Department Reorganization Aims to Support Faculty, Build on Institute’s Strengths

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is reorganizing the structure of some of its academic departments. The change, which will be effective January 1, creates three new departments on the California campus, centered around Neuroscience, Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, and Cell and Molecular Biology.

“I am very excited about the transformations to come and about working with the new departmental leadership,” said TSRI President and CEO Michael A. Marletta. “It is my hope that these changes will support the institute’s scientists in achieving even greater levels of distinction.”

The new neuroscience department, which has been named the Department of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, will be led by Professor Ulrich Mueller, director of the Dorris Neuroscience Center at TSRI. The department will offer a cellular and molecular focus to the understanding of the brain, bringing together scientists from various departments, including the current Molecular and Integrative Neurosciences (MIND) and Neurobiology departments.

The Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology will be led by Ian Wilson, Hansen Professor of Structural Biology and member of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at TSRI. This grouping, which highlights TSRI’s internationally renowned work in structural biology, also allows for an extended emphasis on the challenges of computational biology and on the integration of biophysical methods. 

The Department of Cell and Molecular Biology will be led by Professor James Paulson. The new department, which unites the currently separate departments of Cell Biology and Molecular Biology, brings a renewed focus to the juncture between biology’s chemical and structural underpinnings and the wide expanse of biology at the institute.

Marletta thanked the outgoing department chairs. “I recognize and greatly appreciate their service and dedication to the institute,” he said.

The new chairs, as well as those of established departments at the institute, will serve a five-year term, with the option of extension.

The reorganization, announced November 28, was the result of many months of discussion among senior leadership, including Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer Peter Vogt and TSRI’s Scientific Board of Governors.

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