Richard H. Scheller | |
|---|---|
 Scheller in 1980 | |
| Born | (1953-10-30)October 30, 1953 (age 71) |
| Alma mater | University of Wisconsin–Madison,California Institute of Technology,Columbia University |
| Known for | Head of gRED |
| Awards | NAS Award in Molecular Biology(1997) Kavli Prize(2010) Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research(2013) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Neuroscience |
| Institutions | Genentech,University of California San Francisco |
| Doctoral advisor | Eric H. Davidson |
| Other academic advisors | Eric Kandel,Richard Axel |
Richard H. Scheller (born 30 October 1953) is the former chief science officer and head of therapeutics at23andMe and the former executive vice president of research and early development atGenentech.[1] He was a professor atStanford University from 1982 to 2001 before joining Genentech. He has been awarded theAlan T. Waterman Award in 1989, the W. Alden Spencer Award in 1993 and theNAS Award in Molecular Biology in 1997, won the 2010Kavli Prize in Neuroscience withThomas C. Südhof andJames E. Rothman, and won the 2013Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research with Thomas Südhof. He was also given the Life Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award fromUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison. He is a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Member of theNational Academy of Sciences.
He earned hisB.S. inbiochemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his Ph.D. inchemistry from theCalifornia Institute of Technology under the guidance ofEric H. Davidson.[2] While a graduate student, he worked with Keiichi Itakura andArthur Riggs to help synthesizeSomatostatin forHerb Boyer at Genentech.[3] After finishing his graduate studies, he did a brief postdoc with Davidson and later withEric Kandel andRichard Axel atColumbia University.[1] While at Columbia, he extended his previous work with recombinant DNA to identify the egg-laying hormone (ELH) gene family of neuropeptides.[4]
Scheller joined the Stanford University faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences in 1982 and later the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. He was an investigator with theHoward Hughes Medical Institute from 1990 to 2001.[5] While at Stanford, he cloned and identified the proteins that control neurotransmitter release notably those in theSyntaxin family of transport proteins,Rab GTPases, andSNAREs.[6]
In 2001, he was recruited from Stanford to join Genentech as a senior vice president and chief research officer, replacing Dennis Henner.[7] In 2008, was named the chief scientific officer and executive vice president of research. After the acquisition of Genentech byHoffmann-La Roche, he was appointed the head of Genentech research and early development and a member of the enlarged Roche Corporate Executive Committee.[8] He is concurrently an adjunct professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at theUniversity of California San Francisco.
In March 2015, Scheller joined 23andMe as the chief scientific officer and head of therapeutics, creating and leading theirtherapeutics team, which translates genetic data into discovery and development of new drug therapies.[9]
Scheller is also known as an expert and enthusiastic collector of traditional and historical African art, since the 1980s. An article about his passion for African art appeared inTribal Arts Magazine,[10] and some of his extensive collection was exhibited and published with the 2015 show entitled "Embodiments" at the De Young Museum in San Francisco.
He is married toSusan McConnell, a professor in the Department of Biology at Stanford University, and lives on Stanford Campus.
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