2025 Welch Award honors chemical biologists

Chemists Stuart Schreiber of Harvard University and Arena BioWorks and Peter Schultz of Scripps Research will split the 2025 Welch Award in Chemistry for their work in the field of chemical biology.

Schreiber is known for research into chemical genetics, specifically for developing reagents that bind selectively to individual biomolecules to understand those molecules’ function. He also has been a leader in the development of molecular glues and other molecules that can drive proximity of two proteins in a living cell. As a chemist, Schreiber is known for work in diversity-oriented synthesis, an approach that generates complex compound libraries. Schreiber was a founding core member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and was founding director of Harvard’s Institute for Chemistry and Cell Biology. He left the Broad Institute last year to launch the translational research institute Arena BioWorks.

Schultz, the president and CEO of Scripps Research, is best known for his work on expanding the genetic code. This field can involve incorporating noncanonical amino acids—outside the set of 20 encoded by life on Earth—into proteins using new transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules and tRNA synthetases, or incorporating noncanonical bases into DNA. Schultz’s lab has worked on both approaches. The award announcement also mentions Schultz’s development of methods in combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput screening based on imaging cells. Like Schreiber, Schultz has founded a number of research institutes and companies.

Catherine Murphy, chair of the Welch Foundation’s scientific advisory board, says in a statement that Schultz and Schreiber’s “distinct yet complementary” research has “revolutionized the field and launched the modern era of chemical biology.”

Schultz and Schreiber will each receive a $500,000 award and will be feted at a ceremony in October.