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Founded in 1873, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is the only University of California campus in the ten-campus system that is dedicated exclusively to the health sciences.

UCSF Mission Bay, located just south of downtown San Francisco, is UCSF's 43-acre life sciences campus for teaching and research.

Since breaking ground in October 1999, UCSF Mission Bay has moved from the purely visionary to the entirely visible. In early, January, 2003, faculty scientists, students and staff began moving into the first building, Genentech Hall.

Located at the corner of 16th and Owens streets, in a region of the city once relegated to dilapidated warehouses and abandoned rail yards, UCSF Mission Bay has now become a site of intense research activity, stimulating other research organizations to move near by.

UCSF Mission Bay is expected to have a far-reaching impact on the speed and significance of research discoveries, the quality of health care, the growth of the regional economy and the revitalization of San Francisco's eastern waterfront.

"Mission Bay has a newly energized atmosphere to it," says Elizabeth Blackburn, Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF. "It feels like the spirit of California at its best — a sense of possibilities."

In 2005 alone, UCSF opened:

• Headquarters of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, or QB3, a cooperative venture among UCSF, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and private industry to integrate physical, mathematical and engineering sciences to create powerful new techniques for attacking complex biological problems;
• The Mission Bay Community Center, a four-story building designed to be the campus hub for recreational, cultural, educational and social activities;
• A 431-unit housing complex, where more than 750 students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty members will live; and
• Two parking garages with 1,422 stalls plus bicycle storage.

The campus also opened a child care center in spring 2006.

UCSF has reached this historic milestone, thanks to literally thousands of faculty, staff, students, donors, neighbors, and civic and business leaders who have collectively contributed to the campus.

"As major elements of the first phase of UCSF Mission Bay near completion, I am gratified to see what UCSF has accomplished and deeply grateful to members of the campus community and the community at large who have contributed to the development of UCSF Mission Bay," said Chancellor Mike Bishop. "Your hard work, commitment and foresight are evident in what is standing and what is happening on the formerly abandoned 43 acres of land. The impact of this vision on scientific research, on the local economy and toward the revitalization of this neighborhood will be felt for many years to come."

Landmark deal UCSF Mission Bay is the product of a landmark deal between Nelson Rising, CEO of Catellus Development Corp., then Mayor Willie Brown and UCSF Vice Chancellor Bruce Spaulding. Together, they helped UCSF achieve the unfathomable — acquiring 43 acres of San Francisco real estate at no cost. Assisting in negotiating this transaction was UCSF volunteer Robert Burke, who received the UCSF Medal for his contributions. The donation of land — a gift valued at well over $170 million — helped keep the University from expanding outside the city and jump-started the development of the new campus.

UCSF Mission Bay is part of a longtime and historical City institution - San Francisco's oldest public university - and the newest link in a campus chain that connects virtually every neighborhood in the city. UCSF includes the 107-acre Parnassus Heights campus, home to graduate professionals attending the schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy; a graduate division for predoctoral and postdoctoral students and scientists; UCSF Medical Center; UCSF Children's Hospital; and Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute.

Other major campus sites include UCSF Medical Center at Mount Zion, home to the nationally designated UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, Women's Health Care Center and other clinical services; and Mission Center and Laurel Heights, both administrative and academic centers.

UCSF also maintains partnerships with two affiliated hospitals, San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. It is also affiliated with the J. David Gladstone Institutes.

Read more about how UCSF Mission Bay Comes to Life.

Last updated July 20, 2007