IMAGINE

life without disease.

Professor, President & CEO Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D., MBA, is a leader in infectious disease research and has dedicated her career to bringing scientists together to face the toughest health threats.

Our Focus Is Immunology

We believe that no other biomedical discipline has greater implications for human health than immunology. By unraveling the complexities of the immune system, LJI researchers are directly tackling an extraordinarily diverse array of diseases, such as asthma, cancer, CoVID-19, type 1 diabetes, Parkinson’s, and many others.

At La Jolla Institute for Immunology, every day, our discoveries move the world closer to Life Without Disease.

Our Research Centers

La Jolla Institute is home to four research centers that focus the efforts of collaborative groups of researchers on defined areas of inquiry, to accelerate progress toward the development of new treatments and vaccines to prevent and cure autoimmune conditions, cancer and infectious disease.

Center for Autoimmunity and Inflamation

Enabling our experts to take a deep dive into the complexity of the immune system.

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Center for Cancer Immunotherapy

At the forefront of exploring new and sometimes unexpected avenues for novel immune-based cancer treatments.

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Center for Vaccine Innovation

Conducting fundamental research on how the body reacts to vaccines and battles infections.

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Center for Sex-based Differences in the Immune System

Uncovering sex-specific variables in immune responses to provide personalized treatments for disease.

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Lectures, Empowerment, and Awareness for Autoimmune Disease (LEAD) Day
Thursday, March 6, 2025 from 12:00 PM – 6:30 PM
The programming featured the Walter and Jean Boek Leadership in Research Award Lecture. This scientific and highly technical award lecture honored a researcher whose work has significantly advanced the understanding of autoimmune diseases. Following the lecture was a patient-centered segment in the afternoon, including a lay-friendly panel discussion and Q&A session with leading medical research experts. Attendees wee invited to a social reception offering exclusively gluten-free refreshments.
Recording coming soon
Cracking Cancer's Code: How Specialized T Cells Patrol and Protect
Life Without Disease Event Series Featuring Miguel Reina-Campos, Ph.D.
Thursday, April 17, 2025 from 4:30pm - 6:30pm

La Jolla Institute for Immunology Assistant Professor Miguel Reina-Campos, Ph.D., aims to advance cancer treatments by investigating immune cells that are particularly talented at suppressing tumor growth. In fact, Dr. Reina-Campos has pioneered new techniques to track these immune cells and study how they patrol our organs for danger. In this seminar, he will take us through his latest discoveries as he works to harness this immune cell army.
Register Here
Pandemic Preparedness Research at La Jolla Institute
Capitalizing on their unique skills in immunology and infectious disease, La Jolla Institute scientists have launched a multi-lab Pandemic PreparednessTaskforce to respond to the ongoing crisis and prepare for future emerging diseases.
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Live from the Lab
During the March 19, 2025 Live from the Lab webinar, Dr. Sonia Sharma, Associate Professor at La Jolla Institute for Immunology and Director of the Center for Sex-based Differences in the Immune System, unpacked the provocative world of innate immunity in this foundational framework for autoimmune disease and inflammation. Viewers discovered how non-immune cells—from skin to blood vessels—serve as the unheralded first responders that set the stage for autoimmune reactions and inflammatory processes. Through groundbreaking genome-scale approaches and state-of-the-art techniques like RNA interference, CRISPR/Cas9, and mass spectrometry metabolomics, Dr. Sharma revealed how the earliest immune signals can shape disease outcomes.
Watch Here
Art, science, stories
After reading about LJI’s research efforts to fight COVID-19, Juan de Dios Sánchez, an internationally recognized artist from Cuernavaca, Mexico, gifted a 3ft sculpture titled “COVID-19” to the Institute. It is dedicated to the researchers who tirelessly worked to put the pandemic behind us.  life without disease.
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Immune Matters Magazine
Explore the immune system with interviews, articles, and video exclusives from our Institute magazine.
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Research Services

Technological innovation and scientific advances are intricately linked and that is why La Jolla Institute puts a big emphasis to provide a first-rate scientific infrastructure and easy access to the latest technology. LJI’s scientific core facilities provide faculty, researchers and students with access to an array of state-of-the-art equipment, technologies, training and expertise to support innovative research. The Institute’s small size allows LJI researchers to interact closely with highly trained experts working in the research support services and to quickly adjust technical applications to the requirements of individual labs.

Our research services include: Bioinformatics, Clinical Studies, Cryo-EM, Flow Cytometry, Histopathology, Immunometabolism, Microscopy & Histology, and Next Generation Sequencing.

For more information on accessing our core facilities, please contact our Core Facilities Administrator.

Latest News

Meet OGT, your guardian enzyme on the dark side of the genome
LJI and UC San Diego scientists make striking discovery as they work to combat Zika and related viral threats
See how investment in science is reshaping the landscape of autoimmune disease research

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Seminars

09
Apr, 2025
12:00 pm

"Dissecting immune evasion: how heterogeneous phenotypes protect targeted cells"

Speaker: Judith Agudo, PhD – Principal Investigator of Cancer Immunology and Virology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
La Jolla Institute – Ishizaka Seminar Room
05
May, 2025
9:30 am

At UCSD: Program in Immunology Seminar

Speaker: Juliana Idoyaga, PhD – Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Biology at UCSD
UCSD – Fred Kavli Auditorium, Tata Hall