The Burnham Institute for Medical Research is recognized as one of the top 25 most influential organizations in the country for publishing medical research, especially in the area of cancer, that results in new discoveries.
The success of the private institution has made it one of the biggest beneficiaries of government research funding while operates on an annual budget of over $100 million.
In addition to cancer research, the Burnham Institute is helping to make progress in the fight against degenerative diseases, stroke, heart disease, and diabetes. What I find interesting is their focus on finding ways to stem the loss of cells that comes with aging and ways to replace those lost cells through stem cell applications.
More recently, the Burnham Institute has begun research on the immune system to figure out why it sometimes fails to attack foreign cells and other times becomes too overzealous and attacks good cells, which results in rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or multiple sclerosis. I certainly hope they make good progress with this new discipline since I’ve seen first hand the impacts of each of these diseases.
The genesis of the Burnham Institute started out in a similar fashion to that of the Salk Institute, which I profiled a few weeks ago as part of my weekly series on the research institutes that line the Torrey Pines Mesa. In 1976, the Fishmans left Tufts University near Boston and headed out to San Diego to create an independent research institution.
Today, the Burnham Institute employees 750 scientists and staff members in ten buildings on the Torrey Pines Mesa.
You can learn more about the Burnham Institute with their FAQ page.
Subscribe to Burnham Institute Publications.
View their list of upcoming seminars.
Directions to the Burnham Institute from Google Maps.
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