San Diego Biomedical Research Institute

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San Diego Biomedical Research Institute Accelerating medical advances. Improving lives. SDBRI is a newly established non-profit biomedical research institute.

The institute's mission is to conduct basic biomedical research to foster the discovery of causes and treatments relating to human diseases and the associated long-term complications. SDBRI supports researchers by providing a collaborative, intra-disciplinary environment in which investigators and their research can thrive in a stress-free work environment, maximizing the potential of institutional resources by prioritizing research needs, expanding research opportunities by encouraging investigators to apply for foundation and other private funding (in addition to federal support), and developing a human tissue bank to accelerate translational research.

San Diego BioMed is excited to announce that Charles Daniel Murin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, has received a five-year,...
09/10/2026

San Diego BioMed is excited to announce that Charles Daniel Murin, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, has received a five-year, $4.7 million R01 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to investigate how the immune system destroys HIV-infected cells, and to use that knowledge to design new antibody drugs.

Even with effective antiretroviral therapy, HIV persists in the body in a pool of infected cells known as the viral reservoir, which is why treatment must continue for life. Clearing that reservoir is one of the central challenges in the search for a cure.

The Murin laboratory is focused on natural killer (NK) cells, immune cells that can kill infected cells once antibodies have marked them, a process called antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). Antibodies vary in how well they trigger this response, and researchers have not been able to predict which ones work best, or why.

Part of the answer, Murin’s team believes, lies in the physical arrangement on the surface of an infected cell--distances that are billionths of a meter, far too small for conventional microscopes. To see them, the team will use MINFLUX nanoscopy, an emerging imaging technology.

“For decades we’ve discovered antibodies by finding them in patients and hoping they do what we need. This project is about the opposite approach: measure precisely what makes an antibody good at killing infected cells, then design one to those specifications. If it works, it gives us a blueprint rather than a lucky find.”
— Charles Daniel Murin, Ph.D., Principal Investigator

Murin leads the project with co-principal investigator Daniel Montiel Garcia, Ph.D., of Scripps Research, who directs the computational design work. Co-investigators Lars Hangartner, Ph.D., and Andrew Ward, Ph.D., both of Scripps Research, contribute expertise in NK cell immunology and HIV structural biology.

Learn about the Murin Lab and on this project at
https://sdbri.org/news-entry/the-murin-laboratory-awarded-4-7-million-nih-grant-to-design-a-new-generation-of-hiv-antibody-therapies/

San Diego BioMed knows that team chemistry thrives especially when we can band together in our local community, outside ...
08/19/2026

San Diego BioMed knows that team chemistry thrives especially when we can band together in our local community, outside of the office, and in the sun!

Happy summer from the team at our recent participation in the Curebound Cancer Challenge! Thank you to all those who supported our journey!

San Diego BioMed is excited to invite you to support our 1st year participating in the Curebound Cancer Challenge!Cancer...
06/29/2026

San Diego BioMed is excited to invite you to support our 1st year participating in the Curebound Cancer Challenge!

Cancer is a multifaceted disease. 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will be diagnosed with cancer!

The Curebound Cancer Challenge and our team invites you to support us with a donation of any kind! 100% of every dollar raised funds collaborative research among the best scientists from San Diego's top research institutions.
You may even join our team and participate to walk, run, cycle, or take group classes (yoga, spin, strength) and commit to raising funds that lets us continue our research.

To donate/to register/to invite:

Please use the below team link to access the San Diego BioMed team page. Here you may click “Join Our Team” or “Support Us”

Team Link: https://cancerchallenge.donordrive.com/teams/6182

Please consider supporting this important cause and making a donation of any amount that is meaningful to you.

San Diego BioMed would like to recognize Professor James Binley who has been given the honor of writing a perspective on...
06/23/2026

San Diego BioMed would like to recognize Professor James Binley who has been given the honor of writing a perspective on a breakthrough paper by researchers at UPenn in the top journal, Science.

