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Arc Institute
American biomedical research nonprofit From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Arc Institute is a nonprofit biomedical research organization based in Palo Alto, California.[1] It was co-founded by Stanford University biochemistry professor Silvana Konermann, UC Berkeley bioengineering professor Patrick Hsu, and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, with Konermann as its inaugural executive director.[2][3] The institute operates in partnership with three San Francisco Bay Area research universities—Stanford, UC Berkeley, and UCSF.[1]
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History
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Arc Institute was founded in 2021 to provide scientists with research opportunities without the need for external grant applications.[3][4] This followed a collaboration between Konermann, Hsu, and Collison on Fast Grants during the COVID-19 pandemic.[5]
Arc Institute was launched with an initial endowment of $650 million.[4] Founding donors include Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, Stripe co-founders Patrick Collison and John Collison, angel investor Ron Conway, Color Genomics co-founder Elad Gil, Cue co-founder Daniel Gross, Facebook and Asana co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, Open Philanthropy chair Cari Tuna, General Catalyst CEO Hemant Taneja, and Jane Street Capital executives. Silvana Konermann is the executive director, and Patrick Hsu leads the development of research teams focused on technology related to biological research. Both Konermann and Hsu lead research labs in addition to their other roles at the institute.[4][6]
The institute houses laboratories at its facility at Stanford Research Park and funds projects at partner universities.[7][8][9] Carolyn Bertozzi and Aviv Regev serve on its scientific advisory board, and Nat Friedman, Reid Hoffman, and Meta Chief Financial Officer Susan Li serve on its board of directors. Dave Burke, former Vice President of Engineering for Google’s Android division, was named Chief Technology Officer in 2024.[10]
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Funding structure
Funding focuses on "high risk, high reward science,"[5] with flexible funding modeled after organizations like the Broad Institute,[11] Howard Hughes Medical Institute[2] and Chan Zuckerberg Biohub.[1][5] The institute's three main funding categories are Core Investigators, Innovation Investigators, and Ignite Awards.[12]
Arc core investigators work within the institute itself, and are given a budget to support a lab of up to 20 people and full funding for eight years of laboratory operations.[8][9] The institute also has technology development centers focusing on machine learning, genome engineering, cellular and animal models of human disease, and multiomics.[1][13]
Arc innovation investigators receive $1 million over five years, while Ignite Awards grant researchers from the three partner universities $100,000 for one year.[9]
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Research
The institute brings together researchers from varied backgrounds to facilitate collaboration between biologists doing experimental research and researchers creating new technology.[8]
In 2024, Patrick Hsu and collaborators developed a new method of genetic engineering called "bridge RNA" that simplifies the process of gene modification with increased precision to minimize disease risk.[14][15][13][16] The research was described in two papers published in Nature in 2024.[17][18][13]
Also in 2024, Arc researchers led by Hsu and Brian Hie released a large language model trained on biological sequence data.[19][20] Called "Evo", the model uses deep learning to interpret DNA sequences at single-nucleotide resolution and design biological systems such as CRISPR-Cas complexes and transposable elements.[21] Evo was published in Science[22][23] and received recognition from The New York Times in its 2024 "Good Tech Awards".[24]
In January 2025, Arc Institute announced a partnership with Nvidia to integrate biology and machine learning.[25]
References
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