A new $25 million institute at the University of Pittsburgh is aiming to bring space discoveries down to Earth, and fuel new local startups along the way.
“Space is not just a destination. It is one of the most powerful laboratories we have.”
Ashok Trivedi, entrepreneur
With majority funding from entrepreneur Ashok Trivedi, the Trivedi Institute for Space and Global Biomedicine will conduct research in the hostile environment of space to create better human health outcomes on Earth. Trivedi — whose IT company iGATE was acquired for about $4 billion in 2015 — said a few ideas for spinout companies are already in the works.
“The institute will probably play a very big role in seeding new life sciences and space-adjacent startups in Pittsburgh,” Trivedi told Technical.ly. “Some of the founding scientific team members already have ideas … and within six months to a year you’ll start seeing some new startups emerging.”
The institute will be led by Kate Rubins, who joined Pitt as a professor in October after a 16-year career as a NASA astronaut.
Rubins spent a total of 900 days in space and was the first person to sequence DNA off-Earth. Her work includes multiple investigations in genomics and human health under extreme conditions.
“Technologies developed for use in the severely resource-constrained circumstances of space travel can be repurposed for use in patients on Earth,” Rubins said. “These approaches are particularly powerful in settings with limited infrastructure, including disaster response, rural medicine, military operations and humanitarian missions.”
Outer space works as a testing ground because microgravity and radiation can accelerate things like cell growth and disease progression to potentially shorten the timeline for major discoveries, Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and the John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.
For example, the Connecticut-based company Encapsulate uses the microgravity environment of space to test cancer drugs on rare types of tumors. While the research could be done on Earth, tumor cells behave differently in a lab versus the human body because of gravity, so space can solve that inconsistency.
“Space is not just a destination,” Trivedi said. “It is one of the most powerful laboratories we have.”
A new place for spinouts at Pitt
Space medicine and biotech advancements have traditionally come from Florida or Texas, but the new investment aims to help Pittsburgh stand out.
The region has an opportunity to be the site of the next wave of innovation because of the strong biotech and entrepreneurial scene, according to Chris Mason, a professor at Pitt, a serial entrepreneur and one of the leaders of the institute.
Along with conducting research in space that can be translated into biotech advancement, “we also want this to really be the anchor for an ecosystem across the Northeast, across the world, and someday other worlds,” Mason said at a press conference Thursday.
There are currently plans for fellowship programs and opportunities to develop research into IP, he added, which would add to the university’s existing startup pipeline.
Pitt’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship disclosed a record-breaking 444 inventions in 2025, which led to 15 new startups spinning out from the university last year, according to Mike Yeomans, the office’s media relations manager.
“The Trivedi Institute is a next logical step in our longtime progression as a worldwide leader in biomedical research,” Shekhar said in a prepared statement.
The institute is already working with other universities like Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to build a “training ecosystem” for the next generation of scientists, clinicians and entrepreneurs, according to the announcement.
“We see tremendous opportunity to leverage our complementary strengths in AI, computation and technology innovation to help drive new biological insight and medical innovation,” Theresa Mayer, CMU vice president for research, said in the announcement.
Plugging into the biotech scene
While Pittsburgh’s aerospace startup footprint is relatively small, the city has a well-established life sciences ecosystem.
The scene’s major anchors are Pitt and UPMC, which offer opportunities for research and spinout potential. Meetup groups like BioBreakfast and accelerator programs like LifeX help to further startup development in the region.
Biotech startups are among the region’s top recipients of venture capital.
Last quarter, for example, Peptilogics, a biotech company that uses machine learning to accelerate drug discovery, was among the top 10 deals, raising $78 million. Before that, another biotech firm, Noveome Biotherapeutics, was among the top deals in Q2 with a $51 million raise.
Ultimately, Trivedi said he hopes his investment can build on Pitt’s legacy as a place for history-altering research that shapes modern human health, like the development of the polio vaccine or advancements in organ transplants.
“I hope this will inspire other scientific research establishments in Pittsburgh to do very innovative research work,” Trivedi said, “and enhance Pittsburgh’s biotech ecosystem.”
