Improving the quality of life in Arizona to benefit future generations.
Building Arizona as a global center for research and commercialization in the biosciences and a leader in such areas as precision medicine.
The Flinn Foundation supports the biosciences in Arizona through research grants and stewardship of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap, guiding the growth and development of the state’s bioscience sector through 2025.
The Roadmap’s tagline, “Advancing the Biosciences and Improving Health Outcomes” recognizes the broad spectrum of the biosciences, including research, academia, and product commercialization, as well as the central role of health care within the bioscience sector.
Over the past 35 years, students in the Flinn Scholars Program have pursued careers in dozens of fields, from software engineering, to the diplomatic corps, to filmmaking. But no area has drawn more Flinn Scholars—more than 80 in all—than health care.
In 2020, then, Flinn Scholar alumni across the country have assumed frontline roles responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
They range from Cathy Romero, a 1989 Flinn Scholar from Willcox High School, who now works as a family physician at the Gila Valley Clinic in Safford, serving the communities of rural southeast Arizona; to Shanan Immel, a 2011 Flinn Scholar from McClintock High School in Tempe, who graduated early from the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix to begin fighting the pandemic and began his internal-medicine residency in July at Tulane University in New Orleans. [Read More]
The Flinn Foundation Bioscience Entrepreneurship Program, which provides funding, professional support, and networking opportunities to Arizona early-stage bioscience firms, will announce its 2021 winners in February.
The program provides $30,000 in non-dilutive funding support for up to six firms each year, administered through a nonprofit partner, and a professionally developed, yearlong plan specific to the needs of the individual firms. In addition, opportunities are offered to the competitively selected firms to engage with the state’s bioscience, academic, and policy leaders. [Learn more]
A new comprehensive Bioscience Directory launched by the Flinn Foundation includes an interactive map with more than 1,000 companies and organizations and detailed resources for the people working to advance the biosciences in Arizona.
The BioMap is a searchable database by organization name or city, subsector, or legislative district, plus an interactive map of businesses based in large metropolitan areas and rural towns. The resources—which target entrepreneurs, job seekers, investors, researchers, and elected officials— help connect them to each other as well as other leaders, programs, and events throughout the bioscience ecosystem. [Read More]
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, physicians and hospitals face an uncertain future as they prepare for a new wave of COVID-19 cases that could coincide with the peak of flu season.
New methods of testing being developed by Arizona’s universities and research institutes, in partnership with the Arizona Department of Health Services, could become more accessible for physicians, helping to play a role in slowing the spread of the new coronavirus. [Read More] [Listen to Podcast]
Flinn-Brown Fellow Kevin Bonine (2014) is director of education at Biosphere 2 and a science-faculty member in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona.
Bonine writes about how he serves southern Arizona nonprofits, the K-12 education system, and UArizona, the impact of COVID-19 on Biosphere 2 and Tucson, the value of the Flinn-Brown Network, and how his work advances the biosciences, research, and a culture of innovation and creative excellence. [Read More]
Bioscience
Arizona remains a national hot spot for COVID-19 and experts are weighing in on whether the state’s latest surge has peaked. Fashion incubator FABRIC’s pivot at the start of the pandemic has led to the production of 500,000 FDA-approved, reusable, level 2 and 3 isolation gowns for medical professionals. And Translational Genomics Research Institute researchers […]
Bioscience
Arizona scientists believe a more contagious variant of the new coronavirus may already be in Arizona and the state must intensify its efforts to monitor for new strains and mutations. The vaccine rollout continues as hospital leaders warn about strained resources. Arizona’s three public universities are continuing to test wastewater for COVID-19 while the University […]
Bioscience
Arizona’s three public universities, which have been research leaders on COVID-19 including developing tests and PPE, were awarded a combined $115 million for their response efforts. Arizona is leading the nation in its rate of new COVID-19 cases, and the number of hospitalizations is at an all-time high since the start of the pandemic. January […]
Bioscience
Over the past 35 years, students in the Flinn Scholars Program have pursued careers in dozens of fields, from software engineering, to the diplomatic corps, to filmmaking. But no area has drawn more Flinn Scholars—more than 80 in all—than health care. In 2020, then, Flinn Scholar alumni across the country have assumed frontline roles responding […]