Predict, prevent, reverse, cure
At Benaroya Research Institute (BRI), we study the immune system and the wide range of diseases that affect it — including autoimmune diseases, allergies, asthma, cancer and COVID-19. We create detailed pictures of the immune system, in health and disease, aiming to understand how disorders start and how to rebalance the immune system back to health. As a nonprofit research institute within Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, we collaborate with doctors and patients to accelerate the path from innovative lab discoveries to life-changing patient care. Learn more about our research.
Our mission: to advance the science to predict, prevent, reverse and cure diseases of the immune system
Our vision: a healthy immune system for everyone
Our history
- BRI started as VM research center in 1956, became BRI in 1985 with a focus in immunology
- 1980s/1990s: Building BRI and its teams, finding genes, building tools (tetramers), understanding structure and function of genes
- 2000s/2010s: Building clinical programs to translate discoveries, building biorepositories
- 2010s/2020: Expanding beyond autoimmune diseases, expanding mission to predict and prevent mission
- 2020 onward: Personalized medicine, prevention. Collaboration within and beyond BRI.
Our Core Values:
- Persistent Inquiry
- Innovation and Agility
- Constant Collaboration
- Integrity & Respect
Who We Are
Our Purpose: Predict, prevent, reverse and cure
BRI’s purpose is to advance human immunology, studying the immune system in health and disease. We work to understand allergies, autoimmunity and many other diseases that impact the immune system. We search for new, better treatments with fewer side effects and personalized medicines that target the root cause of disease. We're also working to shift the paradigm of immune system disease treatment by uncovering ways to predict who will develop disease and stop it before it starts.
Our Motivation: Immunology to change lives
BRI is a leading institute in human immunology. Hope and compassion drive our work, because immune system diseases impact our friends, families and communities. We use the latest tools and innovative approaches to examine the immune system. Each study may not lead to life-changing advances. But each finding builds on the next, paving the way to discoveries that change lives.
Our Approach: Together we discover
At BRI, we work together, lifting each other up and supporting one another. We celebrate everyone who makes our work possible, including scientists and staff at all levels, collaborators, research participants and donors. We built our organization to encourage collaboration across disciplines because we know what happens when immunologists, bioinformaticians, physicians and others team up: We build new tools. We ask different questions. And we move closer to our vision of a healthy immune system for everyone.
Our Identity: World leaders in human immunology
Through our Centers of Discovery, we conduct fundamental, translational and clinical research. This means we use research in the lab to answer fundamental questions about immune system cells and processes. We take problems doctors see in the clinic — like therapies that don't work for some patients and unwanted side effects — back to the lab, aiming to find life-changing answers. Through one of the nation’s most robust repositories of human samples , we closely examine the cells and tissues involved in immune system processes. If there’s no tool to find what we’re looking for, we’ll build one. We ask new and different questions. And we use progress against one immune system disease to make progress against them all.
