The UCLA Molecular Biology Institute was founded in 1967 by visionary Nobel prize-winning scientist Paul Boyer. Dr. Boyer recognized the potential of molecular biology to revolutionize healthcare by revealing the mechanistic underpinnings of disease. From the earliest days, he imagined a vibrant hub for scientific discussion, collaboration and education.
“The two main goals of the proposed institute are (1) to facilitate research in modern biology by bringing together workers with backgrounds and competencies in the various crucial areas of molecular biology and (2) to contribute, at the graduate and post-doctoral levels, to the type of broad education and training that will be needed by the molecular biologists of the future.”
Paul Boyer, Report of the UCLA Committee on Cell Research and Molecular Biology, 1962.
Over 50 years later, the MBI is home to the laboratories of 200 faculty members from 14 campus units distributed across the David Geffen School of Medicine and the Divisions of Life Sciences and Physical Sciences. Its premier Interdepartmental Graduate Program has granted over 350 doctoral degrees to talented students who, along with many highly qualified post-doctoral fellows, have gone on to careers at hundreds of academic institutions and biotech companies, within the U.S. and abroad.
Read the history of the Molecular Biology Institute, written by former director Richard Dickerson: “The Making of an Institute: The MBI at UCLA 1960-1978”.