This paper describes a study in which preclinical models were infected by a chimeric virus that includes a mutated form of the HIV coat protein. Within a year of infection, most infections resulted in the hosts developing broadly neutralizing antibodies. This occurred by a series of mutations in the virus and the antibody response, so that the antibodies could rapidly zero in on a conserved site of vulnerability on HIV. This work is pivotal as it provides a detailed molecular template for researchers to develop a vaccine that could elicit similar antibodies in humans that could ward off HIV infection.

Read and learn more about the work at https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aei3106

Congratulations to the joined effort of San Diego BioMed’s Marcondes Lab and their collaborators in the recent release o...
06/01/2026

Congratulations to the joined effort of San Diego BioMed’s Marcondes Lab and their collaborators in the recent release of their publication titled, “Distinct Roles of Dopamine Receptors in HIV Latency Reversal in a Myeloid Cell Model.”

Stimulant drugs like methamphetamine elevate brain dopamine (DA) levels, which can reactivate latent HIV in myeloid brain cells — a key reservoir of the virus in people living with HIV. However, the specific receptors and pathways responsible have remained poorly defined. In this study, the Marcondes lab shows that two DA receptors, DRD1 and DRD4, independently increase HIV transcriptional activity in latently infected cells, but with surprisingly little overlap in the gene clusters, pathways, or upstream regulators they engage compared to DA itself. Instead, the two receptors share more in common with each other than with DA, suggesting cross-regulation between DRD1 and DRD4 signaling. Despite these mechanistic differences, convergent inflammatory and cell activation signatures emerged across all conditions, identifying a shared downstream consequence regardless of which receptor is engaged. These findings are relevant beyond stimulant use: they reveal that neuroimmune modulation of HIV latency in the brain is inherently multi-pathway and cannot be captured by studying single receptors or neurotransmitters in isolation, with direct implications for designing targeted interventions against the brain viral reservoir in HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders.

Dive into more about these findings at https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2026.1817754

Last month San Diego BioMed had the opportunity to join hands with Curebound in the latest Concert for Cures, featuring ...
06/01/2026

Last month San Diego BioMed had the opportunity to join hands with Curebound in the latest Concert for Cures, featuring P!NK! Our team was honored to help create meaningful differences by advocating for the fight against cancer and share the science behind our own efforts to find a cure.

We are deeply grateful to those who participated this night as we witnessed one of the most outstanding turnouts in support of advancing cancer research that helped Curebound raise over $8 million in funds!

We are excited for this August's Curebound Cancer Challenge and for the next leap in raising funds for innovative Cancer research in San Diego!

San Diego BioMed is excited to share its new partnership with , a San Diego philanthropic organization that is dedicated...
04/07/2026

San Diego BioMed is excited to share its new partnership with , a San Diego philanthropic organization that is dedicated to raising and strategically investing funds in translational cancer research.

Recently, San Diego BioMed principal investigators joined Curebound and other partners for the event, Curebound Connects, where CEO Robin Toft, Chief Science Advisor, Ezra Cohen, MD and Scientific Advisory leaders introduced their strategic plan and vision for the future of cancer research.

Cancer is a complex, multifaceted disease that San Diego BioMed scientists are attacking from multiple fronts. Through this partnership, with aligned goals and complementary strengths, we will enhance innovation, bridge the gap between discovery and treatment, and accelerate the impact of cancer research on patient health and quality of life.

Thank you, Curebound, we are excited for the journey ahead!

“Autosomal Allelic Inactivation: Variable Replication and Dosage Sensitivity,” is now available as a reviewed preprint i...
03/19/2026

“Autosomal Allelic Inactivation: Variable Replication and Dosage Sensitivity,” is now available as a reviewed preprint in eLife!

In this latest study, the Gilbert lab contributed to a larger effort that explored why some genes are expressed more from one copy of a chromosome than the other.

