Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute at the University of Illinois

What Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute at the University of Illinois does

The Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI) is an academic research institute within the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, founded in 2014 and headquartered at 405 N Mathews Ave, Urbana, Illinois. It operates as a centralized coordinator of health sciences research across the campus, serving UIUC faculty, staff, and students with biostatistics consultation, epidemiology and research design support, REDCap hosting, research development, and community-academic partnership facilitation. Its primary user-facing platform is Illinois REDCap, a HIPAA-compliant, web-based Research Electronic Data Capture system hosted on a MySQL database in a HIPAA-compliant AWS environment, with Shibboleth single sign-on, an API for programmatic data operations, optional Twilio SMS integration, and an extensible external modules ecosystem (Cross-Project Piping, Extended Reports, Field Shuffle, Image Map, etc.). REDCap is free to UIUC researchers; fee-based ancillary services include $60/hour project builds and $30–$300 module fees.

IHSI's translational research portfolio includes the MarginDx (Margin Diagnostics) initiative, an AI-driven imaging platform developed with Mayo Clinic, Carle Health, NCSA, Grainger College of Engineering, Beckman Institute, and Eleuthra Photonics under an up to $33M ARPA-H award. MarginDx combines Optical Coherence Tomography and Nonlinear Optical imaging with AI tissue classification to enable real-time tumor margin assessment during breast, lung, and hepato-pancreato-biliary surgery, with commercial availability targeted within five years. A separate $4.5M Heiken estate gift funds the development of a neurocognitive assessment platform for cognitive and brain health. Education and community engagement programs include the Community-Academic Scholars Program, the NIDA-funded I-SUMMER training program, the Emerging Research Leaders Academy, and an NIH Grant Writing Series.

IHSI is not a commercial entity. Its revenue model is grant- and gift-based: institutional funding from the University of Illinois and the State of Illinois, supplemented by federal research grants (ARPA-H, NIDA/NIH) and private philanthropy (Heiken estate). Named service revenue streams (project builds, module fees) are nominal relative to total funding. The institute is led by Director Stephen Boppart (professor of electrical and computer engineering and bioengineering, MD), with Cathlene Hardy Hansen joining as Director of Research and Innovation in Spring 2026. Strategic alliances include the longstanding Mayo Clinic & Illinois Alliance (since 2010), which has prepared more than 100 trainees for biomedical research careers.

Name

Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute at the University of Illinois

Legal name

Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Website

https://healthinstitute.illinois.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute (IHSI) is a 2014-founded academic institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that provides centralized health sciences research support — including REDCap data infrastructure, biostatistics, and the MarginDx AI surgical imaging platform — to UIUC researchers and clinical partners such as Mayo Clinic and Carle Health.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Health Sciences Research Support Services

NAICS

Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Medical Laboratories (621511)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Services-Medical Laboratories (8071), In Vitro & In Vivo Diagnostic Substances (2835)

akta.pro primary industry

Biomedical Sciences & Medical Research Institutes (University-Based) (EDAHAGAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Anatomic Pathology & Histology/Cytology IVD (Tissue Diagnostics) (HLAHAAAE), Companion Diagnostics (CDx) & Precision Medicine IVD (HLAHAAAJ), Molecular Pathology & Tissue Biomarkers (IHC/ISH, digital pathology-linked markers) (HLAAAMAI), Translational Medicine & Biomarkers (HLAIALAF)

Keywords

• Health sciences research
• Clinical research support
• Research data management
• Biomedical training programs
• Community-academic partnerships

Headquarters

HQ city

Urbana

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, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Institutional and Grant Funding: As a university institute, IHSI operates primarily through institutional funding from the University of Illinois and external research grants. Revenue supports research development, education programs, and community-academic partnerships.
2. REDCap Project Build Services: Hourly fee-based project build services where the IHSI REDCap team builds and tests REDCap projects according to client specifications. Rate is $60 per hour.
3. External Module Fees: Fees for external module testing and annual usage: $30 per supported module testing, $120 per unsupported module testing, $300 annual fee per module for production use.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

IHSI accelerates health sciences research and innovation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign by providing research support services — including a hosted, HIPAA-compliant instance of REDCap, biostatistics and epidemiology consultation (BERD), research development, and clinical and community-academic partnership facilitation — across the full research lifecycle. It also develops translational research platforms such as the MarginDx AI-driven optical imaging platform built with Mayo Clinic for intra-operative tumor margin assessment.

