Featured Stories

The BIO5 Institute’s Keep Engaging Youth in Science (KEYS) Research Internship celebrates 20 years of providing transformative precollege research experience this summer and welcomes a new class of 60 students.

From cells to systems to a lifetime, researchers at the University of Arizona BIO5 Institute are asking new kinds of questions about health and disease.

Five BIO5 members, Marvin Slepian, Jeff Burgess, Roberta Brinton, Robert Sandoval, and Paloma Beamer, were among seven University of Arizona faculty and staff honored with 2026 Convergence Awards for interdisciplinary research excellence.

BIO5 member Paloma Beamer is helping lead a new partnership between the University of Arizona Health Sciences and the Arizona Department of Health Services to strengthen public health education, workforce development and community health efforts statewide.

The BIO5 Flinn Scholar Research Experience connects nine first-year students with mentors across the University of Arizona to pursue scientific projects shaped by their interests.

BIO5 member Geoffrey Gurtner helped lead a milestone as faculty from the University of Arizona and Banner Health completed Tucson’s first robotic living donor kidney surgery, expanding access to minimally invasive transplant care in Southern Arizona.

BIO5 members Vignesh Subbian and Tyson L Swetnam are part of a 14-member University of Arizona team developing artificial intelligence–powered medical kiosks for rapid deployment in pharmacies and community centers. The project, Convergent Digital Health for Remote Access, or CoDiRA, is part of the Office of Research and Partnership’s inaugural Big Idea Challenge and aims to expand access to care beyond urgent care, emergency visits, and basic video platforms.

BIO5 members Brian Erstad and Bonnie LaFleur are leading a Phase 3 University of Arizona clinical trial to study whether rapamycin can support healthy aging and immune function in adults 65 and older, made possible by $12 million in philanthropic support from alumnus Ken Coit.

BIO5 member Ayman Fanous led the largest genetic study of schizophrenia in people of African ancestry, identifying more than 100 new genome regions linked to the condition and advancing understanding across populations.