Arc Institute

Arc Institute (full name: Arc Research Institute) is an independent nonprofit biomedical research organization founded in 2021 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California (Stanford Research Park). It was co-founded by Silvana Konermann (biochemistry professor at Stanford University and inaugural executive director), Patrick Hsu (bioengineering professor at UC Berkeley) and Patrick Collison (CEO of Stripe). Arc operates in partnership with three San Francisco Bay Area universities: Stanford, UC Berkeley and UCSF. Its stated mission is to accelerate scientific progress, understand the root causes of complex diseases, and narrow the gap between discoveries and impact on patients. Its funding model provides flexible support for high-risk, high-reward science, modeled after the Broad Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, and includes Core Investigators, Innovation Investigators and Ignite Awards. The institute runs technology development centers focused on machine learning, genome engineering, disease models and multiomics. Arc is known for its Evo family of AI models for biology and for a bridge-RNA-based genetic engineering method.