Quantitative Biosciences, Inc.

Quantitative Biosciences, Inc., a small business headquartered in San Diego, California, develops biosensors and water-quality monitoring technologies for federal research and defense agencies primarily as a prime contractor (95% of recent awards), competing under full-and-open and small-business set-aside designations. The company specializes in engineered microbial sensor strains, nanobody-based biosensors, and microfluidic platforms for detecting biological contaminants, toxins, pesticides, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in water and therapeutic supplies.

Quantitative Biosciences has secured a diverse federal customer base across 12 agencies, though concentration skews toward research and defense funding. The Department of Energy Office of Science leads by award count with six grants totaling an undisclosed combined value, while the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) anchors the dollar ranking with three awards ($5 million combined potential value), followed by the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command ($4 million combined potential value) and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency ($3 million). The National Institutes of Health and Environmental Protection Agency round out the top-five customer set. Representative recent work includes a $4 million full-and-open Naval Information Warfare Systems Command contract (awarded May 2023, completion May 2025) for a multiplexed, target-agnostic sensor for online water monitoring under the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity Biointelligence and Biosecurity Seedling Research Topic; a $315,000 DARPA Embedded Entrepreneurship Initiative contract (September 2024, completion September 2025) for biosensor development; and a $600,000 National Institutes of Health Total Small Business contract (February 2026, completion March 2027) for cell and gene therapy process analytical technology and quality control testing.

Quantitative Biosciences' federal portfolio is heavily weighted toward research grants rather than production contracts. Recent grant recipients include the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (August 2024 award for neural-network-accelerated DNA and RNA sequence processing for edge applications, completion July 2025), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (June 2024 award for nanobody-based cyanotoxin biosensor development, completion January 2025), and the Department of Energy Office of Science (two cooperative agreements and one project grant awarded July 2023, running through September 2026, for water and groundwater contaminant monitoring). Earlier SBIR work spans the EPA Office of Research and Development and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The vendor also subcontracts as a grant subawardee to Colorado State University under a Department of Energy BETO program (October 2024 forward) supporting algal strain improvement and cultivation operations.

Activity has remained modest and variable—two awards in 2021 and 2022, three in 2023, and four in 2024—with three awards (combined potential value $600,000) reaching completion inside the next twenty-four months, creating light recompete exposure. The consolidated dollar obligation across all awards ($26.2 million) exceeds combined potential value ($12.7 million), indicating several awards have expanded or been extended beyond original ceiling estimates. The company's research-grant-heavy footprint and absence of parent contract vehicles (GWACs, IDIQs, BPAs) position it as a niche biosensor developer for specialized federal R&D rather than as a high-volume federal contractor.