Thomas Scott Edgington - Polymath, Colleague, Mentor, Friend
March 02, 2021
Written by Francis V. Chisari, MD and Michael B.A. Oldstone, MD
Thomas Edgington, an outstanding scientist and a world leader in the field of vascular biology, passed away Jan. 22, 2021, just 19 days before his 89th birthday. An Emeritus Professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, he spent 55 years during his career at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and its precursor, The Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation.
Edgington joined TSRI as a postdoctoral fellow in 1965 to study immunology and immunopathology under Frank J. Dixon, MD, the founder of the institute and a giant in those fields. He was the most unusual of Dixon's postdoctoral fellows in that he resigned his tenured faculty position at UCLA and returned his two NIH grants in order to do full-time research as a postdoctoral fellow in what was arguably the premier immunology institute in the world at the time.
Edgington was a pioneer. He introduced the first fraction collector at TSRI and one of the first FACS machines. For several years, he served as chairman of the Department of Pathology at Scripps Clinic while also directing his basic research laboratory at TSRI. He formed a vascular-biology unit, drawing members from several TSRI departments who, collectively, generated a mountain of highly original and fundamentally important observations over the years.
He was adventurous. He brought insatiable curiosity and energy to everything he did from mechanical engineering to radiation biology, from human pathology to cancer diagnosis, from protein-protein recognition to immunology, virology, lipoprotein biology and his favorite topic, the molecular basis for blood coagulation. He was the founder of three biotechnology ventures and sat on the boards of many others.
He was a teacher and a role model who trained a large cadre of postdoctoral fellows who are now in leadership roles in all of the abovementioned disciplines all over the world.
Edgington liked to talk. He couldn't say hello' in fewer than 10 minutes. He was a storyteller. He loved to tell his postdocs who complained about struggling to get an experiment to work that, when he was a postdoc, he had to chase sheep and goats around an East County farm. This was in order to catch, immunize and eventually collect blood samples so he could isolate, purify and fluoresceinate or radiolabel the antibodies he needed to perform the homegrown immunoassays that he created to do his research. He did it all with a twinkle in his eye.
Arguably, Edgington's greatest scientific achievement was the cloning of tissue factor and identifying the specific pathways it regulates in the coagulation system, which earned him a bevy of national and international awards, including the Presidency of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and election into the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, now known as the National Academy of Medicine. His commitment to full-time basic scientific research, the training of dozens of research fellows, and his collegiality with scientific colleagues and competitors alike was legendary.
Edgington was a fourth-generation Californian, a hard-working only child of hard-working parents. His intellect, engineering skills and academic achievements were rewarded by recruitment to Stanford University for his undergraduate and medical studies. After graduation, he worked on an early form of the heart-lung machine at the University of Pennsylvania. After postgraduate training in Pathology at UCLA, he joined the faculty as Director of Clinical Pathology and became a member of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission studying the long-term impact of radiation on survivors of the atomic bomb.
Edgington's first wife and the mother of his children, Joanne Edgington, predeceased him after 50 years of marriage. He is survived by his daughter Kassy Perry, a life sciences public relations consultant; son Scott Edgington, a businessman; four grandchildren; and second wife Sandra Edgington.
Edgington loved life and lived it well. He will live long in the minds and hearts of his family, his many friends and colleagues, and the more than 70 postdoctoral fellows he trained.
Edgington, Thomas
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
26/11/2025
A cinematic snow sculpture at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Randall Michelson...
26/11/2025
Book podcasts are booming. On Spotify, you'll find everything from celebrity book clubs to deep dives with bestselling authors. And in markets where audiobo...
26/11/2025
Mumbai, November 24, 2025: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, JioStar, in collab...
26/11/2025
LONDON Factual content producer ITN Productions has launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins....
26/11/2025
MIAMI TelevisaUnivision said it struck a new multiyear distribution agreement with YouTube TV that includes distribution of TelevisaUnivision's U.S. network...
26/11/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leader in software-defined data storage and data services, today announced the launch of the Atlas Corporate Creative Solution. This new Atl...
26/11/2025
Disguise, the industry-leading company powering the world's biggest live performances, is partnering with pioneering LED wall manufacturer DVS to give atten...
26/11/2025
HighField AI, the pioneer in agentic and multimodal automation for broadcast and media production, today announced the expansion of its global channel partner n...
26/11/2025
As high-stakes Premier League fixtures approach and additional premium content launches, with MONO positioning themselves to dominate Thailand's sports stre...
26/11/2025
Hosting a wide variety of events from high-intensity NHL games to complex live music concerts and major entertainment productions, Montreal's 21,000 capacit...
26/11/2025
Vizrt, the leader in live production technology revolutionizing viewer engagement and experience, releases AI-driven advances focusing on speed, intelligence, a...
26/11/2025
ITN Productions, an award-winning factual content producer, today launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins. Responsible for delivering a leading...
26/11/2025
Ikegami reports ongoing advances throughout 2025 in developing and delivering coordinated television production solutions that maximize quality, versatility and...
26/11/2025
Following the Nov. 21 blackout of NBCUniversal channels on Fubo, the two sides have traded barbs about their inability to reach a new carriage deal....
26/11/2025
LONDON As TV sports rights become increasingly important for both broadcasters and streamers, Ampere Analysis predicts global investment in the genre will surpa...
26/11/2025
LOS ANGELES Vubiquity said it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Entertainment Competency as part of the AWS Partner Network (APN). This designa...
26/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau said it has entered into a consent decree with Comcast calling for the cable company t...
26/11/2025
Berklee Named to the Hollywood Reporters Top Music Schools List The publication highlights the college's screen scoring program, industry partnerships, and ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
Animated Series Love Through a Prism' Casts New Light on ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
NALIP Unveils Fifth Cohort of Director Incubator
Social Impact
26 November 2025
United States
Link copied to clipboard
The National Assoc...
26/11/2025
YouView Achieves Greenly Gold Certification for SustainabilityNov 26, 2025
YouView is proud to announce a Gold Certification award from Greenly for our perform...
Thomas Scott Edgington - Polymath, Colleague, Mentor, Friend 
