Molecular Medicine
Our cells hold the secrets to a healthy life—and those secrets are molecules. At Scripps Research, we strive to explain how molecules work together to keep us healthy and how they cease to function correctly with age or illness. But we don’t stop there. Using what we discover about cellular processes and disease mechanisms at the molecular level, we educate future scientists and pursue development of novel therapies to counter disease. From cancer to diabetes, Alzheimer’s to arthritis, we're taking knowledge about molecules and turning it into medicines.
Molecular medicine leverages the fields of chemistry, molecular structure and biology to find new therapies for a range of diseases. Scripps Research scientists are renowned for groundbreaking work in fields such as glycobiology and other areas that decipher molecular interactions in and between cells and for the use of cutting-edge technologies such as mass spectroscopy and next-generation sequencing to advance scientific knowledge. We use this hard-won knowledge to find new targets for therapeutics and develop new medicines. Our world-renowned graduate and postdoctoral programs educate and train future leaders in the field of molecular medicine.
The department focuses on several scientific and disease areas, including:
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State-of-the-art chemical biology to decipher cellular signaling pathways and transcriptional programs
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Multidisciplinary approaches to discover new therapeutic targets and identify drug leads
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Biology of major human cancers, including breast, lung, ovarian, leukemia, pancreatic and prostate carcinomas
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Age-related changes in physiology that lead to metabolic diseases and physical and cognitive decline
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Autoimmune and genetic disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis and cystic fibrosis