biology

Richard Scheller

Richard Scheller is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Richard Scheller rather than just read about it. In short: Richard H. Scheller (born 30 October 1953) is the former chief science officer and head of therapeutics at 23andMe and the former executive vice president of research and early development at Genentech.

Key takeaways

Richard Scheller belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Richard Scheller to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Richard Scheller from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Richard H. Scheller (born 30 October 1953) is the former chief science officer and head of therapeutics at 23andMe and the former executive vice president of research and early development at Genentech. He was a professor at Stanford University from 1982 to 2001 before joining Genentech. He has been awarded the Alan T. Waterman Award in 1989, the W. Alden Spencer Award in 1993 and the NAS Award in Molecular Biology in 1997, won the 2010 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience with Thomas C. Südhof and James E. Rothman, and won the 2013 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research with Thomas Südhof. He was also given the Life Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award from University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Biography He earned his B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology under the guidance of Eric H. Davidson. While a graduate student, he worked with Keiichi Itakura and Arthur Riggs to help synthesize Somatostatin for Herb Boyer at Genentech. After finishing his graduate studies, he did a brief postdoc with Davidson and later with Eric Kandel and Richard Axel at Columbia University. While at Columbia, he extended his previous work with recombinant DNA to identify the egg-laying hormone (ELH) gene family of neuropeptides. 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 the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1990 to 2001. While at Stanford, he cloned and identified the proteins that control neurotransmitter release notably those in the Syntaxin family of transport proteins, Rab GTPases, and SNAREs. In 2001, he was recruited from Stanford to join Genentech as a senior vice president and chief research officer, replacing Dennis Henner. In 2008, was named the chief scientific officer and executive vice president of research. After the acquisition of Genentech by Hoffmann-La Roche, he was appointed the head of Genentech research and early development and a member of the enlarged Roche Corporate Executive Committee. He is concurrently an adjunct professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California San Francisco. In March 2015, Scheller joined 23andMe as the chief scientific officer and head of therapeutics, creating and leading their therapeutics team, which translates genetic data into discovery and development of new drug therapies. 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 in Tribal Arts Magazine, and some of his extensive collection was exhibited and published with the 2015 show entitled "Embodiments" at the De Young Museum in San Francisco.

Awards 1989 – Alan T. Waterman Award 1993 – W. Alden Spencer Award 1997 – NAS Award in Molecular Biology Life Sciences Distinguished Alumni Award from University of Wisconsin-Madison 2010 – Kavli Prize in Neuroscience 2013 – Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research 2014 – Distinguished Alumni Award from California Institute of Technology 2015 – National Academies of Science Fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

Personal life He is married to Susan McConnell, a professor in the Department of Biology at Stanford University, and lives on Stanford Campus.

References

External links 23andMe Bio Roche Bio Genentech Bio Archived 2012-08-05 at the Wayback Machine Kavli Prize Bio Interview from Bancroft Library

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Scheller

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Scheller claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Richard Scheller before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Richard Scheller ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Richard Scheller

In research: Richard Scheller appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Richard Scheller in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Richard Scheller is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1953 births, American neuroscientists, California Institute of Technology alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Scheller outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Richard Scheller in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard Scheller means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Richard Scheller out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Scheller in simple terms?

Why does Richard Scheller matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Richard Scheller?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Richard Scheller.