La Jolla Research Community

UCSD has become the center of what is considered by many a utopia for scientific research. La Jolla boasts an unparalleled concentration of top-flight research institutions, including the Salk Research Institute, the Scripps Research Institute, the Burnham Institute for Cancer Research, and the San Diego Supercomputer Center, as well as a thriving technological park.

Salk Research Institute

One of UCSD's oldest and most prestigious neighbors, the Salk perches on the cliffs just west of the upper campus. Several faculty members collaborate with Salk scientists, especially in the areas of protein chemistry and exobiological chemistry. 

Salk Institute for Biological Studies is an educational and research institution that provides academic programs in biology sciences. The institute offers graduate and postdoctoral education with focus on areas such as molecular biology and genetics, neurosciences, and plant biology. Salk Institute also offers research facilities that include The Crick-Jacobs Center for Theoretical and Computational Biology, Sloan-Swartz Center for Theoretical Neurobiology, and The Cancer Center.

Along with its faculty investigators, visiting scientists, post doctorates, the Salk Institute conducts its biological research. The major areas of study are: Molecular Biology and Genetics Neurosciences and Plant Biology. Knowledge acquired in Salk laboratories provides new understanding and potential new therapies and treatments for a range of diseases—from cancer, AIDS and Alzheimer's disease, to cardiovascular disorders, anomalies of the brain and birth defects. Studies in plant biology at the Salk may one day help improve the quality and quantity of the world's food supply. With the completion of the Human Genome Project, the Salk Institute is strengthening its existing programs while also moving towards six key areas representing strategic research priorities in: Chemistry and Proteomics Stem Cell Biology Cell Biology Regulatory Biology Metabolic Research and Computational and Theoretical Biology.

Burnham Institute

Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute has grown from a small facility in La Jolla, California, to three robust campuses located on both coasts.

The La Jolla campus houses the NCI-Designated Cancer Center, Del E. Webb Neuroscience, Aging and Stem Cell Center, Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center and the Sanford Children’s Heath Research Center.

Sanford-Burnham announced in 2006 that it would expand its presence to the East Coast, joining the growing medical city at Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida. The LEED certified facility opened its doors in 2009 and is home to the Diabetes and Obesity Research Center.

Sanford-Burnham established an affiliation with the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2006. In 2009, Sanford-Burnham expanded its collaboration with UCSB by establishing the Center for Nanomedicine.

San Diego Supercomputer Center

The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is an organized research unit of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Physically, SDSC is located on the east end of Eleanor Roosevelt College on the campus of UCSD.

Founded in 1985, its self-prescribed mission is "developing and using technology to advance science". SDSC is primarily funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and pursues research in the areas of high performance computing, grid computing, computational biology, geoinformatics,computational physics, computational chemistry, data management, scientific visualization, and computer networking. SDSC is internationally recognized for its contribution to computational biosciences and computational approaches to earth sciences and genomics. SDSC is especially known for its role in the creation and maintenance of the Protein Data Bank, the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation Cyberinfrastructure Center (NEESit), cyberinfrastructure for the geosciences (GEON), and the Tree of Life Project (TOL) .

SDSC is one of the four original sites involved in the TeraGrid project along with National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), Argonne National Laboratory, and Center for Advanced Computing Research (CACR).