[This biographical statement is based primarily on information in
extensive interviews with Dr. Rutter conducted in 1992-1993. Editing in progress;
transcripts to be deposited in the Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Archives, Special
Collections, UCSF Library.]
[This biographical statement is based primarily on information in
extensive interviews with Dr. Rutter conducted in 1992-1993. Editing in progress;
transcripts to be deposited in the Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Archives, Special
Collections, UCSF Library.] Rutter became interested in parasitic diseases in high school after listening to his
grandfather's descriptions of the tropical diseases he had observed as a British Military
officer in India. He graduated from Harvard intending do go on to medical school, but
after auditing medical school classes at the University of Utah, he decided to
concentrate on the research sciences. He received a master's degree from Utah in 1950 and
then a Ph.D. in 1952 at the University of Illinois. At the University of Illinois, Rutter
completed a dissertation on galactosemia, a metabolic disease.In 1965 UCSF began attempts to recruit Rutter as chairman of the biochemistry department.
Worried that administrative duties would restrict his research, he hesitated for four
years. At the time, medical schools were not considered ideal settings to pursue research
in molecular biology. However, in the mid 1960's, Holly Smith, head of Medicine, J.
Englebert Dunphy, head of Surgery, and others decided to improve basic science at UCSF,
and saw Rutter as one who could lead this endeavor. Rutter was also attracted by a large
number of open positions in the department which would allow him to shape its direction.Suggestions of conflict of interest due to of his ties with the biotechnology industry
prompted Rutter to step down as chairman in 1982. In 1983 he became director of the
Hormone Research Institute (HRI), one of UCSF's independent research units. Succeeding
Choh Hao Li, as director, he reoriented research to a molecular approach based on
advanced technology. He relinquished the directorship 1989, but remained a member of the
institute and head of a lab group. He retired from the university in 1994. Rutter played an active role in the development of the Biotech Industry. His most
successful business venture was the establishment of Chiron, founded by Rutter and his
former Stanford colleague, Ed Penhoet, in 1981. Chiron became one of the major
biotechnology firms in the San Francisco Bay Region: In 1991 Chiron merged with Cetus,
another local biotech firm. Rutter's success with Chiron placed him on a list of
"Molecular Millionaires" issued by Genetic Engineering News in 1987, which
reported him as holding Chiron stock worth over 20 million dollars. Rutter has been
Chairman of the Board since the company's founding.Rutter also served as Treasurer of the American Society of Biological Chemists
(1970-1976), as President of the Pacific Slope Biochemical Conference (1975-76), and as
President of the American Society for Developmental Biology (1975-1976). Elected to the
National Academy of Sciences in 1984, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in
1987, Rutter also served on Advisory committees for National Laboratories (Los Alamos,
Oak Ridge, the Naval Biosciences Center, and Scripps), International Laboratories
(Hagedorn Research Laboratory of the Nordisk Labrotorium, Zentrum fur Molekulare
Biologie, and International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology) and
Foundations (Cystic Fibrosis, March of Dimes, Keystone Life Science Study Center, and
California Council on Science and Technology). Service on Boards or Committees also links
him to the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation.