Founded in 1976, Seattle Biomedical Research Institute is Seattle’s first global health organization. We’ve grown to be the largest independent, non-profit organization devoted solely to infectious disease research. With more than 300 staff, we take on the world’s most devastating diseases and focus on developing new solutions.

In 1976, Ken Stuart, Ph.D., set up a research laboratory in Issaquah, WA, a suburb of Seattle, to create an environment where the best and brightest scientists from around the world could come together to combat deadly parasitic diseases. Originally called the Issaquah Group for Health and Environmental Research, the name was soon changed to Issaquah Biomedical Research Institute. Scientists at the Institute studied parasites, including ones that cause malaria and African sleeping sickness, and their efforts soon gained recognition around the world.

Institute Continues Growth

Dr. Stuart was invited to advise the World Health Organization about future research into tropical diseases in 1980, marking the Institute's rise into international significance. The first postdoctoral scientists joined the Institute in 1982. In 1986, the Institute relocated to Seattle and became Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. 

Seattle BioMed formalized a long-standing affiliation with the University of Washington in 1992, which strengthened training programs and offered our principal investigators faculty positions at one of the U.S.’s top research universities.

At the end of the decade, Seattle BioMed had more than 80 full-time employees, and research revenue had increased from $2.7 million in 1991 to more than $8 million in 2001. Seattle BioMed received its first sizable grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish its malaria program in 2001.

Sustainable Business Model

Today, Seattle BioMed is an internationally recognized center for research and training excellence with connections from Seattle to more than 100 partners and collaborators around the world. 

Seattle BioMed continues under the leadership of Dr. Stuart, who serves as president of the Institute.  From 1976 to now, staff size has grown from five to well over 300, made possible by Seattle BioMed's move into a state-of-the-art research facility in South Lake Union's growing biotech hub in 2004, as the first global health organization in the neighborhood. With an annual budget in excess of $40 million, Seattle BioMed has a sustainable business model, having diversified its funding sources to include a mix of government grants, private foundation grants and individual donors.