RPI Center for Biotechnology & Interdisciplinary Studies

What RPI Center for Biotechnology & Interdisciplinary Studies does

RPI's Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) is an academic research enterprise at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute that operates as a deliberate convergence point for engineering, computational science, and life-sciences research. The center is built around eleven core facilities — including the Biocomputation and Bioinformatics Center, Biomedical Imaging Center, and Stem Cell Center — that provide shared infrastructure to 44 resident faculty and 147 graduate students, supporting work in bioprocessing, biomanufacturing, imaging, computational biology, and precision medicine. The product surface is research output (publications, trained personnel, IP via the IPTL office), open-source scientific software (OpenRecon, MCX, MMC), and workforce-training programs such as boot camps and T32-funded postdoctoral training.

CBIS makes money in the manner of an academic research unit: through competitive grants from federal agencies (NIH, NSF, NIIMBL), private philanthropy (notably a 2025 $10.5M Gates Foundation Grand Challenges award), industry-sponsored research (Sartorius, Enquyst), and institutional cost-sharing via RPI. Annual research expenditures are reported at $21.2 million. Partnerships — NIIMBL (Manufacturing USA), UNYTE, Mount Sinai's ISMMS, and international collaborators including IST Lisbon, University of Montpellier, University of Queensland, and Seoul National University — function both as research multipliers and as co-funding channels. The 2024 launch of the Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine (CEPM) with Mount Sinai added a New York City operational footprint.

The center is directed by Juergen Hahn, who succeeded Deepak Vashishth in 2024. CBIS serves multiple customer segments concurrently: federal grantmaking agencies, industry biomanufacturing partners, clinical collaborators (Mount Sinai), philanthropic funders, and the graduate and postdoctoral trainees who flow into the U.S. biotech workforce. Its competitive position rests on concentrated interdisciplinary talent, NIIMBL Tier-1 facility designation, and a maintained AI/ML and biocomputation research constellation that underpins both imaging (mFLIO²) and predictive-disease modeling workstreams.

Name

RPI Center for Biotechnology & Interdisciplinary Studies

Legal name

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Website

https://biotech.rpi.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

1824

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CBIS is Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's interdisciplinary biotechnology research center, operating eleven core facilities, 44 faculty, and 147 graduate students to deliver federally and foundation-funded research, open-source scientific software, and trained biotech workforce across bioprocessing, imaging, and precision medicine.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Biotechnology Research

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (54171), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) (541715)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Central Laboratory Services (Core Lab Operations) (HLAGAEAA)

Keywords

• Biotechnology research
• Biopharmaceutical manufacturing
• Biomedical imaging
• Core research facilities
• Interdisciplinary life sciences

Headquarters

HQ city

Troy

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Research Funding and Grants: CBIS operates as an academic research center funded through competitive research grants from federal agencies (NIH, NCI, NIGMS, NIA), industry partnerships, and private foundations. The center generates revenue through research collaborations, workforce training programs, and industry partnerships.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

CBIS is an academic biotechnology research center that conducts fundamental and translational research across life sciences, physical sciences, and engineering. It provides access to 11 shared core facilities, dedicated research centers such as the Biomedical Imaging Center and Rensselaer Center for Stem Cell Research, and structured graduate and workforce training programs, funded primarily through federal grants, foundation awards, and industry partnerships.

Product overview

The Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D. Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) at RPI is an academic research center offering a portfolio of 11 state-of-the-art shared research core facilities, research constellations, and specialized research centers. The center provides access to advanced equipment including the Biomedical Imaging Center (BIC) for x-ray and optical imaging, the Rensselaer Center for Stem Cell Research, and specialized research programs in Biocomputation/Bioimaging/AI/ML, Advanced Manufacturing, and Human Health. CBIS also operates graduate training programs including the NIGMS Biomolecular Science and Engineering Training Program (T32) and NIA Alzheimer's Disease Training Program (T32), along with workforce development offerings such as the 3-Day Flow Cytometry Boot Camp. Additionally, BIC develops and releases open-source software including OpenRecon for image reconstruction and Monte Carlo eXtreme (MCX) for photon transport simulations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Rensselaer Center for Stem Cell Research: A shared use center providing comprehensive support for basic stem cell research with tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications
• Biomedical Imaging Center (BIC)

Products and services

• Core Facilities (11 State-of-the-Art Shared Research Labs) A suite of 11 shared research core facilities supporting genomics, bioimaging and NMR, stem cells, cell and molecular biology, flow cytometry, microscopy and cellular imaging, proteomics, analytical biochemistry, and microbiology and fermentation research for academic and industry researchers.
• Biomedical Imaging Center (BIC)

Quantifiable outcome

• $21.2 Million in annual research expenditures demonstrating significant research activity and funding success
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability7 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, major, key and minor.

• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaicoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Since 2014, CBIS has been the interdisciplinary hub for an Institute-wide partnership with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City to transform biomedicine through discovery, development, and training in technology-based medical solutions. The partnership encompasses both research and education, with the Mount Sinai and Rensselaer Collaborative Center for Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship as the hub for joint efforts. Research areas include precision medicine, drug discovery, stem cell biology, robotics and robotic surgery, novel imaging techniques, cellular engineering, and computational neurobiology. An outgrowth of this partnership is the Center for Engineering and Precision Medicine (CEPM) in New York City.
• National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCBIS is a Tier 1 member of NIIMBL, a public-private partnership whose mission is to accelerate biopharmaceutical manufacturing innovation. The goal is to cost-effectively produce stable biologics capable of safely preventing and treating pandemic diseases, cancer, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and bacterial and viral infections. Through numerous NIIMBL awards, Rensselaer researchers are making significant contributions with eight projects awarded to date including technical advances in cell separation, host-cell protein removal, and lentiviral vector biomanufacturing.
• UNYTE Translational Research NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCBIS is a multi-year participant in UNYTE, a consortium of biomedical and academic research centers performing clinical and translational research within upstate New York and surrounding regions. The network assists faculty and trainees to increase the quality and quantity of translational research by assessing and accessing expertise, technologies, services, and curricula that might be shared between institutions, fostering collaborative research, reducing resource duplication, and enhancing bidirectional transfer of information.
• SartoriusmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSartorius is a key partner in the $10.5M Gates Grand Challenges project to develop low-cost monoclonal antibody manufacturing. The company brings innovative workflows to the project, contributing to the goal of achieving the '$10 per gram' manufacturing target.
• Enquyst TechnologieskeyStrategic or Co-development PartnerEnquyst is developing and scaling up its disruptive downstream processing technology to deliver substantial cost reductions to the global biologics market as part of the Gates Grand Challenges mAb manufacturing project.
• IST LisbonminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational academic partnership as part of CBIS's global collaboration network for research and education in biotechnology.
• Université de MontpellierminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational academic partnership as part of CBIS's global collaboration network for research and education in biotechnology.
• University of QueenslandminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational academic partnership as part of CBIS's global collaboration network for research and education in biotechnology.
• Seoul National UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInternational academic partnership as part of CBIS's global collaboration network for research and education in biotechnology.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research: MIT-affiliated biomedical research institute with deep basic and translational research programs, faculty-led research groups, and graduate training, mirroring CBIS's academic research center model.
• Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research: MIT cancer-focused research institute with state-of-the-art core facilities, faculty constellations, and industry engagement in biopharmaceutical and imaging research, directly comparable in structure to CBIS.
• Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering: Harvard University multidisciplinary bio-inspired engineering research institute with industry partnerships and translational programs, operating shared core facilities and faculty constellations similar to CBIS.
• Allen Institute: Large-scale biomedical research organization conducting high-throughput science with shared infrastructure and consortium-driven projects, comparable to CBIS's multidisciplinary, facility-driven model.
• Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard: Major genomics and biomedical research institute with shared core facilities, large-scale funding, and translational industry partnerships, comparable to CBIS in operating model though significantly larger.
• Stowers Institute for Medical Research: Independent biomedical research institute with investigator-led research programs, graduate training, and core facilities supporting multidisciplinary life sciences work, structurally aligned with CBIS.
• Gladstone Institutes: UCSF-affiliated biomedical research institute focusing on cardiovascular, neurological, and infectious disease research with shared facilities and translational programs structurally similar to CBIS.

Emerging players

• Allen Institute for Cell Science: Focused cell biology research division using imaging, AI/ML, and stem cell models — overlapping with CBIS's Biocomputation/Bioimaging/AI/ML constellation and Stem Cell Core.
• Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics: Princeton's quantitative biology and genomics research institute with cross-disciplinary faculty groups, comparable in academic research center structure and interdisciplinary focus to CBIS.
• Innovative Genomics Institute: UC Berkeley/UCSF genomics and biomedical research institute with translational focus on CRISPR, biomanufacturing, and computational biology, intersecting CBIS's biotech and biocomputation research areas.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/rpi-cbis

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about RPI Center for Biotechnology & Interdisciplinary Studies