The San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology was established in 2008 as a consortium of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), in partnership with private industry.
The center collaborates with the private sector to apply lab discoveries to the industrial world through robust research and development in biology, chemistry, and engineering.
The mission of the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology (SD-CAB) is to support development of innovative, sustainable, and commercially viable algae-based biotechnology solutions for renewable energy, green chemistry, bio-products, water conservation, and CO2 abatement. The Center incorporates international research scientists from the fields of biology, chemistry, engineering, economics, and policy. It also trains young scientists, educates the public, collaborates with private sector partners, and facilitates discussion with regional, state and national policy makers regarding the use of algae for energy independence and conservation of land and water, while encouraging the highest standards of academic excellence and objectivity.
Since its founding in 1960, UC San Diego has rapidly ascended to the nation’s top echelon of institutions for higher education and research.
U.S. News & World Report ranks UC San Diego as the 8th best public university in the nation and among the nation’s top 50 universities.
The National Science Foundation ranks UC San Diego 7th in the nation in federal research and development expenditures. UC San Diego’s faculty and alumni have spun off at least 200 local companies, including more than a third of the region’s biotech companies.
TSRI is the world’s largest, private, non-profit biomedical research facility. Founded in 1961, TRSI is internationally recognized for its basic research in immunology, molecular, and cellular biology, chemistry, neurosciences, autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular diseases, virology, and synthetic vaccine development.
Of special note is the institute’s study of the basic structure and design of biological molecules. TSRI offers an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in chemical and biological sciences at the Kellogg School of Science and Technology as well as a postdoctoral fellowship program.
For the past 2 years the Institute’s graduate studies program was ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation’s top 10.
SIO is one of the oldest, largest, and most important centers for marine science research, graduate training, and public service in the world. In the 1960s, Scripps Director Roger Revelle joined with community leaders to create the University of California, San Diego. SIO is currently a department of UCSD.
Today, SIO has more than 1,600 scientists, students, and staff who pursue SIO’s diverse multidisciplinary research mission.
SIO faculty pioneered many fields of marine studies and initiated an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to studying the oceans, air, land, and life as unified systems.
See an overview of SIO’s research.