About Us

QBI is about breaking down the walls in academia and creating teams between different sets of scientists working in diverse disciplines to tackle problems that can only be solved by many groups working together. Academic research is often focused on the individual scientist. For example, grants are often awarded to a single investigator, tenure is assessed based on individual achievements, and most awards are given to a single scientist. In fact, if there is significant collaborative work, the contributions of individual investigators, especially younger ones, are often questioned. This structure incentivizes research that is often unnecessarily competitive and siloed. In fact, our current academic system can actually impede discovery. Increasingly, many big breakthroughs in biomedical research require teams to work together, where each group brings something unique but highly complementary to the problem. QBI will lead by example with teams of scientists solving each individual problem – together. Technology, and the data derived from it, is at the heart of collaborative efforts, as QBI scientists are the experts developing experimental and computational tools that can be applied to many biological or biomedical problems. These tools allow for effective connection between the discovery research and clinical worlds, enabling novel therapies for disease.