Seattle Institute For Biomedical And Clinical Research

Seattle Institute For Biomedical And Clinical Research, doing business as Seattle Institute, is a Seattle-based tax-exempt nonprofit research organization that serves as a prime recipient of federal research grants (64% of awards) and as a sub-recipient on collaborative grants from National Institutes of Health institutes and the Defense Health Agency. The organization acts as a flexible research and education funding mechanism affiliated with the VA Puget Sound Health Care System under 38 U.S. Code Section 7361 and facilitates biomedical research and clinical studies across neurodegenerative disease, military health outcomes, metabolic disease, and trauma-related conditions.

Seattle Institute's grant portfolio concentrates heavily on NIH research funding. The National Institute on Aging (45 awards) leads by volume, followed by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (19 awards), the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (11 awards), and broader NIH funding channels (21 awards). The Defense Health Agency anchors military medical research work with 21 awards totaling $4.5 million in combined potential value. These five customer lines account for 64% of all awards. Activity has grown from nine awards in 2022 to 28 in 2024 and 26 in 2025, with 19 new awards in the first nine months of 2026.

Representative prime grant work spans neurodegenerative disease, metabolic disorders, and service-member health. A $2.181 million National Institute on Aging project grant targets MSUT2 protein inhibition to treat tauopathy disorders including frontotemporal lobar degeneration and Alzheimer's disease, with sub-awards to the University of Pennsylvania and UC San Diego for compound synthesis and pharmacokinetic assessments. A $1.823 million NIA grant investigates nuclear speckles and the SPOP protein in tau-driven neurodegeneration using C. elegans and mouse tauopathy models. A $1.131 million Defense Health Agency project grant develops microRNA biomarkers for detecting cumulative blast mild traumatic brain injury, with sub-awards to the University of Washington, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Institute for Systems Biology. A $657 thousand Defense Health Agency grant examines air pollution exposure during military deployment and liver cancer risk among veterans. A $474 thousand National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism award investigates how blast-induced traumatic brain injury and chronic alcohol use accelerate neurodegeneration in preclinical rodent models, with the University of Washington serving as sub-recipient for imaging work.

Seattle Institute also acts as a sub-recipient on research grants where it provides administrative, data coordination, and clinical research support. Notable sub-recipient roles include biospecimen collection and biomarker assay work for University of Kansas Medical Center research on white matter hyperintensities and pathological mechanisms; support for Columbia University's Alzheimer's disease family studies and cannabis use disorder research, where Seattle Institute's VA Puget Sound-based personnel provide data analyst expertise and regulatory coordination; and research coordinator and clinical support roles on University of New Mexico substance use disorder treatment studies. The organization also participates in multi-site consortia such as the Dementia with Lewy Bodies Consortium (supporting patient recruitment, cognitive assessment, and biofluid collection across sites) and the Parkinson's Disease Biomarker Program (PDBP) and National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) data networks.

Sixteen awards are reaching ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months, positioning the organization for recompete activity beginning immediately. Recent award velocity and growth across NIH institutes and Defense Health Agency suggest sustained activity in translational neuroscience, veteran health outcomes, and metabolic disease research, anchored to the VA Puget Sound Health Care System infrastructure.