Sage Bionetworks
Sage Bionetworks is a Seattle-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit operating Synapse, a FAIR- and HIPAA-compliant cloud data platform for biomedical research, serving NIH-funded consortia, academic researchers, and pharma partners with 3.3 PB of hosted data and a 30,000+ solver challenge community.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2009
- HeadquartersSeattle, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Sage Bionetworks does
Sage Bionetworks is a Seattle-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2009 that operates Synapse, a cloud-based biomedical data platform providing secure storage, ethical sharing, and open collaboration under FAIR principles and HIPAA-compliant governance. The platform is one of only nine NIH-listed generalist repositories, is custodian of 3.3 petabytes of data with 6,200+ active monthly users, and anchors 20+ specialized community portals spanning Alzheimer's disease (AD Knowledge Portal, Agora, Model AD Explorer), cancer (Human Tumor Atlas Network, AACR Project GENIE, CRI iAtlas, Cancer Complexity Knowledge Portal, Gray BRCA Pre-Cancer Atlas), neurofibromatosis and rare disease, digital health (dHealth), longevity (ELITE), autoimmune (ARK), Down syndrome (INCLUDE), and psychiatric disorders (BSMN). Sage also operates DREAM Challenges and OpenChallenges.io, convening a community of 30,000+ multidisciplinary solvers across 60+ public challenges that have produced 100+ journal publications and multiple FDA-approved clinical technologies.
Revenue flows from three streams: federal grants (NIH Common Fund and other NIH institute grants, including a recent $25 million award over five years for the NAMs Data Hub with NYU Langone Health), philanthropic donations from foundations and individuals (Gates Foundation, Wellcome Leap, RWJF, Helmsley, Gilbert Family Foundation), and tiered platform subscriptions (Basic free tier up to 100GB with DOI minting, Self-Managed Plan for NIH DMS compliance, Data Coordination Plan for consortia). Distribution occurs through self-serve web access to Synapse, the network of community portals, and direct engagement with NIH-funded research consortia. Sage's GTM is community- and event-led, driving adoption via open-data challenges, academic publications, conference presentations, and consortium partnerships rather than traditional sales.
The leadership combines biomedical research depth with technology-product expertise. President & CEO Luca Foschini was previously co-founder and Chief Data Scientist at Evidation; the executive team includes a Chief Operating Officer (Andrea Varsavsky, ex-Evidation/Medtronic), Chief Technology Officer (Alberto Pepe, ex-Wiley/Authorea), Chief Data Officer (Susheel Varma, ex-UK Information Commissioner's Office and HDR-UK), and Chief Privacy & Compliance Officer (Christine Suver, who has led Sage's research governance since founding). The Board of Directors is co-chaired by co-founders Stephen H. Friend (former Merck SVP Oncology) and Eric Schadt (Mount Sinai Dean of Precision Medicine), with directors including Carole Goble (FAIR principles co-author), Gustavo Stolovitzky (DREAM Challenges founder, former IBM Fellow), and Brian J. Fox (Bash shell author). Headcount is 11–50 employees and the organization operates a single Seattle headquarters.
Sage Bionetworks firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Sage Bionetworks
- Legal name
- Sage Bionetworks
- Website
- https://sagebionetworks.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2009
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Sage Bionetworks is a Seattle-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit operating Synapse, a FAIR- and HIPAA-compliant cloud data platform for biomedical research, serving NIH-funded consortia, academic researchers, and pharma partners with 3.3 PB of hosted data and a 30,000+ solver challenge community.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Sage Bionetworks industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Biomedical Research Data Platform
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Regulatory Information Management (RIM) & Submission Publishing Software (HLAGAJAL)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- HIE Platforms & Network Services (Community/Regional/National) (HLACABAB), Site & Investigator Platforms (Site Payments, Feasibility, Activation) (HLACAOAJ), Data Aggregation, Interoperability & APIs for RPM (FHIR/IoMT Gateways) (HLACAFAO), ML Lifecycle Collaboration & Workspace Management (HDAAABAK)
Keywords
Where Sage Bionetworks is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Seattle
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Sage Bionetworks business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- NIH Grant Funding: Primary funding source from NIH Common Fund and other NIH institute grants supporting specific research programs and data coordinating centers. Includes recent $25 million NIH grant for NAMs Data Hub (5 million per year for five years).
