QB3 Berkeley / About

About

left to right: cas9 plants, stanley hall interior, Sabeeha Merchant lab, cas9 illustration, stanley hall exterior

Innovation at the Interface

QB3-Berkeley is where world-class scientists and engineers form interdisciplinary collaborations that solve complex health and environmental challenges. By blending biology with physics and engineering, our researchers create life-changing technologies—from the CRISPR gene-editing revolution and “click” chemistry to the development of malaria-fighting microbes.

QB3-Berkeley Director Sanjay Kumar and PhD student Anna Weldy in Stanley Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. Photo: Justin Wang.

Education & Career Growth

Our programs empower the next generation of scientific leaders by providing a rigorous academic foundation through PhD programs in Biophysics and Computational Biology and a designated emphasis in Computational Biology.

The QB3-Berkeley Graduate and Postdoc Career Development office bridges the gap between training and professional success through tailored workshops, while the Lab Fundamentals Bootcamp and Summer Undergraduate Biotech Internships build technical proficiency from the start. 

Researchers stay connected and career-ready through the Postdoc Seminar Series and the QB3-Berkeley Bioscience Meetings, while student-led initiatives like Science Leadership and Management (SLAM) ensure they thrive in both academia and industry.

World-Class Facilities

Our scientific home, Stanley Hall, is a hub for innovation located at UC Berkeley’s East Gate. It houses 38 faculty labs and 8 specialized core facilities, giving researchers access to advanced tools in genomics, mass spectrometry, and structural biology.

Entrepreneurship

The Garage at QB3-Berkeley offers 800 square feet of incubator lab space in Stanley Hall. Companies that were born from faculty and the Garage@QB3-Berkeley include:

  • Caribou
  • CinderBio
  • GenEdit
  • Nodexus
  • YourChoice
  • Zephyrus/Biotechne

Our Mission

Founded in 2000, QB3 is a partnership between the State of California, industry leaders, and the UC campuses at Berkeley, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz. At QB3-Berkeley, our efforts are guided by an Advisory Council of faculty experts:

  • Daniel Fletcher
  • Sanjay Kumar
  • Markita Landry
  • Susan Marqusee
  • Sabeeha Merchant
  • Aaron Streets
  • David Schaffer (QB3 Executive Director)