The California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) is a nonprofit research and technology commercialization institute affiliated with three University of California campuses in the San Francisco Bay Area: Berkeley, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz. QB3's domain is the quantitative biosciences: areas of biology in which advances are chiefly made by scientists applying techniques from physics, chemistry, engineering, and computer science.
History.
QB3 was founded in 2000 as one of four Governor Gray Davis Institutes for Science and Innovation (originally, California Institutes for Science and Innovation, or Cal ISIs). From a 2005 article written for the University of California Academic Senate:
The Institutes were launched in 2000 as an ambitious statewide initiative to support research in fields that were recognized as critical to the economic growth of the state—biomedicine, bioengineering, nanosystems, telecommunications and information technology. Moreover, the Cal ISIs were conceived as a catalytic partnership between university research interests and private industry that could expand the state economy into new industries and markets and "speed the movement of innovation from the laboratory into peoples' daily lives" (Governor's Budget summary 2001-02). The four research centers operate as a partnership among the University, state government, and industry, and each involves structured collaborations among campuses, disciplines, academics researchers, research professional, and students.
Campus sites.
The tri-campus organization includes three research branches: QB3-Berkeley, QB3-Santa Cruz, and the Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI-UCSF) at the San Francisco campus.
Leadership.
QB3 is directed by David Schaffer, a Berkeley professor with appointments in multiple departments who also directs the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub and its associated incubator, Bakar Labs. Each participating campus has a QB3 director who also is an active research scientist: Sanjay Kumar at Berkeley, Nevan Krogan at UCSF, and Ed Green at UC Santa Cruz.
Faculty affiliates.
Research faculty affiliates are the foundation of QB3. QB3 has more than 250 faculty affiliates, roughly 100 each from Berkeley, UCSF, and UC Santa Cruz. The research interests of these faculty fall under the umbrella of the quantitative biosciences. QB3 scientists tend to be bioengineers, biophysicists, or pharmaceutical or computational biologists. Synthetic biology is strongly represented. Current and former members of QB3 include Shuvo Roy, Elizabeth Blackburn, Steven Chu, Joseph DeRisi, Jennifer Doudna, David Haussler, Jay Keasling, Arun Majumdar, Harry Noller.
Research.
QB3 member scientists choose affiliations with one of nine research themes:
Activities.
One of the primary functions of QB3 is to establish connections between scientists across various disciplines, as well as between entrepreneurial scientists and business mentors and venture capitalists. To facilitate interaction, QB3 administers specially designed buildings and core facilities that bring together researchers from different fields. Additionally, QB3 provides networking services for applied research and technology commercialization. It's worth noting that QB3 is not a technology transfer office and, therefore, does not handle patent applications.
Startups.
QB3 assists life science entrepreneurs seeking to commercialize their research. In UC Berkeley, QB3 operates one full-service incubator, Bakar Labs, which is situated in the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub at Woo Han Fai Hall, and the smaller QB3 [Email] space at Stanley Hall. 
In Westside Santa Cruz, the UC Santa Cruz-affiliated Startup Sandbox is a biotech incubator that helps entrepreneurs crystalize and innovate ideas into commercially successful businesses. The Sandbox provides an entrepreneurial environment where early-stage startups gain access to low-cost laboratory, office and shared space, resources, training, and networking opportunities.
Previously, QB3 was closely involved in launching and operating incubators, including:
Education.
QB3 is involved in a number of educational initiatives.
QB3 does not offer accredited courses, nor does it hire faculty.
References.
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