- Philanthropic Donations: Tax-deductible donations from individuals and organizations supporting open science mission. EIN: 26-4489946.
- Platform Subscription Plans: Tiered Synapse platform offerings: Basic Plan (free up to 100GB with DOI), Self-Managed Plan for NIH DMS compliance, and Data Coordination Plan with unlimited data allowance and end-to-end support for consortia.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Others | Basic Plan - Free data hosting for open-access datasets |
| Subscription | Annual | Self-Managed Plan - For NIH DMS compliance |
| Subscription | Annual | Data Coordination Plan - Full consortium management |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels5 records
Sage Bionetworks product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Sage Bionetworks builds and operates Synapse, a cloud-based data platform that provides secure storage, ethical sharing, open collaboration, and research communication for biomedical research. Built on FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles and HIPAA-compliant governance, the platform hosts over 20 specialized research community portals spanning Alzheimer's, cancer, neurofibromatosis, and other disease areas, along with the DREAM Challenges crowdsourced algorithm benchmarking program and an NIH-listed generalist repository containing 3.3 petabytes of data.
Product overview
Sage Bionetworks operates a platform-plus-modules architecture centered on Synapse, a cloud-based data platform for secure storage, ethical sharing, and open collaboration in biomedical research. Built on FAIR principles and HIPAA-compliant governance, Synapse serves as the foundation for over 20 specialized community portals spanning disease areas including Alzheimer's Disease (AD Knowledge Portal, Agora), cancer (Project GENIE, HTAN, CRI iAtlas, Cancer Complexity Knowledge Portal, Gray BRCA Pre-Cancer Atlas), rare diseases (NF Data Portal), and other health conditions. The platform also supports cross-cutting initiatives like DREAM Challenges, OpenChallenges.io, MC2 Center, and ELITE. Sage offers tiered Synapse plans (Basic, Self-Managed, Data Coordination) and tools like the Elements of Informed Consent toolkit. The platform enables AI-powered data exploration via SynapseChat and integrates multi-omic, clinical, and digital health data across research communities.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Synapse Cloud-based data platform providing secure data storage, ethical sharing, open collaboration, and research communication for biomedical researchers. Features FAIR-principled data management, HIPAA-compliant governance controls, and AI-enabled data exploration via SynapseChat. Serves academic researchers, NIH-funded consortia, and pharmaceutical organizations.
- CRI iAtlas Interactive portal exploring connections between immunity, cancer, immunotherapy treatment, and patient outcomes. Provides researchers with 17 analysis modules and over 12,000 patient samples. Built in collaboration with Cancer Research Institute, ISB, and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
- Human Tumor Atlas Network (HTAN) National Cancer Institute-funded Cancer Moonshot initiative constructing three-dimensional atlases of human tumors to understand cancer development, spread, and treatment response. Sage Bionetworks serves as data coordinating center managing data storage, sharing, and compilation.
- AACR Project GENIE Data Portal International data-sharing consortium pursuing development of precision cancer medicines. Provides a regulatory-grade registry linking cancer genomic data with clinical outcomes from tens of thousands of cancer patients. Hosts sample, clinical, and genomic data on Synapse.
- NF Data Portal Open data portal for uncovering new insights into neurofibromatosis and schwannomatosis. Serves as a hub for research tools, experimental sample data, and community initiatives supporting the NF-OSI (NF Open Science Initiative).
- Agora Interactive ecosystem for visually exploring relationships of genes with Alzheimer's disease. Hosts high-dimensional human transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic evidence with a library of over 600 early candidate drug targets.
- AD Knowledge Portal Platform for accessing data, analyses, and research toolkits to accelerate Alzheimer's disease discoveries and translation to clinical outcomes. Supports 13 national research programs.
- DREAM Challenges Community-driven organization of more than 30,000 solvers focused on benchmarking algorithms to turn biomedical big data into useful clinical applications. Has organized over 60 public challenges across more than 40 impact areas.
