National Jewish Health

National Jewish Health, a Denver-based nonprofit hospital and research center, operates as a prime recipient of federal grants and a prime contractor providing specialized laboratory testing and genetic epidemiology research services to federal health agencies, with 75% of recent awards in a prime role and 25% in subcontractor or sub-recipient roles. The organization competes full-and-open across all federal sources with no set-aside designations.

National Jewish Health's capability portfolio centers on respiratory and immunological research, specialized diagnostic laboratory services, and genetic epidemiology study management. On the contract side, the organization performs acid-fast bacilli testing, beryllium lymphocyte proliferation testing, mycobacterium laboratory testing, and plasma complement components testing for federal health agencies, priced on firm-fixed-price or cost-no-fee bases. The primary contract vehicle is a $49.9 million single-award IDV with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for the COPDGene (Genetic Epidemiology of COPD) study, under which four delivery orders totaling approximately $31.4 million have been issued. Recent representative contract work includes a $9.292 million delivery order from NHLBI for year 4 of the COPDGene study (August 2026 through August 2027) covering biospecimen collection and longitudinal data oversight; a $428,650 purchase order from the Defense Health Agency for beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test services at Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam (February 2026 through January 2031); and a $69,738 delivery order from Veterans Integrated Service Network 4 for mycobacterium laboratory testing in Denver (July 2025 through June 2026).

On the grant side, National Jewish Health is a prime recipient of research awards from the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Department of Defense. Grant work spans basic and translational research in respiratory disease, immunology, and environmental health sciences. Recent representative awards include a $1.559 million NHLBI project grant on termination of lung inflammation by MyD88 alternative splicing (July 2026 through June 2028), a $776,394 NIAID grant on prenatal programming of immune cells in asthma investigating maternal diesel exhaust exposure and mast cell function (February 2026 through January 2031), a $2.65 million Defense Health Agency project grant on burn pit-related particulate matter in deployment-related lung disease (June 2024 through May 2028), and a $5.14 million Army Medical Command grant on lung repair via tetraspanin interacting protein IGSF3 (July 2022 through June 2026).

Customer concentration sits heavily with the National Institutes of Health. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute dominates both award count and potential value (142 awards, $147.4 million combined potential value), followed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (82 awards), the National Institutes of Health broadly (143 awards), the Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (24 awards), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (20 awards). The top five customers account for 67% of recent awards. NHLBI and NIAID drive the vast majority of contract dollars through the COPDGene IDIQ and multiple project grants across respiratory immunology, COPD pathogenesis, cystic fibrosis, beryllium disease, and asthma endotypes. VA Integrated Service Networks 4, 8, and 19 place distributed, smaller-dollar orders for laboratory testing services.

Activity has grown substantially year over year—22 awards in 2022 to 65 in 2024, with a recent slight moderation to 36 in 2025 and 42 in 2026. Thirty-six awards (combined potential value $23.4 million) face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and will require recompete. This recompete window centers on COPDGene task area renewals, numerous NIAID and NHLBI project grants nearing their final year, and scattered VA and CDC testing service orders.

As a subcontractor, National Jewish Health performs research tasks and provides scientific and laboratory expertise to prime recipients including Triad National Security (on the Los Alamos National Laboratory management contract for employee benefits and ancillary services), and numerous universities including the University of Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Northwestern University, the University of Colorado, Case Western Reserve University, and others on NIH research projects. Sub-recipient work spans lung fibrosis mechanisms, T-cell dysfunction in type 1 diabetes, cystic fibrosis outcomes research, mycobacterial infection immunology, and macrophage biology.

National Jewish Health's award footprint reflects specialization in NIH-funded investigator-initiated and team-based research in respiratory disease, immunology, and environmental health. The organization does not hold seats on government-wide acquisition contracts or GSA Schedules; its prime work concentrates on single-award IDVs and direct project grants from NHLBI, NIAID, NIEHS, NIDA, NCI, NIDDK, and NIA, plus task orders from VA networks and smaller laboratory testing orders from CDC and DHA. The institution operates as a research and clinical hub, leveraging its nonprofit status, established clinical patient populations, and translational research infrastructure to compete for NIH funding and federal health agency laboratory and epidemiology work on a full-and-open basis.