Support the center
Fund the science that decodes addiction
Addiction touches nearly every family, yet only a handful of medications exist to treat it. The discoveries that change that begin years before any clinical trial, in exactly the kind of bold, early-stage science that philanthropy is uniquely able to set in motion.
Why here
A proven engine for discovery
PARC is a NIDA P50 Center of Excellence at UC San Diego, one of the most competitive designations in addiction science. Federal funding builds the engine; philanthropy fuels the ideas that are too new, too bold, or too fast-moving for federal timelines. Gifts to the center fund the first experiment, the one that turns an idea into the preliminary data that wins the next decade of federal investment.
“Understanding addiction begins with measuring it, one individual at a time.”
The founding principle of the center
Your impact
What your gift makes possible
Seed a discovery
Fund a full pilot project: a new idea, a new investigator, or a new therapeutic direction, tested against the center's biobank and behavioral models. Pilot awards are how high-risk ideas earn the evidence to become major programs.
Back a scientist
The center has mentored nearly 400 students and postdoctoral fellows over the past decade, many now leading their own laboratories. A named fellowship or travel award carries a trainee through the years when support matters most.
Grow a national resource
The Addiction Biobank supplies behaviorally and genetically characterized samples to laboratories across the United States and Europe, at no profit. Gifts expand the collection and keep it open to the field.
Endow a chair
An endowed chair is philanthropy's most enduring form: a permanent, named faculty position that anchors addiction science at UC San Diego in perpetuity and carries its holder's boldest work across decades.
Launch a major research program
A named, multi-year program can take an entire research direction to scale, from precision medicine for addiction to the discovery of new therapeutics, with the center's full infrastructure behind it.
Support outreach & community engagement
The center provides internships to high school and college students and brings addiction science to schools, public events, and the San Diego community. Gifts widen that reach.
The vision
From one individual to precision medicine
Most people who use alcohol or drugs never become addicted. The center exists to discover why some do, by measuring genes, brain networks, and gut–body signaling in the same individuals, across alcohol, opioids, and cocaine. The goal is precision medicine for addiction: knowing who is vulnerable, why, and which treatment will work for them. Your partnership accelerates every step of that path.
How to give
Every gift is personal
Give online
Gifts to the center are made through UC San Diego's giving portal and are tax-deductible as provided by law. Direct your gift to the Department of Psychiatry in support of the Polysubstance Addiction Research Center.
Design your impact
For named funds, fellowships, directed gifts, or planned giving, contact us at lmaturin@health.ucsd.edu. We would be glad to discuss how your support can carry your name and your intent.