- OpenChallenges.io First centralized, searchable catalog of data challenges from across the web enabling citizen scientists to address areas of unmet medical need. Tracks and curates over 498 challenges from 436 organizations.
- dHealth Digital Health Knowledge Portal for understanding long-term patient health through smartphones, wearable devices, and embedded home sensors, democratizing access to digital health data and analytical methods.
- ELITE Portal Home for large-scale datasets, integrative analytical tools, and software applications for patients affected by age-related disease, empowering users to explore multi-omic data for protective cellular factors enhancing lifespan and healthspan.
- ARK Portal Vast data network generated by research teams working collaboratively to deepen understanding of arthritis and other autoimmune-related conditions, enabling researchers to define shared and disease-specific biological pathways.
- Elements of Informed Consent Toolkit developed by Sage Bionetworks Governance Team to help researchers think through what information participants should receive as part of the consenting process, including best practices for eConsent and online research.
Quantifiable outcome
- Over 60 public challenges organized resulting in 100+ journal publications
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Sage Bionetworks
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Sage Bionetworks technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability4 records
Feature4 records
Sage Bionetworks partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
13 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core, major, infrastructure and strategic.
- NYU Langone HealthflagshipSage Bionetworks co-leads the NYU-Sage NAMs Data Hub and Coordination Center with NYU Langone Health, part of the NIH Common Fund's Complement-ARIE program. Sage hosts the FAIR-compliant data backbone on its Synapse platform. The $25 million, five-year award funds cloud-based infrastructure to standardize data from human-based testing methods.
- National Cancer Institute (NCI)coreNCI-funded Cancer Moonshot initiative participant. Sage Bionetworks serves as data coordinating center member for the Human Tumor Atlas Network (HTAN), managing data storage, sharing, and compilation of tumor atlases.
- NIH (National Institutes of Health)coreMajor funder and strategic partner across multiple programs. DREAM Challenges is supported by NIH along with nonprofit organizations and industry partners. Synapse is one of nine NIH-listed generalist repositories.
- Cancer Research Institute (CRI)coreCollaborative partnership for CRI iAtlas, an interactive portal to explore connections between immunity, cancer, immunotherapy treatment and patient outcomes. Also involves ISB and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
- American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)coreSage Bionetworks serves as data hosting and integration hub for AACR Project GENIE, an international data-sharing consortium pursuing development of precision cancer medicines. Hosts sample, clinical, and genomic data on Synapse.
- Gates FoundationmajorFeatured partner supporting open science and biomedical research initiatives.
- Wellcome LeapmajorFunder of the 1kD program (international discovery effort for brain development in toddlers up to 1000 days old). Brings together experts across universities, nonprofits, and private sector.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)infrastructureCloud infrastructure partner. Sage purchases carbon offsets for AWS usage as part of climate sustainability initiatives.
- IBM ResearchstrategicFeatured partner in open science and biomedical research ecosystem.
- Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS)strategicFeatured partner supporting open science and biomedical research.
- BEACON ConsortiumcoreBEACON (Benchmarking, Evaluation, and Assessment Consortium for Science) launched in Toronto. Sage Bionetworks is one of five founding organizations including CASP, DREAM, OpenADMET, and CACHE/Conscience. Consortium conducts open evaluations of predictive models in biology and medicine.
- Digital Medicine Society (DiMe)strategicDiMe CEO Jennifer Goldsack joined Sage Bionetworks Board of Directors. The organizations have had synergistic relationship advancing digital medicine and open science.
- Children's Tumor FoundationcoreSupporter of NF Data Portal and NF Open Science Initiative (NF-OSI) for neurofibromatosis and schwannomatosis research.
Scale indicators10 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Sage Bionetworks competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- DNAnexus: DNAnexus operates a cloud-based biomedical data analysis and management platform serving pharma, clinical labs, and consortia. It is a direct peer to Sage's Synapse in providing compliant, multi-omic data infrastructure to research and clinical customers.
