Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

What Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute does

Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (formerly Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit biomedical research organization founded in 1976 and headquartered at 10901 North Torrey Pines Road in La Jolla, California. The institute operates an integrated research enterprise spanning cancer, neurologic diseases, cardiovascular and muscular diseases, and metabolic and liver diseases, organized around disease-focused centers and two enabling technology centers. It is one of only seven NCI-designated Basic Laboratory Cancer Centers in the United States, and the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics functions as one of four comprehensive probe/drug discovery centers in NIH's Molecular Libraries Probe Production Centers Network, utilizing ultra-high-throughput screening with 1536-well acoustic-dispensing robotics against a library of more than 800,000 compounds and a cryo-EM facility built around Titan Krios and Tecnai T12 instruments.

The institute's research outputs include wet-lab drug discovery (132 completed high-throughput screens, 67 published chemical probes under MLPCN) and a growing portfolio of open-source computational tools — PERCEPTION for precision-oncology treatment-response modeling, metapipeline-DNA for genome-sequencing automation, SAKURA for single-cell dimensionality reduction, TLPath for telomere-length prediction from histopathology, ecPath and DeepTarget for tumor-feature and drug-target prediction, and the ecDNA Portal for childhood-cancer circular DNA. These AI/ML capabilities are consolidated under a new Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence endowed by Qualcomm co-founder Andrew Viterbi.

Sanford Burnham Prebys funds roughly nine of every ten dollars spent on research, with revenue derived from federal grants (over $90 million in NIH awards across the past five years, plus $3.9 million NINDS and $25.7 million in cumulative CIRM awards), philanthropy (cumulative $110 million from Conrad Prebys in 2009 and 2015, plus $5 million from Viterbi in May 2026 and ongoing Curebound grants), and licensing/collaborative partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies through the Conrad Prebys Center and Shared Resources core facilities. The institute operates a formal inter-institutional C3 collaboration with UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center and the Salk Institute for shared core access, and trains graduate students and postdoctoral fellows through dedicated PhD, CIRM, and LEAP programs.

Name

Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute

Legal name

Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

Website

https://sbpdiscovery.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1976

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Sanford Burnham Prebys is a 50-year-old nonprofit biomedical research institute in La Jolla operating as one of seven NCI-designated Basic Laboratory Cancer Centers, with ultrahigh-throughput drug discovery, cryo-EM, and AI/computational biology capabilities funded by NIH grants, philanthropy, and pharma partnerships.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Biomedical Research Services

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (54171)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Preclinical CROs (Discovery/Pharmacology/DMPK) (HLAGAAAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Transcriptomics & Gene Expression Profiling Services (HLAGANAE), Bioinformatics, Multi-Omics Data Analysis & Interpretation Services (HLAGANAI), Nonclinical Study Management & Regulatory Writing (IND-enabling) (HLAGAFAN)

Keywords

• Biomedical research services
• Drug discovery platforms
• Cancer research center
• Preclinical therapeutics development
• Computational biology tools

Headquarters

HQ city

La Jolla

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Sanford Burnham Prebys is a nonprofit biomedical research institute that conducts basic and translational research across cancer, cardiovascular, neurological, and metabolic diseases. Its core offerings include drug discovery services via the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics (with ultra-high-throughput screening of 800,000+ compounds), access to 20+ shared research core facilities, and educational/training programs for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. The institute also develops and disseminates open-source computational biology tools for genomics and precision oncology.

Product overview

Sanford Burnham Prebys is a medical research institute that operates as a unified research organization rather than a platform-plus-modules product architecture. The institute offers research services through its drug discovery center (Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics) with ultra-high-throughput screening capabilities, and has developed several computational tools for internal research use including metapipeline-DNA for genome sequencing analysis, TLPath for telomere length prediction from histopathology images, PERCEPTION for cancer treatment response modeling, SAKURA for single-cell data analysis, ecPath for ecDNA prediction, and DeepTarget for cancer drug target prediction. These tools are research-oriented computational resources made available as open-source or portals rather than commercial products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics Ultramodern drug discovery center equipped with state-of-the-art robotic platforms capable of ultra-high-throughput screening (uHTS), offering assay development, high-throughput screening, pharmacology, and medicinal chemistry services. One of four comprehensive probe/drug discovery centers in the NIH MLPCN and one of seven in the NCI Chemical Biology Consortium. Serves biotech, pharma, and academic collaborators.
• Shared Resources Core Facilities

Quantifiable outcome

• Completed 132 high-throughput screens and generated 67 published chemical probes
• +3 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability8 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• UC San Diego Moores Cancer CentercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPart of the San Diego National Cancer Institute Cancer Centers Council (C3) collaboration with UC San Diego and Salk Institute to share distinct core resources and accelerate understanding and treatment of cancer.
• Salk Institute for Biological StudiescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPart of the C3 collaboration providing access to Gene Transfer, Targeting and Therapeutics Core (GT3) for viral vector services including retrovirus, lentivirus, AAV, adenovirus production.
• German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative research with DKFZ and University Hospital of Tübingen identifying ATF6α as a tumor driver for hepatocellular carcinoma.
• University of California Los AngelesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborative development of metapipeline-DNA computational tool for standardizing and automating genome sequencing analysis.

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• J. Craig Venter Institute: La Jolla-headquartered nonprofit genomics research organization with comparable headcount range, computational biology focus, and NIH-funded research model.
• Broad Institute: Joint Harvard/MIT-affiliated biomedical and genomic research institute with leading computational biology, AI/ML, and single-cell programs comparable to SBP's Data Science and AI Center.
• Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory: Long-standing independent nonprofit research institute with NCI-designated cancer center, comparable scale (~500-1000 staff), focus on cancer biology and neuroscience, and similar grant-driven revenue model.
• Salk Institute for Biological Studies: Independent nonprofit biomedical research institute headquartered in La Jolla with comparable size, NCI-designated status, and focus on cancer, neuroscience, and aging research. Natural geographic and programmatic peer.
• Scripps Research: La Jolla-based nonprofit research institute with deep drug discovery, chemical biology, and translational science programs. Operates one of the original MLPCN screening centers and shares the same talent pool and federal-grant funding pool as SBP.
• Gladstone Institutes: Affiliated nonprofit biomedical research institute operating multiple disease-focused centers with comparable size and NIH-funded discovery research model, similar NCI-adjacent programs.
• Stowers Institute for Medical Research: Privately endowed nonprofit biomedical research institute of similar size, focused on fundamental disease research and operated primarily through philanthropic endowment rather than federal grants.
• Allen Institute: Nonprofit research organization with significant AI/data-science capability in biomedical research, endowed by a single major philanthropist, operating multiple scientific programs of comparable scale to SBP.
• La Jolla Institute for Immunology: Neighboring La Jolla nonprofit research institute with comparable scale, NIH-funded discovery research, and shared core facilities accessed through regional collaborations.

Broad incumbents

• Charles River Laboratories: Large commercial CRO offering preclinical drug discovery, high-throughput screening, and in vivo services that overlap with the discovery capabilities of SBP's Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/sbpdiscovery
• YouTubeyoutube.com/sbpdiscovery
• Facebookfacebook.com/sbpdiscovery
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sbpdiscovery
• Instagraminstagram.com/sbpdiscovery

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute