QB3's domain is the quantitative biosciences: areas of biology in which advances are chiefly made by scientists applying techniques from physics, chemistry, engineering, and computer science.

[1] From a 2005 article written for the University of California Academic Senate: The Institutes were launched in 2000 as an ambitious statewide initiative to support research in fields that were recognized as critical to the economic growth of the state—biomedicine, bioengineering, nanosystems, telecommunications and information technology.

[8][9] Each participating campus has a QB3 director who also is an active research scientist: Sanjay Kumar at Berkeley, Nevan Krogan at UCSF, and Ed Green at UC Santa Cruz.

Current and former members of QB3 include Shuvo Roy, Elizabeth Blackburn, Steven Chu, Joseph DeRisi, Jennifer Doudna, David Haussler, Jay Keasling, Arun Majumdar, Harry Noller.

The Sandbox provides an entrepreneurial environment where early-stage startups gain access to low-cost laboratory, office and shared space, resources, training, and networking opportunities.