- Velsera (formerly Seven Bridges): Velsera provides a genomics and biomedical data platform used by research consortia and pharma for secure, collaborative analysis of multi-omic data. It competes directly with Synapse in serving large-scale, NIH- and pharma-funded research programs.
- Terra (Broad Institute / Verily): Terra is a cloud-native platform co-developed by the Broad Institute and Verily for biomedical research data analysis and sharing. It is a direct peer in enabling researchers to access, share, and compute on large genomic and clinical datasets.
- cBioPortal (Memorial Sloan Kettering): cBioPortal is an open-source cancer genomics data platform widely used for exploring, visualizing, and analyzing large-scale tumor molecular profiles. It overlaps with Sage's cancer portals (HTAN, Project GENIE, CRI iAtlas) for cancer research data sharing.
- Lifebit: Lifebit offers a federated, cloud-based biomedical data platform with deep genomics and multi-omic analytics. It is comparable to Synapse in serving large research consortia and pharma with FAIR-compliant, secure data infrastructure.
- Open Science Framework (Center for Open Science): OSF is an open-source platform for research collaboration, data sharing, and registration of studies across disciplines. It is comparable to Synapse in supporting open-science workflows, although OSF is broader across disciplines while Synapse is biomedical-focused.
- Vivli: Vivli operates a clinical research data-sharing platform that enables researchers to request and analyze anonymized participant-level data from completed clinical trials. It is comparable to Synapse in enabling ethical, governed reuse of biomedical research data.
- Eagle Genomics: Eagle Genomics provides an AI-augmented life sciences data platform for multi-omic analysis and discovery. It competes with Sage in serving enterprise life sciences customers with FAIR-compliant data infrastructure and analytics.
Broad incumbents
- Zenodo (CERN): Zenodo is a general-purpose open repository operated by CERN that hosts research outputs across all scientific disciplines. As a broader, established open repository, it competes for generalist research data deposition while Sage remains biomedical-focused.
Emerging players
- Gen3 (University of Chicago / Open Commons Consortium): Gen3 is an open-source platform for building data commons used by NIH programs such as NCPI. It is comparable to Synapse in supporting FAIR-compliant research data infrastructure, though typically deployed by individual consortia rather than operated as a unified repository.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat7 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Sage Bionetworks social profiles
Digital presenceSage Bionetworks compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
Sage Bionetworks financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Sage Bionetworks leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Sage Bionetworks funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Sage Bionetworks M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Sage Bionetworks
What does Sage Bionetworks do?
Sage Bionetworks builds and operates Synapse, a cloud-based data platform that provides secure storage, ethical sharing, open collaboration, and research communication for biomedical research. Built on FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles and HIPAA-compliant governance, the platform hosts over 20 specialized research community portals spanning Alzheimer's, cancer, neurofibromatosis, and other disease areas, along with the DREAM Challenges crowdsourced algorithm benchmarking program and an NIH-listed generalist repository containing 3.3 petabytes of data.
Is Sage Bionetworks a public or private company?
Sage Bionetworks is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Sage Bionetworks founded?
Sage Bionetworks was founded in 2009. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Sage Bionetworks based?
Sage Bionetworks is headquartered in Seattle, United States, in the North America region.
How does Sage Bionetworks make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. NIH Grant Funding is the primary driver. The others are philanthropic Donations and platform Subscription Plans.
Who are Sage Bionetworks's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are DNAnexus, Velsera (formerly Seven Bridges), Terra (Broad Institute / Verily), cBioPortal (Memorial Sloan Kettering), Lifebit, Open Science Framework (Center for Open Science), Vivli and Eagle Genomics. Zenodo (CERN) is listed as a broad incumbent. Gen3 (University of Chicago / Open Commons Consortium) is listed as an emerging player.
Does Sage Bionetworks have an API?
No public API is recorded for Sage Bionetworks.
What industry is Sage Bionetworks in?
Sage Bionetworks's product category is Biomedical Research Data Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAGAJAL, Regulatory Information Management (RIM) & Submission Publishing Software, with a secondary code of HLACABAB, HIE Platforms & Network Services (Community/Regional/National). Its NAICS code is 5182 and its SIC code is 7372.