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.
Applications open for Flinn seed grants, entrepreneurship programs
The applications for the Flinn Foundation Translational Seed Grants and Bioscience Entrepreneurship programs are now open. The seed grants deadline is Friday, Sept. 11. The deadline for the entrepreneurship program is Friday, Oct. 30.
Up to 10 Arizona-based research teams will be selected for a $100,000 seed grant. In addition, three grantees will be eligible for $100,000 in follow-on funding or direct admittance into the entrepreneurship program. The six Arizona bioscience startups selected for the entrepreneurship program will receive $75,000 in support through a nonprofit partner. [Learn more]
Jonathon Parker of Mayo Clinic Arizona using Flinn grant to treat epilepsy
Jonathon Parker, M.D., Ph.D., a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist at Mayo Clinic Arizona, is developing the Cortalis Neuro software to help clinicians fine-tune brain stimulation settings to better treat epilepsy and reduce seizures. The director of the Device Based Neuroelectronics Lab said this new biomarker-driven neuromodulation programming could improve treatment for the 25,000 epilepsy patients in Arizona and 1 million across the United States.
The Mayo Clinic Arizona project led by Parker received one of seven $100,000 Translational Seed Grants this year from the Flinn Foundation. [Watch video]
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]
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]
News and Updates
Bioscience
ASU’s Mehdi Nikkhah receives Flinn grant to accelerate Glioblastoma therapeutics
Mehdi Nikkhah, Ph.D., an Arizona State University professor of biomedical engineering, is the principal investigator on a team developing a “GBM-on-a-Chip” platform that closely mimics the human Glioblastoma microenvironment for use in drug development. Nikkhah says this technology will allow for the testing of multiple compounds and therapeutic drugs in a faster and safer manner […]
Bioscience
U of A College of Medicine-Phoenix researcher developing diagnostic for top gynecological cancer in U.S.
Melissa Herbst-Kralovetz, Ph.D., of the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix was one of seven researchers awarded a $100,000 grant from the Flinn Foundation Translational Seed Grants Program in 2026 for her work in endometrial cancer. Herbst-Kralovetz said she is developing a vaginal swab that can detect the cancer at an early stage through molecular […]
Bioscience
Flinn Foundation increases funding, opportunities for bioscience research, entrepreneurship programs
Application period begins Monday, Aug. 3, for Translational Seed Grants, Bioscience Entrepreneurship programs Apply for Translational Seed Grants Program by Friday, Sept. 11. Apply for Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program by Friday, Oct. 30. Two flagship Flinn Foundation bioscience programs that have supported Arizona-based translational research and entrepreneurship for more than a decade are increasing their funding and providing […]
Bioscience
Story behind medical device startup is personal for Flagstaff entrepreneur
Inspired by personal family hardship, bioscience entrepreneur Whitney Slightham tells the story of the founding of Ateleva from the Moonshot Flagstaff Campus. Ateleva is developing a targeted lung therapy to help critical care patients wean off ventilators faster. The minimally invasive airway platform allows clinicians to reopen collapsed tissue while preserving the surrounding healthy lung […]
For information about Bioscience, please contact:
bioscience@flinn.org or (602) 744-6831
