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Hub Overview
San Diego is one of the few places with a university department devoted specifically to nanoengineering, at UC San Diego, which grew up around the Nano3 cleanroom in the Qualcomm Institute. Nano3 anchors the San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure, a National Science Foundation site open to academic and industry users. What makes the region distinctive is its setting: the Nano3 fabrication base sits inside the La Jolla biomedical cluster, alongside the Salk Institute, Scripps Research, and Sanford Burnham Prebys, which pushes much of the work toward nanomedicine, biosensors, and neural interfaces.
Nearly all the research sits in La Jolla and Torrey Pines, a compact coastal strip north of the city that holds UC San Diego, the independent biomedical institutes, and a large life science industry base. The concentration is the appeal: fabrication, characterization, and clinical and biological expertise are within a short distance of each other. The hub is strongest at the interface of nanotechnology and biology, including drug delivery, diagnostics, imaging, and biosensing, with electronic materials research alongside.
Research Map
Locations of nanotechnology research labs and companies across the Greater San Diego area. Click any marker for the institution’s profile and to find hotels nearby.
Research lab
Company
Key Institutions
University of California, San Diego
10 nano groups
Sanford Burnham Prebys
1 nano group
San Diego State University
1 nano group
Research Labs & Groups
The following nanotechnology research groups and labs are based in the Greater San Diego area.
La Jolla
Lab
La Jolla
Through special grants awarded by the NIH, the Burnham has been designated as one of four centers for devising new therapies for cardiovascular disease using bionanotechnology.
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University
La Jolla
The Department of NanoEngineering offers undergraduate programs leading to the B.S. degrees in NanoEngineering and Chemical Engineering.
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University
La Jolla
The Center develops bio-inspired materials and technologies to activate, program, and reinstate optimal immune system function. Specifically, they: Activate the immune system to hone in disease sites; program immune cells to recognize and clear disease; and reinstate immune balance to restore normal function.
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University
La Jolla
The research in Joseph Wang's group focuses on field of nanobioelectronics in which nanomaterials are applied to the analysis of biomolecules. Nanobioelectronics is a rapidly developing field aimed at integrating nano- and biomaterials with electronic transducers.
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University
La Jolla
Plans are currently underway to develop graduate curricula leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in NanoEngineering by 2011. Until NanoEngineering graduate programs are in place, students wishing to pursue nanoengineering as a graduate focus are encouraged to apply to related graduate programs in bioengineering, chemical engineering, and mechanical and aerospace engineering. Transfer to NanoEngineering will be considered upon approval of its degree programs.
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University
La Jolla
The Nanoscience, Nanoengineering and Nanomedicine cleanroom user facility at the Qualcomm Institute, providing electron-beam lithography, thin-film deposition, microfluidic device fabrication and electron microscopy for nanoscale research and prototyping.
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University
La Jolla
UC San Diego established the Department of NanoEngineering within its Jacobs School of Engineering effective July 1, 2007. The department will cover a broad range of topics, but focus particularly on biomedical nanotechnology, nanotechnologies for energy conversion, computational nanotechnology, and molecular and nanomaterials.
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University
La Jolla
The group of Prof. Zhang works on the design, synthesis, characterization and evaluation of lipid- and/or polymer-based nanostructured biomaterials. One specific interest lies in developing nanomaterials for healthcare and other medical applications, for example, drug delivery to improve or enable treatments of human diseases. In addition, they also seek to understand the fundamental sciences underlying the arenas of nanomedicine.
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University
La Jolla
Plans are currently underway to develop graduate curricula leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in NanoEngineering by 2011. Until NanoEngineering graduate programs are in place, students wishing to pursue nanoengineering as a graduate focus are encouraged to apply to related graduate programs in bioengineering, chemical engineering, and mechanical and aerospace engineering. Transfer to NanoEngineering will be considered upon approval of its degree programs.
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University
La Jolla
An open-access user facility funded by the National Science Foundation as one of the sites of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, offering nanofabrication and characterization tools and expertise to academic, industry and government researchers.
