QB3 is the University of California’s hub for innovation and entrepreneurship in the life sciences. The institute supports UC researchers and empowers Bay Area entrepreneurs to launch startup companies and partner with industry. With five incubators, two seed-stage venture capital firms, and a special initiative in medical devices — the Rosenman Institute — QB3 helps bio-entrepreneurs create high-value jobs and brings more than $750 million into the Bay Area each year.
The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) is one of four* California Institutes for Science and Innovation founded in 2000 by the University of California to drive the state’s economy and improve quality of life.
QB3’s mission is to grow the California bioeconomy. Of the four institutes, QB3 is the only to focus on life sciences — specifically, the quantitative biosciences — sectors of biology that scientists are exploring using tools and techniques drawn from quantitative fields such as physics, chemistry, and computer science.
QB3 unites quantitative, biological, biomedical, and structural scientists at three University of California campuses — Berkeley, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz — with private industry collaborators to address problems concerning human health. QB3 aims to harness the quantitative sciences to integrate our understanding of biological systems at all levels of complexity — from atoms and protein molecules to cells, tissues, organs, and the entire organism. QB3 scientists attack problems that have been simply unapproachable before, setting the stage for fundamental new discoveries, new products, and new technologies.
QB3 also supports the transfer of new findings and technologies stemming from academic research to the development of commercializable products and services through the development of incubator space and entrepreneurship programs like those run by Santa Cruz-based Startup Sandbox.
At UCSC, QB3 carries out its mission through the following activities:
Funding research, equipment, and core facilities that enable scientists and engineers to develop devices, technologies, drugs, and therapies that improve human health, protect the environment and improve efficiencies in energy production and use.
Supporting endeavors leading to the creation of intellectual property and economic growth
Supporting the next generation of students who will shape California science and technology — the academic researchers, industry leaders, and policymakers of the future
Facilitating collaboration between research groups within UCSC and with the other QB3 campuses
Sponsoring educational and research programs of interest to QB3 affiliates
