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Research in San Diego

Science Explorer records 430 research institutions in San Diego, United States. The highest-ranked on research quality in 2022–2025 are University of California San Diego, Scripps Research Institute and UC San Diego Health System.

Research institutions
430
15 of them ranked worldwide
Research works
287k
▲ 5% vs 2013–17
Top-10% rate, 2022–2025
20.1%
record average 16.5%

A city carries no overall standing here. The composite score is built for institutions and countries, the units its floors and field normalisation were designed around. An empty rank on this page is a statement about the measure, not about the place.

Which research institutions are in San Diego?

#InstitutionWorksAgainst the largest hereWorld rank
1University of California San DiegoUniversity 143,253 #33
2San Diego State UniversityUniversity 25,904 #1,630
3Scripps Research InstituteNonprofit 22,666 #516
4University of San DiegoUniversity 8,755 #3,548
5University of California San Diego Medical CenterHospital / health system 5,282 #10,944
6General Atomics (United States)Company 4,630 #4,915
7Scripps HealthHospital / health system 4,422 #8,053
8Naval Medical Center San DiegoHospital / health system 3,725 #15,869
9VA San Diego Healthcare SystemHospital / health system 3,538 #3,882
10Rady Children's Hospital-San DiegoHospital / health system 3,191 #4,400
11UC San Diego Health SystemHospital / health system 3,007 #1,572
12Alliant International UniversityUniversity 2,838 #13,319
13Qualcomm (United States)Company 2,401 #8,369
14La Jolla Institute for ImmunologyNonprofit 2,312 #1,732
15Torrey Pines Institute For Molecular StudiesNonprofit 1,769 #8,783
16La Jolla Bioengineering InstituteNonprofit 1,646 #2,815
17Naval Information Warfare Center PacificResearch facility 1,345 #18,194
18Naval Health Research CenterResearch facility 1,275 #21,721
19Tanabe Research LaboratoriesResearch facility 1,192 #15,603 all time
20Burn InstituteNonprofit 1,052 #20,743
21Illumina (United States)Company 1,051 #10,728
22San Diego Supercomputer CenterResearch facility 1,014 #4,932
23Point Loma Nazarene UniversityUniversity 969 #11,624
24California Western School of LawUniversity 946 #29,901 all time
25Women’s Health CareHospital / health system 913 #21,893
26BiocomNonprofit 906 #11,700
27Naval Information Warfare Systems CommandGovernment institution 821 #6,789 all time
28San Diego Cardiac CenterResearch facility 775 #22,411
29Zoological Society of San DiegoNonprofit 767 #21,574
30Space Micro (United States)Company 744 #11,956
31Building Engineering and Science TalentInstitution 744 #25,817
32Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging InitiativeNonprofit 741 #11,928
33Maxwell Technologies (United States)Company 695 #10,459 all time
34Thomas Jefferson School of LawUniversity 675 #26,789
35The University of Arizona Global CampusUniversity 648 #23,822
36Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research FoundationResearch facility 639 #3,434 all time
37Neurocrine Biosciences (United States)Company 625 #16,367
38Northcentral UniversityUniversity 598 #26,408
39Southern States UniversityUniversity 579 #16,118
40AntiCancer (United States)Company 579 #11,090 all time
41NewSchool of Architecture and DesignUniversity 570 #29,234 all time
42EP Analytics (United States)Company 553 #11,157
43Therapeutics Clinical ResearchResearch facility 546 #14,148
44Proteogenomics Research Institute for Systems MedicineNonprofit 545 #19,023
45Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical CenterHospital / health system 535 #22,444
46Scripps Mercy HospitalHospital / health system 515 #25,900
47Human Longevity (United States)Company 495 #5,694
48Sharp Memorial HospitalHospital / health system 480 #16,774 all time
49West HealthHospital / health system 446 #20,657
50Information Systems Laboratories (United States)Company 434 #27,758
51Abterra Biosciences (United States)Company 423 #13,623
52Ligand Pharmaceuticals (United States)Company 411 #13,513 all time
53ResearchWorks (United States)Company 388 #25,330
54Predictive Science (United States)Company 383 #19,937
55San Diego Natural History MuseumArchive 354 #24,301 all time
56Agouron InstituteNonprofit 352 #7,829 all time
57Hydrologic Research CenterNonprofit 351 #14,398 all time
58Cosmetic Laser DermatologyHospital / health system 333 #31,690 all time
59COI Ceramics (United States)Company 320 #19,244 all time
60Acadia Pharmaceuticals (United States)Company 310 #23,764

By fractional works over the whole record; world rank on research quality in 2022–2025. Bars are scaled to the largest institution in this city, not to anything off the page.

How concentrated the city is

The same institutions as shares of everything the list accounts for. A city that is one university and a city that is twelve read alike as a table and not at all alike here.

