UC San Diego Raises 1.45 Billion For Research

The record fundraising will keep UCSD among the region’s largest employers By G ary Robbins The coronavirus pandemic might reduce UC San Diego’s enrollment this fall. It has already slowed the school’s massive construction program. But UCSD will maintain its standing as one of the 10 largest research universities in the country. The campus says it pulled in a record $1.45 billion for research during the fiscal year that ended on June 30. That’s $100 million higher than a year ago and represents the 11th consecutive year that UCSD has surpassed the $1 billion mark. Averaged over a year, the funds pump almost $4 million into new research every day. UCSD — the county’s second-largest employer behind the Navy — got grants and gifts to study everything from the nature of the coronavirus to how to spot wildfires more quickly and better enable scientists to discover planets far outside our solar system. Nearly 60 percent of the money went for health and medicine, with a heavy focus on defeating the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 150,000 people in the US. And as was the case in past, more than 60 percent of the money came from the federal government. Other large sources include private, non-profit organizations and industry. The additional jobs created by the research funding, and goods and services purchased as a result, added another $1.23 billion to the region’s gross regional product during the past year, estimated Lynn Reaser, an economist at Point Loma Nazarene University. “The positive impact extends beyond the immediate effects on jobs and dollars. UCSD is conducting research and development (R&D) activity for public safety and public health that might otherwise have been deferred due to budget pressures,” Reaser said. “UCSD is also engaging in critical R&D for the private sector that might have been dampened by profit pressures.” The university is sharply targeting where it is looking for money. “Many researchers are contributing to our community, state and nation by quickly pivoting toward COVID-19-related efforts,” s aid Sandra Brown, UCSD’s vice chancellor for research. “We and other universities have a challenging road ahead as the impact of the pandemic unfolds. This is why federal funding specifically targeted to support universities is so critical right now.” Here is a sample of where some of the research money came from and how it is being used. UC San Diego Raises $1.45 Billion For Research Polishing Standing As Science Mecca

Fighting COVID-19 Funder : National Institutes of Health Amount : $700,000 Principal Investigator : Dr. Edward Cachay, infectious disease specialist UCSD, which operates two hospitals, currently has about a dozen new studies underway that are focused on developing drugs and vaccines to fight COVID-19. Cachay is testing the safety and effectiveness of u sing convalescent plasma ( CP) to prevent COVID-19 after a person has been exposed to the virus. The university says the therapy “involves infusing patients with antibodies extracted from the blood of donors who have successfully recovered from COVID-19, with the hope that the resulting boost to their immune systems will shorten the length and reduce the severity of the disease.” Cachay will use $200,000 of the grant to test CP as a prophylactic to prevent COVID and $500,000 to test it as a treatment for reducing the disease’s severity. The university is trying a variety of approaches. Nano-engineers Nicole Steinmetz and Jon Pokorskiwere given $200,000 by the National Science Foundation to work on a wearable patch that painlessly delivers a coronavirus vaccine in just one dose. The researchers say they will use a plant virus that infects legumes and engineer it to resemble the novel coronavirus. Dr. Ed Cachay is testing whether plasma can prevent COVID-19 after a known exposure to the coronavirus. (USAF)

Physicist Quinn Konopacky is upgrading an instrument that will enable scientists to see fainter stars and planets (Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego) Sharper focus on distant planets Funder : H eising-Simons Foundation Amount : A bout $1 million Principal Investigator : Quinn Konopacky, physicist The Gemini South Telescope in Chile has few rivals when it comes to discovering Jupiter-sized planets in deep space. It’s fitted with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), a device that allows the telescope to directly see planets rather than simply infer their presence. The GPI was co-developed by physicist Quinn Konopacky, who is now leading an effort to upgrade the instrument, not only to search for planets but to hone in on stars. When the work is complete, the GPI will be able to see stars 20 times fainter than the ones it can currently pick up, which will expand science’s understanding of planetary systems.

Spotting harmful algae blooms Funder : California Ocean Protection Council Amount : $1,285,035 Principal investigator : Clarissa Anderson, biological oceanogra pher T he big algae bloom that produced bioluminescent light along the San Diego County coastline this spring thrilled beach-goers. But it’s the kind of event that worries scientists. UCSD says that certain blooms can p roduce toxins t hat can sicken marine mammals and threaten the health of humans when consumed in seafood. In high enough doses, the toxin is potential ly fatal. Anderson is responding by creating an early warning sys tem for harmful algae blooms. It will consist of automated instru ments that count and classify phytoplankton in coastal California A plankton blood produce bioluminescent light in La Jolla in spring 2020. (Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego)

Getting a jump on wildfires Funders , amounts : Pacific Gas & Electric, $6 million; Cal Fire, $5.2 million; San Diego Gas & Electric, $300,675 Principal Investigator : Neal Driscoll, geoscientist California is about to begin what many consider to be the scariest time of the year — wildfire season. San Diego County has suffered such disasters as the 2 003 Cedar fire, which killed 15 people and destroyed more than 2,800 buildings. To give firefighters an edge, UCSD co-developed ALERTWildfire, a growing network of pan-tilt-zoom cameras. The network helps firefighters do everything from confirm the location of a wildfire to better organize evacuations. The latest funding has allowed UCSD and its partners to add 300 cameras to the network, pushing the total to more A San Diego firefighter battles a blaze in Rancho Bernardo during a firestorm on Monday, October 22, 2007. ( K.C. Alfred / ) than 500. waters.

A better earthquake simulator Funder : N ational Science Foundation Amount : $ 6 million Principal Investigator : J oel Conte, structural engineer It’s impossible to buy or build a home in Southern California that’s beyond the reach of an earthquake fault. The region is riddled with them. Periodically, a fault ruptures long and hard, causing death and destruction. To study the threat locally and globally, UCSD opened the world’s largest outdoor earthquake shake table in 2004. The simulator, located in Scripps Ranch, is currently undergoing a major upgrade and will resume operating in 2021. When work resumes, the simulator will shake a 10-story wood frame building to analyze how well it would hold up in an earthquake. Simulator research has already led to improvements in design and repair of bridges, freeways and dwellings. UC San Diego is using grant money to upgrade the earthquake shake table it operates in Scripps Ranch (Erik Jepsen/UC San Diego )