• Planning began for the Thomas W. Keating Bioresearch Building - the physical home of IBSB/BIO5.

• Targeted faculty, including Dr. Craig Aspinwall and Dr. Rod Wing, were hired with the goal of catalyzing collaborative thinking.

• Strategic investments in cutting edge equipment, core support facilities, and bioinformatics capabilities were made.

• Began actively collaborating with partners across the state to catalyze the success of the Flinn Foundation-commissioned Arizona Bioscience Roadmap, a long-term strategic plan with the goal of Arizona becoming a globally competitive and a national leader in select areas of the biosciences by 2025.

• Transformational hires recruited to UArizona included Dr. Joyce Schroeder and Dr. Michael Worobey.

• Strategic systems were established to better connect internal and external entities through expertise, equipment, services, and students.

• Dr. Vicki Chandler and Dr. Fernando Martinez were named interim co-directors of then IBSB; after a national search, Chandler was named as permanent director.

• Administered project grant for the Valley Fever Center for Excellence.

The Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) facility became the first and still only space on campus to safely handle and store human, animal, and plant infectious agents or toxins.

• Dr. Rod Wing’s collaborative work brought large and influential genome sequencing grants to the University.

• Researchers including Drs. Felicia Goodrum, Walt Klimecki, Henk Granzier, Walt Piergorsch, Maggie So, Linda Powers, Donata Vercelli, and Jennifer Barton moved their labs to BIO5.

• BIO5’s KEYS Research Internship for Arizona high school students began with a cohort of nine interns.

• The BIO5 Media Facility launched to provide consistently high-quality research materials at significant cost savings to a diverse customer base of university researchers, bioindustry, and educational institutions. Today, the Media Facility continues to help researchers improve efficiency, strengthen grant applications and fulfillment, and move to patents faster.

The iPlant Collaborative (now CyVerse) administered by BIO5 was awarded it’s initial $50M - the largest National Science Foundation grant in Arizona history at the time - to serve international plant science communities by providing powerful resources and scientific and technical support services to enable data-driven, collaborative research.

BIO5 led its first “Science City” community event, originally a simple ‘Science Pavilion’ idea at the Tucson Festival of Books that has since grown into a cross-campus ‘city’ of science.

• Dr. Fernando Martinez was named director of BIO5; Drs. Carol Barnes and Jennifer Barton were appointed associate directors.
• Dr. Janko Nikolich-Zugich was recruited to UArizona.

BIO5, in collaboration with the Biotechnology Industry Organization of Southern Arizona (BIOSA), launched the Student Industry Networking Event (SINE).

• Dr. Bruce Walsh, a world-renowned expert in ecology and evolutionary biology, launched the BIO5 Tucson Plant Breeding Institute (TPBI).

• Supported efforts to hire transformational physician-scientists including Drs. Jil Tardiff and Anita Koshy.

• Provided space and supported key hires for interdisciplinary ecosystems genomics.

• Dr. Monica Kraft, an international expert in asthma and airway disease, joined UArizona with a lab in BIO5.

• Dr. Victor Hruby launched Teleost Biopharmaceuticals, LLC.

• Dr. Robbie Brinton, an international expert in aging and brain disease biology, prevention, and treatment, came to UArizona, joined BIO5, and was subsequently named director of the Center for Innovation in Brain Science.

• Startup, ProNeurogen, Inc., launched through our partnership with Tech Launch Arizona.

iPlant was rebranded as CyVerse to emphasize an expanded mission and cyberinfrastructure germane to all life sciences disciplines; by democratizing access to supercomputing capabilities, CyVerse provides a crucial resource to enable scientists to find solutions for the future.

The Bioscience Research Laboratory building opened as a companion space to the Keating building, allowing for an expansion of collaborative space, expertise, and resources.

The BIO5 Biomedical Device Prototyping Service (BDPS), a core service offering engineering design services and prototyping for scientific and medical devices, launched under the direction of Drs. Scott Derigne and Jennifer Barton.

• BIO5 Ambassadors transformed into an internship where students work with BIO5 staff on projects including digital marketing, event planning and execution, science communication, and more.

• Startup, Avery Therapeutics, Inc., launched through our partnership with Tech Launch Arizona.

BIO5 members helped launch the University of Arizona-Banner Health All of Us research program which was awarded $60+M by the National Institutes of Health - the largest grant in Arizona history. People who join provide information about their health, habits and environment. By looking for patterns, researchers can learn more about what affects people’s health. All of Us aims to enroll at least one million participants to improve treatment and prevention strategies based on differences in lifestyle, environment, and genetics.

• BIO5 Associate Director Dr. Ski Chilton launched the Precision Nutrition and Wellness Initiative (PNWI) to determine and optimize the health of individuals in order to predict and prevent disease and increase overall quality of life.

• Cross-disciplinary teams involving BIO5 members launched 6 startup companies through our partnership with Tech Launch Arizona:

  • Aqualung Therapeutics Corp.

  • GenetiRate, LLC

  • Iluminos Therapeutics, LLC

  • MCR Therapeutics, LLC

  • Regulonix, LLC

  • Reglagene, LLC

• Dr. Michael Johnson launched the BIO5 Postdoctoral Fellowship to invest in the success of UArizona postdoctoral fellows through monetary awards and professional development opportunities.

• Cross-disciplinary teams involving BIO5 members launched 4 startup companies through our partnership with Tech Launch Arizona:

  • DesertDX, LLC

  • Fibronox, LLC

  • Procyon Technologies, LLC

  • Scintillation Nanotechnologies, LLC

BIO5 launched DISCOVER BIO5, an event series designed to showcase the innovative bioscience research happening at UArizona, and to share the inspiring ways we prepare our next generation of scientists for the future. We celebrate science and innovation by offering a “public sneak peek” into BIO5’s world-class research and discovery endeavors focused on solving the world’s grand biological challenges, improving society, and positively impacting Arizonans.

BIO5 launches Science Talks: a conversation hosted by UArizona’s BIO5 Institute, a podcast and video series highlighting the important research and innovation happening at BIO5.

DISCOVER BIO5 commemorates 20 years of research, innovation, and impact through a variety of events, talks, interactive programming, and public-friendly content for you to learn more about BIO5’s mission.