Research > Biotechnology and Genomics

The latter part of the 20th century witnessed a biological revolution that opened new horizons in the life sciences and created an entirely new industry — biotechnology. California's world-class research universities placed the state at the forefront of that revolution. Home to one-third of the nation's biotechnology firms. California has more biotech jobs than all of the other states combined.

One in four U.S. biotech companies is located within 35 miles of a UC campus. One in three California biotech firms (and one in six nationwide) was founded by UC scientists, and 85% of California biotech firms employ UC alumni with graduate degrees.

During the next half-century, the application of the quantitative sciences — mathematics, physics, chemistry and engineering — to biomedical research brings about a second revolution that promises to improve human health and create dynamic new technologies. Visit these UC web sites to learn more about how the University of California is charting the future course of biotechnology, genomics and bioinformatics.

UC Discovery Grant
UC Discovery Grants are awarded by the Industry-University Cooperative Research Program to strengthen and expand California's economy through UC-industry research partnerships in biotechnology and other fields. They are state-funded matching grants for expanding company participation in UC
research and accelerating growth of California R&D firms. Grants are awarded for research in a broad spectrum of biotechnology areas, including agriculture, biomaterials, medicine, engineering, genomics, veterinary science, and environmental and marine sciences. More than 300 California companies — including many small businesses — participate in this UC program.

UC Systemwide Biotechnology Research and Education
Created to ensure a foundation for future scientific advances through strong new science and the development of highly skilled personnel, this systemwide biotech program provides support for biotech research, promotes graduate and postdoctoral training, and informs government officials, industry leaders and the public about biotech developments and impacts.

Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3)
One of four California Institutes for Science and Innovation, the Institute for Quantitative Biosciences builds on strengths in engineering and physical sciences at UC Berkeley, the mathematical sciences at UC Santa Cruz and the medical sciences at UC San Francisco, as well as on strong biology programs at these three campuses. Check out the latest UCSF campus at Mission Bay.

Biotech research is also conducted at two other California Institutes for Science and Innovation:
California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology - Cal-(IT)²
California NanoSystems Institute
Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS)

Joint Genomics Institute (National Laboratories)
The Joint Genomics Institute is a collaboration of the Berkeley, Livermore and Los Alamos laboratories funded by the Department of Energy. Visit Health Research at the National Labs for more UC biotech research.

Berkeley Program in Genomics
Genomic information is revolutionizing the way biological and biomedical problems are defined,m approached and ultimately solved. In Berkeley, over 30 research groups are actively working to develop new technologies for the rapid acquisition of biological information on a genomic scale, exploit these technologies to solve essential biomedical problems, and create new computational approaches to analyzing the resulting data.
Berkeley Graduate Program in Computational and Genomic Biology

Berkeley Center for Integrative Genomics
The Center for Integrative Genomics brings together researchers from several traditionally isolated fields of study to analyze and compare the genome sequences of a broad spectrum of organisms to determine the mechanisms responsible for evolutionary diversity among animals, plants and microbes. Faculty are drawn from a number of academic departments at UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, including molecular and cellular biology, integrative biology, statistics, computer science, bioengineering, plant and microbial biology, biostatistics, mathematics, physics and public health.

Davis Genome Center
The Davis Genome Center will include scientists specializing in gene studies from a multitude of disciplines, including human and animal medicine, engineering, agriculture, and the biological and physical sciences as well as a revitalized pharmacology and toxicology department in the School of Medicine and a group of bioinformatics faculty members. Also visit Davis Biotechnology Program and Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology.

Irvine Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics
The UC Irvine Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics will educate the next generation of computational biologists and work with established companies, start-ups, government agencies and standards bodies to develop and transfer genomic and bioinformatic technologies to widespread, practical applications. Also visit Irvine's Biomedical Informatics Graduate Training Program.

UCLA Bioinformatics Institute
Involving faculty members from 10 departments, UCLA Bioinformatics brings together the avalanche of systematic biological data — genomes — with the theory and tools of mathematics and computer science. Also visit UCLA Human Genetics.

