Are you a bioscience leader in Arizona looking for an opportunity to engage with public-policy issues and grow your network? 

The Arizona Center for Civic Leadership at the Flinn Foundation is seeking experienced Arizona leaders for its 2025 Flinn-Brown Fellowship. The deadline to apply is Feb. 28.

About 25 Arizonans from different backgrounds and industries will be selected to join the 465-strong Flinn-Brown Network and participate in the Flinn-Brown Academy this fall. This is a unique opportunity for civically engaged leaders seeking unparalleled learning, connections with top state leaders and policy experts, and personalized long-term support.

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The Flinn Foundation headed north this week for the Flagstaff Bioscience Event to explore what’s ahead for the biosciences in the community. This collaborative event at Lowell Observatory highlighted the many achievements and opportunities for the biosciences in Northern Arizona and helped us develop shared goals as we move toward this fall’s update of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap. Thank you to Richard Bowen at Genterra for organizing the event.

Calling all bioscience entrepreneurs! 

Venture Café Phoenix’s monthly Bio Night on Thursday, Feb. 6 will feature local entrepreneurs Jerry Gibson, chairman & CEO, Venclose; Matt Likens, senior advisor, GT Medical Technologies; and Shane Brown, board director, Neuralert, in the session, “From Vision to Reality: Bioscience Innovators Shaping Phoenix.” The power of entrepreneurship to catalyze and diversify the economy is a longtime focus of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap. The session begins at 4:30 p.m. at 850 PBC in downtown Phoenix.

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Arizona State University has named Sarah Hollingsworth “Holly” Lisanby as founding dean of the ASU School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering, which is scheduled to open in fall 2026 in downtown Phoenix with HonorHealth serving as the primary clinical affiliate.

Lisanby, a psychiatrist, is professor emeritus at Duke University and director of the Division of Translational Research at the National Institute of Mental Health. When Lisanby starts her position May 1 she will be leading the flagship of ASU Health, which will be key to advancing the goals of the Roadmap.

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Dr. Corey Casper’s appointment as Banner Health’s chief research officer frees up Dr. Eric Reiman, a leader in Alzheimer’s disease research and care, and his colleagues to pursue the goal of finding effective Alzheimer’s prevention therapies within 2-4 years. Reiman is chair of the Flinn Foundation’s board of directors.

Dr. Casper is a physician-scientist with experience in complex research, training and clinical care programs at Access to Advanced Health Institute, Fred Hutch Cancer Center and University of Washington.

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Be on the lookout the next time you are on Central Avenue in midtown Phoenix for a Flinn Foundation banner promoting our dedication to the biosciences as well as the Foundation’s 60^th anniversary.

The Flinn Foundation for more than two decades has publicly shared performance data marking the state’s progress in the biosciences—in jobs, wages, NIH grants, R&D expenditures, venture capital, and university tech transfer.

It’s been a great story to share as Arizona became one of the fastest-growing bioscience states. Check out the most recent data released last year and stay tuned for details about new data coming this April as we wind down the current iteration of Arizona’ Bioscience Roadmap.

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It’s been an honor for the Flinn Foundation to host the “Micro to Macro” bioscience-themed art exhibition which ends this week. The 29 works of art explored themes of scientific discovery, research, exploration, illness, recovery, and the connection between art and health care.

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The 2025 conference, “Managing Growth and VC Capital As You Scale,” brings together investors and the startup community with a specific focus on the biosciences and health tech. The all-day event at Creighton University’s Health Sciences Campus will feature keynote speakers, panel discussions, fireside chats, plenty of networking opportunities, and more.

Registration and the agenda are now available. The cost is $50, which includes a continental breakfast, lunch, and post-conference reception.

This annual conference, formerly known as the Arizona BioPreneur Conference, is an integral way for Arizona to reach the goals of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap.

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It’s Thursday, which means the Flinn Foundation’s Arizona Bioscience News was delivered to inboxes throughout the state. Subscribe and enjoy summaries of the week’s media stories highlighting bioscience research, startups, and more.

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Ten Arizona-based research teams from the University of Arizona and Arizona State University have each been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Flinn Foundation to help turn their findings into viable products and treatments that impact patients.

The Flinn Foundation Seed Grants to Promote Translational Research Program, which helps the state reach the goals of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap, awards researchers developing medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutics, and technology to treat a number of conditions.

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Statewide input is needed to make the next iteration of Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap as inclusive as possible.
 
Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee and the Flinn Foundation board of directors spent time toward the end of last year brainstorming ideas with SRI International as we build toward the fall 2025 release of the updated Roadmap. SRI has held focus groups and interviews throughout the state and are now reviewing results from a public survey.

Did you know Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap was created in 2002? The Flinn Foundation commissioned the document to help identify opportunities for the state within the bioscience industry. Flinn hired Battelle Technology Partnership Practice to study its potential and found Arizona possessed many of the essential elements needed to become a global leader in niche areas of the biosciences.

It was a natural emphasis for the Foundation, which was created in 1965 by Dr. Robert and Irene Flinn in part to help Arizona’s traditional health care industry keep up with a booming population. Dr. Flinn was a cardiologist who headed the departments of cardiology and electrocardiography at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix and was co-founder and first president of the Arizona affiliate of the American Heart Association.

During the Roadmap’s first decade, Arizona strengthened its research infrastructure and expanded efforts to commercialize research into products, jobs, and companies. The state grew its industry base and became one of the nation’s fastest-growing bioscience states.