Institute For Systems Biology

Institute For Systems Biology, a tax-exempt nonprofit research organization based in Seattle, Washington, conducts federal research on systems biology, multi-omics data integration, and computational modeling of biological systems, operating as a prime recipient on federal grants and as a subcontractor to academic and research institutions on grant-funded collaborative work. The organization does not hold federal service contracts but operates predominantly in the NIH grant ecosystem with ancillary funding from the National Science Foundation, the Defense Health Agency, and the Department of the Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity.

The institute's grant portfolio spans biomedical and life sciences research across three dominant NIH institutes. The National Cancer Institute funds roughly 22 awards worth $12.6 million combined potential value, with representative work including a $614,032 five-year project on sex-specific determinants of frailty in aging (CFDA 93.866, award date July 1, 2026, ultimate completion June 30, 2031); a cooperative agreement on spatiotemporal tumor analytics for sequential targeted-inhibitor and immunotherapy combinations (ST-ANALYTICS U54, awarded September 22, 2022, completion August 31, 2027); and single-cell transcriptomics methods development for complex bacterial communities (award date July 8, 2023, completion June 30, 2028). The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases anchors 20 awards carrying $206 thousand in combined potential value, including a $940,934 project grant on phosphopeptide superbinders for bacterial pathogen analysis (CFDA 93.855, awarded June 12, 2026, completion May 31, 2031), an antimicrobial-resistance investigation on caspase-1's role in regulating bacterial defense mechanisms (award date September 1, 2024, completion November 30, 2026), and malaria transmission-blocking vaccine research on Plasmodium falciparum immunogenicity (award date July 5, 2024, completion May 31, 2029). The National Science Foundation funds 22 awards, including a data-independent acquisition proteomics harmonization project (award date September 1, 2023, completion August 31, 2026) and an undergraduate research network on next-generation biology data literacy (award date September 1, 2022, completion August 31, 2027). A singular $643,750 definitive contract from the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, awarded September 21, 2022 (completion March 29, 2024), supported objective screening tools for acute stress response and post-traumatic stress disorder detection using global proteomic analysis.

Activity has grown steadily — nine awards in 2022 to nineteen in 2024 — with fourteen awards reaching ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, signaling recompete opportunity across the grant base. Institute For Systems Biology operates as a prime recipient on 141 of 192 total awards (73%), with the remaining 51 awards (27%) positioned as a subcontractor to universities and research institutions including the University of Washington, Seattle Children's Hospital, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Mayo Clinic, Sage Bionetworks, and The Regents of the University of California. On subcontracted work, the institute provides multi-omics data integration, systems biology network analysis, mass spectrometry-based proteomics, single-cell transcriptomics, machine learning model development, and computational biology support to prime grantees. Service Contract Inventory data reflects only two records covering FY2022–FY2024, totaling approximately 5.3 FTEs as a named subcontractor on service contracts above the $150,000 reporting threshold; this is a strict subset of the institute's federal research footprint, which is substantially grant-driven and excludes goods, products, and non-federal revenue.