Think of UCLA research as one of California’s most tireless employees. It clocks in early. Works overtime. Never takes a vacation. All as it churns out inventions, startups and lifesaving therapies that ripple across the globe and bolster the U.S. economy.
That nonstop pace shows in the numbers. In 2024, UCLA added 285 inventions to a portfolio of more than 3,500 patents worldwide. Those patents form the backbone of a UCLA innovation pipeline that fuels more than 226 active companies that employ people, attract investment and deliver public benefit.
In the health care space, the impact is clearly unmistakable. Many of today’s widely used therapies can trace their origins to UCLA. The breast cancer drug Herceptin is credited with having saved nearly 3 million lives to date; the drug Xtandi has extended the lives of more than 1.5 million men with advanced prostate cancer. Several other FDA-approved cancer drugs from UCLA have touched millions worldwide. Hundreds more are in clinical trials.
The campus’s influence on labor and markets is equally impressive. For example, a comprehensive 2021 report found that UCLA Health alone generated more than 52,000 jobs and that it contributed more than $8 billion annually to California’s economy.
Biotech venture investors have also taken note. In 2024, UCLA startups such as Cytovale and Pictor Labs secured nine-figure funding rounds to accelerate lifesaving technologies.
At any given time, more than 6,000 funded research projects are underway at UCLA — research that doesn’t stop at the lab door but extends outward, driving industries, saving lives and proving that UCLA innovation is one of California’s and the nation’s greatest resources.
Explore the breadth and depth of UCLA’s research impact in numeric detail below:
Read more from UCLA Magazine’s Fall 2025 issue.