Product overview

IHSI offers a portfolio of health sciences research support products and services centered on Illinois REDCap (a HIPAA-compliant research data collection platform), the MarginDx AI-driven surgical imaging platform developed with Mayo Clinic, and various education/training programs including the Community-Academic Scholars Program and I-SUMMER. Illinois REDCap serves as the core research data infrastructure with optional external modules for extended functionality, while MarginDx represents a novel AI-powered medical device in development. IHSI also provides grant support services, professional training programs, and community-academic partnership initiatives.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• MarginDx: AI-driven imaging platform for complete tumor removal during surgery, developed in partnership with Mayo Clinic for precision surgical interventions.
• Neurocognitive Assessment Platform

Products and services

• Illinois REDCap A secure, web-based survey and database-building platform hosted at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with HIPAA-compliant research data capture capabilities. Provides data collection tools, survey functionality, and project management features for academic and clinical researchers, with project-level access privileges, activity logging, and Shibboleth single sign-on. Hosted in a HIPAA-compliant AWS environment with a MySQL database.
• MarginDx (Margin Diagnostics) An AI-driven imaging platform developed with Mayo Clinic for real-time tumor margin assessment during cancer surgery. Combines optical coherence tomography (OCT) for high-speed tumor cavity visualization and nonlinear optical (NLO) imaging for sub-cellular resolution diagnostics with machine-learning tissue classification. Target cancers include breast, lung, and hepato-pancreato-biliary. Expected commercial availability within five years of the 2024 ARPA-H award.
• REDCap Project Build Services Fee-based service where the Illinois REDCap team builds and configures REDCap projects according to client specifications and releases them for active data collection. Hourly rate of $60/hr with a free initial one-hour consultation.
• REDCap External Modules Add-on software packages extending Illinois REDCap's base functionality for specific research needs. Supported modules include Cross-Project Piping, Extended Reports, Field Shuffle, Flight Tracker, HIDESUBMIT Action Tags, Image Map, Rename File Upload, and Survey Shuffle. Modules are priced per testing event ($30 supported / $120 unsupported) and per annual production use ($300/year per module per PI).
• Community-Academic Scholars Program A summer research program matching undergraduate students with academic mentors and community partners to conduct community-engaged research on health, equity, and community well-being challenges. Open to students across UIUC and partner organizations.
• I-SUMMER Program Illinois-Substance Use and Mental Health Mentored Experience and Research program providing intensive community-engaged summer research experiences for undergraduates focused on substance use and mental health comorbidities. Inaugural cohort of 9 scholars in 2026, funded by a NIDA R25 training grant.
• Brain Health Center Proposal Planning Grants Internal grant program offering buyout funds of up to $75,000 per award (up to two awards) to help Illinois researchers focus on design, preparation, and submission of large-scale brain health center and program grant proposals. Focus areas include cognitive, sensory, social-emotional, behavioral, and motor domains, as well as neuroimaging and neurotechnology.
• Emerging Research Leaders Academy Professional development program supporting early-career researchers in building research skills and advancing their academic careers.
• NIH Grant Writing Series Training program helping researchers develop competitive NIH grant proposals through instruction and workshop format.

Quantifiable outcome

• More than 100 trainees prepared for careers in biomedical research
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability4 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered supporting and core.

