Lieber Institute Inc.

Lieber Institute Inc., doing business as Lieber Institute For Brain Development, is a tax-exempt nonprofit neuroscience research organization based in Baltimore, Maryland, that serves as a prime recipient of federal grants for translational and basic neurobiology research, with secondary roles as a sub-recipient on larger NIH-funded collaborative awards. The institute operates almost exclusively under federal research grants rather than contracts, with 63 of 80 recent awards (79%) as prime grants and 17 (21%) as sub-awards. The organization has no federal procurement contracts and does not compete on government-wide acquisition vehicles.

Lieber Institute's research portfolio centers on spatial genomics, transcriptomics, and cellular mapping of postmortem human brain tissue to understand the molecular basis of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions. The institute conducts postmortem brain procurement, tissue processing, single-nucleus RNA sequencing, spatial transcriptomics (10X Visium platforms), and bulk peptide sequencing. Representative prime grant awards include a $1.855 million National Institute on Drug Abuse grant (CFDA 93.279, running March 2026 through February 2029) to develop three-dimensional cellular-resolution spatio-molecular maps of the human nucleus accumbens across its anterior-posterior axis in substance use disorder research; a $114,200 National Institute of Mental Health K99 Pathway to Independence grant (CFDA 93.242, August 2026 through July 2028) for translational research on stress susceptibility in amygdala-prefrontal circuits underlying PTSD; and a $1.855 million National Institute on Drug Abuse award (March 2026 through February 2029) examining opioid-induced molecular changes in the habenula. Additional work spans major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, and aging-related neurodegeneration, with projects focused on identifying cell-type and projection-specific molecular signatures to inform novel therapeutics.

Customer concentration is heavily weighted toward the National Institutes of Health. The National Institute of Mental Health dominates by award count (47 awards) across a portfolio spanning translational research on neuropsychiatric conditions. The Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Health Administration Veterans Integrated Service Network 1 holds 15 awards valued at $39.9 million combined potential value, anchoring most of the institute's quantified dollar value. The National Institute on Drug Abuse, the broader National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism round out the active funding agencies. Activity has grown from three awards in 2022 to a peak of 15 in 2024, with five awards per year recorded for 2025 and 2026 through August. Eight awards reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months.

Lieber Institute acts as a sub-recipient on major NIH-funded collaborative grants led by research universities and the Mayo Clinic. Sub-award examples include contributions to Yale University and Johns Hopkins University grants on peptide sequencing and spatial transcriptomics in organoid models; a Mayo Clinic award on hypermutability in adult brains, where Lieber provides neuropathological analysis and brain tissue procurement; and a Johns Hopkins grant on schizophrenia risk mechanisms via patient-derived neurons and cortical organoids. In these roles, Lieber provides human postmortem brain tissue, performs specialized omics assays (spatial transcriptomics, bulk peptide sequencing, single-nucleus sequencing), and contributes computational and statistical analysis. The institute's core strength is access to large postmortem brain tissue biorepositories and proficiency in spatial molecular profiling technologies that translate rodent circuit findings into human brain tissue context.