Bioscience
Building Arizona as a global center for research and commercialization in the biosciences.
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Bioscience in Arizona
The Flinn Foundation supports bioscience in Arizona through research grants and stewardship of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap. Launched in 2002 to guide the bioscience sector’s development, the Roadmap was last updated in 2025.
Bioscience focuses on the research, development, and commercialization of therapies and products to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease, improve health outcomes, enhance crops, and generate biological solutions for environmental and industrial challenges.
The Roadmap envisions Arizona as a nationally recognized, rising bioscience leader with a skilled talent base, world-class research, and dynamic industry growth, exemplifying collaboration, agility, and the courage to bet on discoveries that strengthen the economy and Arizonans’ health and quality of life.
Seven Arizona research projects earn $100K seed grants
Seven Arizona-based research teams have been awarded $100,000 grants from the Flinn Foundation as members of the 2026 Translational Seed Grants Program cohort.
The new awardees represent six institutions — two from Arizona State University and one each from HonorHealth Research Institute, Mayo Clinic Arizona, Northern Arizona University, Translational Genomics Research Institute, or TGen, and University of Arizona. With help from their partners, these institutions will address conditions including Valley fever, epilepsy, cleft conditions, and brain cancer. The Foundation received 89 applications for the 2026 cohort — a record high — from 12 institutions. [Read more]
Flinn hosts annual Bioscience Progress Report update
When asked what’s the single most important thing for Arizona’s three public universities, independent research institutions, and health systems to be doing in the biosciences, Arizona State University’s Sethuraman Panchanathan, Ph.D., said he was going to list the top three things:
“Partnership, partnership, and partnership.”
It was a recurring theme of the April 8 Progress Report event for Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap, which also featured a panel about the industry’s trajectory in Arizona and the announcement of two new milestones: Record-breaking NIH funding and academic R&D expenditures. [Watch]
Arizona bioscience steering committee names new leaders
An internationally recognized University of Arizona researcher and executive and a Phoenix Bioscience Core developer with Wexford Science and Technology have been named chair and vice chair of the Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee.
Jennifer Barton, Ph.D., and Kyle Jardine will serve two-year terms in their roles heading up the 100-strong statewide leadership group, administered by the Flinn Foundation, which oversees the Roadmap and advocates for the state’s growing bioscience ecosystem. Their passion and expertise will play a major role in advancing the goals of the new Roadmap, including Arizona becoming a nationally recognized bioscience leader by 2030. [Read more]
Flinn Bio Capital Conference brings together entrepreneurs, investors
The 2026 Flinn Foundation Bio Capital Conference: What Investors Want; What Entrepreneurs Need, returned March 5 to the Creighton University Health Sciences Campus at Park Central in Phoenix. Nearly 300 bioscience founders, investors, ecosystem partners, and service providers attended for a high-energy day of networking and learning.
The event was presented by the Flinn Foundation, in collaboration with the Risk Capital Project Team of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee, and generously sponsored by J.P. Morgan, Procopio, Phoenix Bioscience Core, CLA, Alliant, BIOSA, XCellerant Ventures, Trinet, and SALC. [Learn more]
How Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap came about — and the new 2030 vision
This article, which first appeared in the Winter 2025 issue of the Maricopa County Medical Society’s Arizona Physician magazine, tells the story of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap and how the Arizona Cardinals and the state’s ascension in the biosciences over the past two decades are forever linked.
Within this context of expansion, the Flinn Foundation unveiled the third iteration of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap in September 2025 with a vision to become a nationally recognized, rising bioscience leader by 2030 with a skilled talent base, world-class research, and dynamic industry growth. [Read more]
Flinn to lead new Arizona Community NeuroArts Coalition
Arizona has joined 10 regions across the U.S. as part of a new network exploring how the arts can be used to improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Neuroarts is an emerging field that explores how arts and aesthetic experiences change the brain, body, and behavior and how this knowledge can be applied as health care.
The Community Neuroarts Coalitions Network is a key building block of the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative, which is helmed by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s International Arts + Mind Lab Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics and the Aspen Institute’s Health, Medicine & Society Program. [Read more]
News and Updates
Bioscience
Seven Arizona research projects earn $100K grants from Flinn Foundation
Seven Arizona-based research teams have been awarded $100,000 grants from the Flinn Foundation as members of the 2026 Translational Seed Grants Program cohort. The new awardees represent six institutions — two from Arizona State University and one each from HonorHealth Research Institute, Mayo Clinic Arizona, Northern Arizona University, Translational Genomics Research Institute, or TGen, and […]
Bioscience
Speakers stress partnerships, collaboration at annual Bioscience Progress Report
When asked what’s the single most important thing for Arizona’s three public universities, independent research institutions, and health systems to be doing in the biosciences, Sethuraman Panchanathan, Ph.D., said he was going to list the top three things: “Partnership, partnership, and partnership.” It was a recurring theme for Panchanathan — who has returned to Arizona […]
Bioscience
Arizona’s bioscience success depends on all of us getting involved
This year’s Bioscience Progress Report arrives at an exciting time, just a few months after the Flinn Foundation released the new Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap. The document outlined a bold vision to accelerate discovery, innovation and economic growth across the state through 2030. Even in changing times, much work is being done toward that vision–as this […]
Bioscience
Arizona Bioscience News: Bioscience Progress Report; ASU Science Expansion; Phoenix Biotech Construction; Cancer Risk Findings; Protein Research Advances
How’s Arizona doing? Get an update on state’s bioscience growth / Flinn Foundation
Where does Arizona bioscience stand with federal funding in flux and shifting capital? The state’s research and industry momentum is real. Hear from former National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Sethuraman Panchanathan, Greater Phoenix Economic Council President and CEO Christine Mackay, and leaders across Arizona’s bioscience sector, part of the annual progress report on Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap.
For information about Bioscience, please contact:
bioscience@flinn.org or (602) 744-6831
