Benaroya Research Institute At Virginia Mason

Benaroya Research Institute At Virginia Mason, a non-profit biomedical research institute and subsidiary of Virginia Mason Health System headquartered in Seattle, Washington, operates as a prime recipient on federal grant awards and minor contract work, performing investigator-initiated immunology and autoimmune disease research predominantly through National Institutes of Health mechanisms.

The institute's federal footprint is overwhelmingly grant-funded rather than contract-based. Over the past several years, Benaroya has received 182 prime awards across grants and contracts (71% of recent activity), with annual volume growing from eleven awards in 2022 to thirty-three in both 2024 and 2025. The combined potential value across all awards stands at $22.2 million, though this figure is dwarfed by combined dollars obligated at $1.91 billion—a signal that most awards carry multi-year periods of performance with obligation drawn down over time rather than upfront ceiling values.

Benaroya's customer concentration is extreme and single-source. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) accounts for ninety-four awards with $5.4 million in combined potential value, followed by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) at forty-three awards. Together with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the NIH Office of the Director, these five funding agencies represent 81% of award count across the portfolio. Outside NIH, the Veterans Integrated Service Network 21 accounts for a single blood sample research services purchase order valued at $6.254 thousand, awarded in January 2022. Benaroya does not compete on major federal contracts or sit on government-wide acquisition vehicles; three small IDCs appear in the vehicle roster but carry minimal activity.

Benaroya's grant work centers on T cell and B cell immunology, regulatory T cell function, autoimmune disease mechanisms, and translational vaccine and therapeutic development. Representative prime grant awards include a $907,235 NIDDK project grant on avv6-specific autoantibodies in ulcerative colitis (awarded September 2026, performance through May 2030), a $2.684 million NIAID project grant on epitope-specific CD4+ T cell evolution prior to Type 1 Diabetes onset (awarded February 2026, performance through January 2030), a $886,942 NIAID project grant on commensal-specific CD8+ T cell differentiation in intestinal inflammation (awarded June 2026, performance through May 2031), and a $1.559 million NIH Office of the Director project grant on genetic and epigenetic control of T cell function in autoimmunity (awarded September 2023, performance through August 2026). The institute also received a $286,793 planning grant from the NIH Office of the Director in September 2025 to prepare a randomized-controlled clinical trial evaluating high-dose influenza vaccine response in individuals with Down syndrome.

Benaroya acts as sub-recipient on grant work anchored by prime recipients including the University of Washington, Yale University, Indiana University, Seattle Children's Hospital, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, Jackson Laboratory, and others. Sub-recipient work includes bioinformatics coordination for immune profiling consortia (HIPC projects), T cell isolation and functional studies on Type 1 Diabetes and autoimmune mechanisms, clinical sample collection and immune cell phenotyping on respiratory viral infection and asthma studies, and data analysis for multi-site consortium projects including the Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet and Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) studies.

SCI-reported federal service contract activity is minimal: $1.2 million in invoiced revenue in FY2022 against 3.7 FTEs, with zero reportable invoicing in FY2023 and FY2024. The sole SCI-captured rate ran at approximately $142/hr. This narrow SCI footprint reflects Benaroya's identity as a grant-funded research institution rather than a federal services contractor; the institute's substantial federal revenue is captured in grant obligations and periods of performance rather than service contract invoicing.

Eighteen awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, presenting recompete opportunity for the portfolio. The institute operates 100% as a grant recipient or subrecipient; it does not actively compete for or win federal contracts as a prime vendor and carries no set-aside designations.