University of California San Diego: 53.4%San Diego State University: 9.7%Scripps Research Institute: 8.4%University of San Diego: 3.3%56 others listed: 25.3%53%largest
University of California San Diego143k · 53.4%San Diego State University26k · 9.7%Scripps Research Institute23k · 8.4%University of San Diego8,755 · 3.3%56 others listed68k · 25.3%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

What is San Diego strongest at in research?

Relative to its size, research in San Diego is most concentrated in Aging, Virology and Developmental Biology (4.7× the world share in Aging).

  1. AgingSubfield · 40.2 works4.7×
  2. VirologySubfield · 72.0 works3.5×
  3. Developmental BiologySubfield · 25.3 works3.2×
  4. Cellular and Molecular NeuroscienceSubfield · 306.0 works2.8×
  5. OceanographySubfield · 271.7 works2.7×
  6. Endocrine and Autonomic SystemsSubfield · 79.8 works2.6×
  7. Psychiatry and Mental healthSubfield · 457.5 works2.6×
← less than its size predictsmore →

Location quotient against the world baseline. Inside a single field a city is a meaningful unit, which is why this is where a city is measured at all.

Which keywords describe research in San Diego?

By fractional works in 2022–2025, weighted toward what it does more of than the world: Epidemiology, Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Mental Health, Cancer and Treatment.

▲ more of its work than of the world’s◆ about the world’s share▼ less than the world’s

Size is fractional works in 2022–2025 in the topics tagged with each word; colour is the word's share of this city's work against its share of the world's. The 40 words are chosen for being large and distinctive. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Epidemiology2,101▲ 1.50×136 topics
  2. Inflammation1,151▲ 1.56×83 topics
  3. Deep Learning1,081◆ 0.89×84 topics
  4. Machine Learning1,057◆ 0.91×93 topics
  5. Oxidative Stress859▲ 1.48×62 topics
  6. Climate Change766▼ 0.80×114 topics
  7. Mental Health724▲ 1.39×48 topics
  8. Cancer679▲ 1.43×57 topics
  9. Treatment646▲ 1.50×52 topics
  10. Cardiovascular Disease613▲ 1.56×39 topics
  11. Quality of Life606▲ 1.19×58 topics
  12. Risk Factors598▲ 1.53×37 topics
  13. Public Health590◆ 1.15×68 topics
  14. Neural Networks523◆ 0.96×40 topics
  15. Depression510▲ 1.64×26 topics
  16. Biomarkers491▲ 2.0×18 topics
  17. Metabolic Syndrome489▲ 1.69×24 topics
  18. Immunotherapy488▲ 1.93×19 topics
  19. Neurological Disorders468▲ 2.3×20 topics
  20. Genetics459▲ 1.85×27 topics
  21. Aging446▲ 2.3×18 topics
  22. Diagnosis439▲ 1.33×41 topics
  23. Management373▲ 1.34×37 topics
  24. Clinical Trials371▲ 1.56×19 topics
  25. Obesity366▲ 1.36×28 topics
  26. Mortality350▲ 1.71×13 topics
  27. Immune Response334▲ 1.66×23 topics
  28. Cancer Therapy320▲ 1.58×20 topics
  29. Neuroimaging311▲ 3.2×11 topics
  30. Insulin Resistance310▲ 1.92×10 topics
  31. Neurodegeneration294▲ 2.8×11 topics
  32. Genetic Mutations293▲ 1.91×23 topics
  33. Immunity287▲ 2.0×11 topics
  34. Prevalence280▲ 1.94×15 topics
  35. Neuroinflammation280▲ 2.8×6 topics
  36. Alzheimer's Disease272▲ 2.7×9 topics
  37. Innate Immunity259▲ 2.3×11 topics
  38. Neurobiology236▲ 2.6×10 topics
  39. Cancer Immunotherapy206▲ 3.8×3 topics
  40. Tumor Regression175▲ 4.5×2 topics

What research is done in San Diego?

  1. 1 Dementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchPsychiatry and Mental health 153 works
  2. 2 Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamicsAstronomy and Astrophysics 117 works
  3. 3 CAR-T cell therapy researchOncology 106 works
  4. 4 RNA and protein synthesis mechanismsMolecular Biology 99 works
  5. 5 Alzheimer's disease research and treatmentsPhysiology 98 works
  6. 6 Cancer Genomics and DiagnosticsCancer Research 98 works
  7. 7 Cancer Immunotherapy and BiomarkersOncology 94 works
  8. 8 Immune Cell Function and InteractionImmunology 91 works
  9. 9 Monoclonal and Polyclonal Antibodies ResearchRadiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging 89 works
  10. 10 Geophysics and Gravity MeasurementsOceanography 88 works

Research output over time

1990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more.