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.
CND Life Sciences develops Syn-One Test to detect neurological disorders
CND Life Science, a Scottsdale-based bioscience company founded by a longtime Arizona neurologist, has developed a test that relies on skin-deep anomalies to detect neurological disorders in the brain like Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia.
The company has deployed its Syn-One Test to identify unusual nerve fibers associated with those diseases plus related disorders such as multiple system atrophy, pure autonomic failure and REM sleep behavior disorder. The National Institutes of Health named the Syn-One Test one of its “Top Promising Medical Findings for 2024” and awarded the company a $3 million grant last year. CND is privately owned, employs more than 100 people, and was the winner of the 2023 Arizona Bioindustry Association Fast Lane Award. [Read more]
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]
News and Updates
Bioscience
Bioscience in Arizona: By the Numbers
The latest Arizona bioscience employment data featured in the new Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap highlights the state’s strengths and areas to emphasize to continue guiding industry growth. In line with the state’s population, most bioscience jobs are in Greater Phoenix, a top-employing area across multiple bioscience subsectors. Tucson and Flagstaff have nationally competitive employment concentrations of medical devices and […]
Bioscience
Scottsdale’s CND Life Sciences developing skin test to detect neurological disorders
By Kerry Fehr-SnyderSpecial to the Flinn Foundation A Scottsdale-based bioscience company has developed a test that relies on skin-deep anomalies to detect neurological disorders in the brain including Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia. CND Life Sciences’ Syn-One Test is already commercially available as a laboratory developed test (LDT), and the company is considering seeking […]
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 […]
For information about Bioscience, please contact:
bioscience@flinn.org or (602) 744-6831