Typically, you inherit two copies of genes, one from each parent, and both tend to be active to determine hereditary traits. In some cases, however, one copy may be active and the other silent. Based on this, the researchers identified the regions, called Inactivation/Stability Centers (I/SCs), that influence which gene copy is used in a cell and when each copy is duplicated during cell division. The choice of which copy is active appears to be random.

Because different cells may activate different gene copies, tissues can then become a patchwork of cells with slightly different gene activity. While this cellular diversity may be a normal part of development, it can also affect how genetic diseases appear.

If a person carries a harmful mutation in one copy of such a gene, the random silencing of the healthy copy in some cells could reduce the amount of functional gene product below what the body needs. The researchers found that many genes located within these regions are linked to conditions such as Parkinson's disease, Epilepsy, inherited deafness, and intellectual disabilities.

Overall, this work reveals a previously underappreciated layer of gene regulation in the human genome and suggests that random, cell-to-cell differences in gene activity may play an important role in human development and disease.

Congrats to the Gilbert lab and colleagues for their findings and hard work!

Read and learn more @ https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.109938.1

“Microhomology-mediated end joining acts directly on replication forks to repair single-ended double strand breaks,” is ...
03/18/2026

“Microhomology-mediated end joining acts directly on replication forks to repair single-ended double strand breaks,” is now available online!

When cells divide, they must copy their DNA so that the divided cells each receive a complete set of genetic instructions. During this process, the DNA-copying mechanisms can stall or break under what is called “replication stress,” which is common in cancer cells. These breaks, however, can be repaired so that the cell survives.

In this study, the Gilbert lab contributes to a larger effort as the researchers collaborate to examine that repair process called microhomology-mediated end joining (MMEJ). The researchers found that this repair pathway can act directly at the broken replication fork, working alongside another repair mechanism known as break-induced replication (BIR).

They also discovered that a protein called Polθ helps carry out this repair, while another key DNA damage response protein, ATR, can suppress it and instead promote the BIR pathway.

Importantly, the study found that blocking both ATR and Polθ at the same time strongly kills cancer cells experiencing high replication stress, while having much less effect on normal cells. This suggests a potential new strategy for developing targeted cancer therapies.

Great work by San Diego BioMed’s Gilbert lab and the whole team! We look forward to their continued discoveries!

Read and learn more @ https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.15.699632

Today, San Diego BioMed joins together for World Cancer Day. The World Cancer Day campaign 2025-27 “United by Unique” pl...
02/04/2026

Today, San Diego BioMed joins together for World Cancer Day. The World Cancer Day campaign 2025-27 “United by Unique” places people at the center of care and explores new ways of making a difference.

Behind every cancer diagnosis is a unique human story—stories of resilience, grief, hope, and healing. People-centered care means seeing the whole person and meeting their unique needs with compassion and empathy.

Share your story, support those affected, and advocate for people-centered care. Your voice can inspire change!

Among our institute, we understand cancer is a multifaceted disease. To address the complexity of this formidable threat San Diego BioMed scientists are attacking cancer from multiple fronts. From basic research into DNA mutation and replication errors to clinical trials evaluating the effect of muscle weakness on tumor recurrence, our mission is to give every patient a fighting chance.

Our faculty are world renowned for pushing scientific barriers in the sphere of cancer research:
• Dr. James Binley successfully designed stabilized mutant HIV proteins that became the foundation of vaccine research.
• Dr. Joanna Davies has identified several T cell subsets that are associated with muscle strength and mass in cancer patients.
• Dr. Celine DerMardirossian discovered how cells sense and respond to physical changes in the body.
• Dr. Daniel Murin focuses on understanding how antibodies help immune cells kill cancer.
• Dr. Takanori Otomo is studying cellular cleaning mechanisms to fight cancer
• Dr. Greg Seumois is discovering sensitive biomarkers for early cancer detection


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3525 John Hopkins Court , STE 200
San Diego, CA
92121

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