• Eleuthra PhotonicssupportingTechnology or Integration · 13 August 2024Startup providing commercialization and product delivery expertise in nonlinear optical (NLO) imaging technologies for the MarginDx project. Supports industry and translation expertise for the ARPA-H funded surgical imaging platform.
• Mayo CliniccoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2010The Mayo Clinic & Illinois Alliance for Technology-Based Healthcare, established in 2010, has enabled collaboration on research projects, publications, patent disclosures, tools, and algorithms. Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine and UIUC's Grainger College of Engineering, IHSI, and NCSA lead efforts to identify global challenges and create solutions. The alliance has helped prepare more than 100 trainees for careers in biomedical research and is currently collaborating on the $33M ARPA-H MarginDx project for surgical imaging technology.
• National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)coreTechnology or IntegrationUIUC research unit providing strategic investment and expertise in AI, data science, and high-performance computing for the MarginDx project and broader health research initiatives.
• Grainger College of EngineeringcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey strategic partner providing engineering expertise, faculty, and strategic investment for health technology research including the MarginDx project and Mayo Clinic & Illinois Alliance initiatives.
• Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and TechnologysupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerUIUC research institute providing strategic investment and expertise in biophotonics, imaging technologies, and biomedical research for collaborative health initiatives.
• University of Illinois ExtensioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLongstanding partner for the Community Seminar Series program, providing educational health seminars delivered virtually by graduate students and postdoctoral trainees. Supports science communication and community outreach efforts.
• Champaign-Urbana Public Health DistrictcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerKey community partner for multiple research projects including polysubstance use patterns, healthcare worker well-being, and nitrous oxide misuse studies. Provides public health expertise and community access for research initiatives.
• ClarkLindsey Life Plan CommunitysupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity partner for assistive robotics research exploring how assistive robots can support navigation for older adults with visual and mobility impairments. Conducts co-design studies with residents.
• RosecrancesupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerMental health, addiction, and residential treatment organization partnering on research examining substance use risk factors among transition-aged youth, bringing clinical expertise to community-engaged research.
• Urbana Park DistrictsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity partner for participatory listening sessions addressing substance use and mental health among young adults, providing community programming access and local outreach capabilities.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Proprio Vision: AI-driven surgical imaging and navigation company applying computer vision and light field technology in the OR — comparable to MarginDx in combining advanced optical imaging with AI for intraoperative decision support.
• Activ Surgical: Commercial surgical AI/imaging company building real-time intraoperative visual guidance — the most directly comparable commercial peer to IHSI's MarginDx platform from a product/use-case standpoint.

Broad incumbents

• Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI): Large academic clinical research organization supporting translational science and clinical trials — comparable in mission to IHSI, though at significantly greater scale and with broader commercial trial activity.
• Stanford Medicine — Stanford Center for Clinical Research (SCCR): Much larger, well-established university-based clinical research support organization with broader portfolio and deeper resourcing — a scaled incumbent comparable to IHSI's research support services.

Direct peers

• Harvard Catalyst | The Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center: University-based translational science institute providing biostatistics, research design, data capture infrastructure, and pilot funding to investigators — closely parallels IHSI's BERD, REDCap, and research development services.
• Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation (VI4): University-based interdisciplinary biomedical research institute that similarly coordinates research support, training, and translational programs across a major academic medical center — directly comparable to IHSI's model of central coordination of health sciences research.
• Vanderbilt REDCap: Original REDCap consortium host institution providing the same HIPAA-compliant data capture platform — the closest functional peer to Illinois REDCap in terms of services, governance, and consortium role.
• University of Michigan Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR): University-based CTSA-funded translational research institute offering biostatistics, clinical research support, and community engagement — comparable to IHSI in scope, federal funding model, and service portfolio.
• Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Case Western Reserve University: Another university-based CTSA hub providing research design, biostatistics, and REDCap-style data infrastructure to investigators — comparable to IHSI's translational support and training offerings.

Regional players

• Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS): Regional Big Ten peer CTSA institute offering biostatistics, REDCap-style data tools, and translational research support — comparable institutional peer located in Illinois-adjacent Midwestern geography.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/IllinoisIHSI
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@illinoisIHSI
• Facebookfacebook.com/IllinoisIHSI
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/illinoisihsi
• Instagraminstagram.com/IllinoisIHSI

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute at the University of Illinois