Established in November 1995, the Biotechnology Archives at UCSF seeks to document the leadership of scientists and corporations in the Bay Area in the development and growth of biotechnology. The mission of the Biotechnology Archives is to collect, preserve, maintain, and provide access to the original records of molecular biology research and biotechnology at UCSF and the greater Bay Area. These original records are of critical value to policy makers, including politicians and university administrators, as they are facing increasing demands for information and advice about biotechnology. These records are also vital to scholars, including historians, economists, and scientists, for the light that they shed on the growth and development of molecular biology research and biotechnology and the close inter-relationship between academic research and industry.

UCSF has played and continues to play a prominent research and development role in the field of biotechnology. UCSF scientists have been at the forefront of the field, and their research has had a tremendous impact on science and medicine, resulting in the birth of a vigorous biotechnology industry. UCSF faculty have founded major companies, such as Genentech and Chiron, and trained substantial numbers of scientists currently employed in the industry. The combined efforts of researchers in universities and in industry have achieved many biological milestones, such as the scientists affiliated with UCSF and Genentech who first engineered bacteria to produce human insulin and those researchers from UCSF, Genentech and Chiron who are currently working on biotechnology based vaccines to combat the AIDS virus. Biotechnology's influences are felt on the economy, environment, and social welfare of the San Francisco region, as well as nationally and internationally. It is crucial that this impact be documented and preserved.