Merced Center for Computational Biology
Research projects at the UC Merced Center for Computational Biology  focus on mathematical, computational and biological applications, involving methods development or applied simulations where the modeling drives biological insight, rather than being used as a tool for analyzing biological data.  These projects also provide rich research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students in biology and the mathematical and computational sciences.

Merced Genome Center
New funding will enable UC Merced researchers to continue their advanced genomics research at a high-end, cooperative laboratory facility that will include computers, robots and other equipment to help scientists study the genes of all kinds of organisms, from bacteria to sea creatures to human beings. The center will further UC Merced's "Core Labs" approach to research, which encourages professors to collaborate in building efficient, shared centers that house the technology needed to build knowledge in the interdisciplinary fields of the 21st century.

Riverside Institute for Integrative Genome Biology
In an era of rapid genomics-based discovery, the UC Riverside Institute for Integrative Genome Biology brings a multidisciplinary approach to foster innovations that will make possible advancements in the quality of life – from greater agricultural productivity and more nutritious foods to improved human health and environmental quality. The institute will support advanced studies in genomics, gene expression, proteomics, microscopy and bioinformatics, and also includes the Center for Plant Cell Biology. Also visit the University Research Park.

Riverside Biotechnology Impacts Center
The rapid pace of technical developments in genomics has intensified public debate on the social impacts of biotechnology. The Biotechnology Impacts Center will serve as an "honest broker" forum to identify policy issues, act as an information clearinghouse and initiate research that addresses the potential benefits and consequences of the genomics revolution.

San Diego Biomedical Genomics Microarray Facility
BIOGEM helps meet the needs of multiple labs interested in microarray technology, which has, together with genome sequencing efforts resulted in revolutionary changes in how biomedical research can be done. Differences in the levels of expression for thousands of genes can be assessed all at the same time in a single, simple experiment. Also visit the Whitaker Institute for Biomedical Engineering, UCSD's Interdisciplinary Bioinformatics Program and research projects in bioinformatics and computational biology. The Center for Marine Biotechnology and Biomedicine at Scripps explores biotech in the water and new cures under the sea.

San Diego Scripps Genome Center
The Scripps Genome Center will harness the vast potential of studying genomes and genetic coding by combining the latest in computer and information technology with the existing biological and marine science leadership at UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The center will address important ocean issues as well as those related to human health, the environment and other areas.

San Francisco Biological and Medical Informatics
Recognizing that biology and medicine are rapidly becoming data-intensive sciences that require the generation, management, and analysis of complex, heterogeneous information, UCSF's Biological and Medical Informatics Graduate Program conducts research and training to promote the study, use, and development of informatics technologies for research and more effective patient care. Also visit UCSF's Core Facility for Genomics and Proteomics.

San Francisco Center for BioEntrepreneurship
The UCSF Center for BioEntrepreneurship is creating the next generation of leaders in life science entrepreneurship and industry, and weaving the UC community into the wider fabric of leading companies, financiers and professionals necessary for the successful migration of discoveries from the laboratory to commercialization for the benefit of the institution and society.

Santa Barbara Data Mining and Bioinformatics Laboratory
The UCSB Data Mining and Bioinformatics Laboratory provide software tools for analyzing genomics and proteomics data and applies such tools in other areas of computer science.

Santa Cruz Center for Biomolecular
Science and Engineering
Located close to Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area biotech community, Santa Cruz's Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering is meeting the challenges of the post-genomic era resulting from completion of the Human Genome Project. Also visit the UCSC Computational Biology group. UCSC is one of the few universities in the country to offer B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in bioinformatics.

California's Biotechnology Story
San Francisco Biotechnology Archives - UC contributions to
     the growth and development of the biotechnology industry
UC Technology Transfer Annual Reports
Health Research at UC-Managed National Laboratories
San Diego Supercomputing Center - Integrative Bioscience
UC Health Professional Schools
UC Health News
UC stem cell research fact sheet