, Richard was fearless in
pursuing exciting new ideas and directions
despite the risks, and he magically seemed
to make things work—always with the goal
of bringing together great ideas, people,
and resources with a minimum of distrac-
tions from the science. Very few institutions
can boast of cell biologists, neurobiologists,
immunologists, and chemists working so
closely together to develop an understand-
ing of, and treatment for, disease at the mo-
lecular level.
Known for his sharp intellect and quick
wit, Richard sometimes pushed the bound-
aries of political correctness. He had a com-
plete disregard for convention. His address
at the Wolf Prize ceremony in the Knesset
included a somewhat irreverent and won-
derful joke about scientific discovery in-
volving a physicist, a chemist, a rabbi, and a
thermos bottle.
Richard also loved to push the boundar-
ies outside the lab. I remember the day he
laughingly parked his new turbo Porsche
next to my old Volvo. Our friendly competi-
tion had clearly taken on a new direction,
“forcing” me to buy an even faster turbo
Porsche. The next thing I knew, there was
a Ferrari Maranello parked in his space
(with both our wives shaking their heads).
Richard lived his life as a scientist and the
leader of Scripps in sixth gear, never looking
backward in the rearview mirror and never
taking his foot off the gas pedal. He was a
scientific giant, and his contributions were
enormous. I only hope we can continue his
legacy at Scripps, pushing the frontiers of
science and the scientific enterprise with
his example in mind. j10.1126/science.abn6377RETROSPECTIVERichard Lerner (1938–2021)
Fearless scientist and leader of Scripps Research
Scripps Research, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Email: [email protected]30 7 JANUARY 2022 • VOL 375 ISSUE 6576