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San Diego
University
San Diego
A university nanofabrication center focused on integrated carbon, polymer and silicon microfabrication and nanotechnology, supporting research and student training in areas such as MEMS, neural probes, graphene processing and organic solar cells.
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University
San Diego
This new department, established July 1, 2007, will cover a broad range of topics, but focus particularly on biomedical nanotechnology, nanotechnologies for energy conversion, computational nanotechnology, and molecular and nanomaterials.
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Nanotech Companies
Commercial nanotechnology companies based in the Greater San Diego area.
Products
San Diego
Aculon specializes in inventing and commercializing unique molecular-scale surface and interfacial coatings leveraging nanotechnology discoveries made at Princeton University. From electronic device and component manufacturing to industrial metal finishing to consumer appliances and electronics, Aculon adds value through nano-scale surface modification that delivers superior performance, process simplification and favorable economics.
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Biomedical
San Diego
Develops the ExoVerita lab-on-a-chip platform, which uses alternating current electrokinetics to isolate exosomes and other nanoparticles from blood for early-disease detection and liquid-biopsy research.
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Biomedical
San Diego
Combining the latest in nanotechnology and biotechnology, the company's Irys System with its nanovhannels allows to visualize the whole genome, capturing extremely long molecules at high resolution.
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Products
San Diego
Cymer, the world's leading supplier of excimer light sources, delivers the deep ultraviolet (DUV) photolithography sources that are essential to today's semiconductor marketplace.
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Products
San Diego
Del Mar offers integration of femtosecond laser systems for research of ultrafast dynamics in nanophotonics, as well as multiphoton imaging, scanning probe microscopy, micromachining, ultrafast fluorescent kinetic and transient pump-probe absorption spectroscopy systems.
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Products
San Diego
Filmetrics is a leader in affordable and easy-to-use instruments for measuring film thickness (30 Angstrom to 450 micrometer), index of refraction, and deposition rates. Wavelengths available from 200nm to 1700nm. Configurations available for tabletop, in-situ, and in-line applications.
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Products
San Diego
Since 1961 Gamma Scientific has produced LED, display and light measurement test solutions for production and R&D environments. With over 50 years of innovation in optics, photonics and optoelectronics metrology, Gamma Scientific instruments are trusted by leading global organizations that require high-speed, precision measurements and custom configurations for the most challenging environments.
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Biomedical
San Diego
Develops the Maverick platform, which uses arrays of silicon-photonic microring-resonator biosensors to run rapid, label-free, multiplexed protein and antibody tests from a small blood sample.
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Materials
San Diego
Grolltex, short for 'graphene-rolling-technologies', is an advanced materials and equipment company with its core strength creating products based on single layer, CVD generated graphene.
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Biomedical
San Diego
Develops compact, microfluidic chip-based cell sorters and analyzers, including the WOLF and VERLO platforms, that sort and dispense single cells gently at low pressure for life-science research.
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Materials
San Diego
Specializes in the fabrication of multi-component nanoparticles that are tailored for specific applications.
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Services
San Diego
NanoImaging Services provides transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and nanotechnology industries.
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Products
San Diego
Designs and manufactures automated materials-characterization instruments, including SQUID magnetometers, physical property measurement systems and correlative AFM and SEM platforms used widely in nanotechnology and materials research.
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Products
San Diego
RASIRC develops products that purify and deliver ultra pure liquids and gases with a primary focus on water vapor. Products include applications in carbon nanotube synthesis.
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Services
San Diego
Research Facilities Design is an architectural firm specializing exclusively in the programming and design of teaching and research laboratory facilities for college and university, industry, and governmental clients.
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Biomedical
San Diego
The company uses a proprietary nanotechnology delivery systems designed to support the environment during stem cell culturing, harvesting, differentiation and post transplantation procedures.
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Hotels & Accommodation in Greater San Diego
Planning a lab visit, conference, or interview? Find hotels, apartments, and hostels near the area’s research institutions and nanotech companies.
Related Events
Upcoming nanotechnology events in the Greater San Diego area:
San Diego, CA, USA · Jun 22, 2026
San Diego, CA, USA · Aug 23, 2026