Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

Former Burnham Institute for Medical Research logo

William H. Fishman, M.D., Ph.D., and his wife, Lillian Waterman Fishman, founded the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation in 1976 after retiring from Tufts University School of Medicine. The Foundation focused on oncodevelopment, the study of developmental biology in conjunction with oncology.

In 1996, the Foundation was renamed The Burnham Institute in honor of San Diego businessman Malin Burnham after he joined with an anonymous donor to contribute $10 million; in 2006, it was renamed the Burnham Institute for Medical Research. In 2007, T. Denny Sanford gave the Institute $20 million through Sanford Health, a hospital which had received significant donations from T. Denny Sanford previously, allowing it to create the Sanford Children's Health Research Center, which has sites in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and La Jolla, CA, the latter within the campus of SBP.

In 2008, SBP was awarded a $97.9 million grant by NIH to establish a high-throughput screening center.[1]

In 2010, the Institute adopted the name Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute following a $50 million pledge of support from Sanford.[2] An anonymous gift of $275 million was made in 2014. In 2015, the Institute changed its name again to Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute following a $100 million gift from philanthropist Conrad Prebys.[3]

SBP was founded with its primary focus on cancer research. SBP ranks consistently among the world's top 25 organizations for its research impact, according to Thomson Scientific data. It also ranks among the top 3% of research institutes in the United States in National Institutes of Health grant funding.

Research staff in SBP’s laboratories numbers over 520 including postdoctoral researchers; an additional 30 graduate students and 164 administrative and support personnel to bring the total number of employees to over 700.

The institute is home to four research centers:

• NCI-designated Cancer Center
• Neuroscience and Aging Research Center
• Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center
• Sanford Children's Health Research Center

The Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute has 7 research programs including:

In addition to its research mission, SPB has a broad educational mission. Established in 2005, SBP's Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences offers a Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Sciences. In 2015, SBP achieved accreditation with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. SBP also employs postdoctoral fellows; there are typically around 125 postdocs training at SBP at any time.

The graduate school is focused in biomedical research and is supplemented by the technologies developed to facilitate breakthroughs in medical practice. The program offers a foundation in biomedical science with project opportunities in biology, chemistry, bioinformatics and engineering, with focus on one of the main foundations of biomedical science within a laboratory specializing in the area.

It is a small program with eight openings per year and a steady state of thirty students. Entering graduate students are admitted to their thesis labs on day one and do not perform laboratory rotations. The graduate school has a short time to degree, averaging 4.7 years. In. the first two years, students complete five core courses, six tutorials and one elective. Instruction is accompanied by extensive practical laboratory training under the supervision of faculty.

In January 2020, SPB reported $117M in annual revenue.  

The sources of funding in 2019 were: 58% federal; 22% private philanthropy; 8% biopharma partnerships; 8% licensing & other and 4% other grants.

Philanthropy has played a major role in the growth and expansion of the institution. Donations from the Whittaker Corporation and the California Foundation enabled the acquisition a five-acre site on the La Jolla mesa. Donations from philanthropists and the Institute’s namesakes—T. Denny Sanford, Malin and Roberta Burnham and Conrad Prebys—have helped to ensure the Institute’s continued growth.

• 1971: Eva Engvall, one of the scientists who invented ELISA in 1971, worked at SBP. She continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor.
• 1984: Erkki Ruoslahti discovered cell adhesion regulator RGD
• 1988: Erkki Ruoslahti took art in the collaborative discovery of the role TGF beta plays in tissue scarring.
• 1992: John C. Reed observed that the activity of common anti-cancer drugs requires “cell suicide” of the cancer cells (apoptosis) and subsequently discovered novel proteins important in apoptosis
• 1997: Erkki Ruoshlahti discovered peptides that home to specific organs. These peptides were later used as targeting elements to deliver nanoparticles into tumors and other sites of disease
• 2001: Robert Liddington solved the 3-dimensional structure of the anthrax toxin, leading to the creation of the world’s most potent chemical inhibitor of anthrax
• 2009: Robert Liddington solved the crystal structure of the influenza hemagglutinin (H5) in complex with a broad spectrum neutralizing antibody
• 2019: Stemson Therapeutics, a company housed within SBP, successfully replicated regenerative hair follicles using stem cells, essentially curing baldness and hair loss. Human trials have yet to commence.

A robotic arm used in high-throughput screening in operation at the La Jolla campus.

SBP has working relationships with the University of California, San Diego, The Scripps Research Institute, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and the Mayo Clinic.

SBP also collaborates with pharmaceutical companies to move research breakthroughs from the lab out to the public. Recent agreements include partners such as Lilly, Daiichi-Sankyo, and Boehringer Ingelheim.

• Official website