Arthur Riggs developed a fascination with science and biology at age 10 when his mother, a nurse, gave him his first chemistry set.
"I thoroughly enjoyed mixing reagents and getting changes in color and carbon dioxide release," Riggs (1939-2022), a world renowned diabetes and biotechnology leader, said in a 2010 PNAS.org article (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). "That and reading science fiction got me enthusiastic about science in junior high school."
That early sense of discovery combined with an insatiable curiosity inspired Riggs. He later tread on new territory that laid the groundwork for a lifetime of great scientific achievements. In the process he helped save millions of lives. He also helped spawn the biotech industry.
Take On A Big Problem Like Arthur Riggs
Riggs' achievements were spectacular. He developed the technology that led to the first human synthetic insulin for the treatment of diabetes. His breakthrough work in diabetes enabled mass production of insulin for people living with the disease. Today, synthetic insulin is used by hundreds of millions of people.
Riggs, a long time leader at City of Hope, served as director emeritus of Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope. He also led the Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute there. His scientific discoveries over more than 50 years paved the way for development of the monoclonal antibody therapies. Those are the foundation of modern treatments for cancer, autoimmune diseases, blindness and other diseases.
Stay Focused Like Riggs
How did Riggs accomplish his scientific achievements? He focused on his mission to develop innovations that would lead to a cure for diabetes and help prevent complications from the disease. And he had the unique analytical skills required to break new ground in solving major scientific problems.
"If something was complex, he had the ability to drill down to the fundamental crucial scientific questions at the core of the problem to solve the problem," Debbie Thurmond, director of City of Hope's Arthur Riggs Diabetes & Metabolism Research Institute, told Investor's Business Daily. She calls this rare capability a "sixth sense."
By building expertise in a specific area, Riggs grew confidence and courage to tread on unknown territory. These traits led to his success as a scientist.
"He chose difficult problems, appreciated the importance of certain questions in biology before others, and he was not afraid to go after them," Professor Bruce Beutler, director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center told IBD. Beutler won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Riggs was the first to make recombinant human insulin for commercial use, says Beutler. "That was considered quite a miracle at the time."
Build Your Leadership Skills
Riggs didn't just spend all his time alone in the lab. His leadership style motivated his team, too.
Arthur Riggs' mantra was "hire smart people and then stay out of their way. Don't micromanage them — support them," said Thurmond, who joined City of Hope in 2015 as professor and founding chair of the Department of Molecular & Cellular Endocrinology within the institute. She rose to director of the institute in 2020, when Riggs stepped down.
He'd hire people who, like himself, thought innovatively, and supplied them with the necessary resources in terms of lab space, equipment and dollars, she says. Members of the team could devote their energy to solving scientific problems.
Riggs also had a very "rich network" of esteemed collaborators outside of City of Hope. He tapped the network to introduce people on his team to world-class scientists.
Prioritize Listening
Riggs was brilliant. But he listened to other people, too.
"Definitely a big key to his success is he was a true collaborator," said Thurmond. "He was never a dictator. He preferred to lead people to find the answers that worked best for them rather than tell them what to do."
In an interview in 2019, Riggs described his collegial management style, according to the City of Hope tribute: "My philosophy for scientific leadership is to make suggestions, almost never orders," Riggs said. "This is what my mentors did. ... My office door is open (and) I do try to be as nice as I can to everybody."
Value Education
After graduating high school, Riggs attended the University of California at Riverside. There he earned a degree in chemistry in 1961. He received a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1966 at Caltech. There, he and fellow student Joel A. Huberman wrote a now classic paper on mammalian DNA replication.
Then in 1968, Riggs proposed a theory on DNA modification. He suggested that epigenetic changes and metabolic memory have major roles in the pathophysiology of diabetes, says the City of Hope tribute. This work created the field of epigenetics (how behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way genes work). His findings still have important applications in treating serious genetic diseases.
After postdoctoral work at the Salk Institute on the regulation of DNA in bacteria, Riggs moved on. In 1969, he joined City of Hope, the top independent cancer and diabetes research and treatment center, as a research scientist. At City of Hope, Riggs did his breakthrough work on recombinant DNA technology with a mission to help find a cure for the disease.
Pursue New Opportunities
Riggs, though, found new opportunities. In 1976, he attended a lecture at City of Hope on DNA gene splicing given by Herb Boyer. University of California Berkeley scientist Boyer had just formed a two-person company called Genentech.
Riggs and his colleague Keiichi Itakura agreed, under City of Hope's banner, to collaborate with Boyer's company on a project. They used E. coli bacteria as a "host" for synthesizing human proteins.
In 1977, they succeeded in reverse-engineering the genetic code for a protein called somatostatin, an important inhibitor of many human hormones — and then did the same for human growth hormone — developing versions of the genes that would function inside the bacteria.
It was a "historic first" that demonstrated that it was possible to "manufacture" complex human proteins. The next year, Riggs and Itakura undertook the problem of achieving the same bacterial synthesis of human insulin.
"We chose insulin because it looked doable, and there was a need," Riggs told the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2021. "At the time, diabetics were being treated with cow insulin because there was no source of human insulin. And cow insulin resulted in a high rate of allergic reactions."
This groundbreaking work by Riggs and Itakura enabled the large-scale production of synthetic insulin, which became the first genetically engineered product approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The synthetic insulin he helped create is still used by hundreds of millions of people every day.
Focus On Your Purpose, Not Money
Unlike many fellow biotech pioneers, Riggs turned down the opportunity to work in the for-profit sector. He was under contract to Genentech. But after that arrangement ended in 1984, he chose to return to City of Hope full time as a researcher.
Riggs' enthusiasm for solving major health issues excited people he worked with. And he wound up inspiring the next generation of leaders. UT Southwestern Medical Center's Beutler saw Riggs as a role model he tried to follow.
"He was definitely someone I wanted to be like," said Beutler.
"Here was a relatively young guy working on recombinant DNA and doing something at the forefront of what could be done at that time," said Beutler. "It was pretty exciting to me. 'If him, why not me?' I thought. That's how people lead by example. After that year I felt in a hurry to get through medical school and go back to science."
Arthur Riggs' Keys
- Renowned treatment leader at City of Hope and biotechnology pioneer. He developed the technology that led to the first human synthetic insulin.
- Overcame: The obstacles to treading on new territory in science and developing a breakthrough treatment for diabetes.
- Lesson: "My philosophy for scientific leadership is to make suggestions, almost never orders," Riggs said. "I do try to be as nice as I can to everybody."
