programs
Life sciences research division that funds and runs high-impact fundamental scientific challenges that test new models for how science is conducted.
Centralized operational and financial support for Neuro-AI, Science, and Strategic Investments. The Foundation also leads our Residency Program, supports Fellows, explores new opportunities, and drives ecosystem-supporting efforts.
We want to help address these gaps by seeding and supporting mission-driven, open projects that can catalyze further private and public sector advancements. We target creative, high-agency scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs who are passionate about reducing the barriers to progress within and across domains.
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Resources

Inside baseball: The founder’s guide to funding health and science organizations

Successful fundraising isn’t just about logic; it’s about trust, your vision and your ability to manage the process

Program Update

Astera Partnering with the National Science Foundation to Support Open Science

Today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a partnership with the Astera Institute related to the first round of investment in building a national network of automated laboratory infrastructure, known as the Programmable Cloud Laboratories (PCL) Test Bed Initiative. The NSF will spend $380 million spread across 20 awardees to advance AI and automated instrumentation […]

Program Update

What Scientists Said: Results from Astera’s First Essay Competition

Astera recently hosted its first essay competition, focused around metascience. This competition was always more about starting a conversation than finding a bunch of perfect solutions. We wanted to hear from working researchers, not policy experts or administrators, about the structural problems they actually run into, described concretely enough that someone could do something about […]

by type
Perspectives

The Data Problem Killing Drug Discovery

Pat Walters | Chief Scientist, OpenADMET

Perspectives

Spinning a new future with programmable fibers

Proteins are the programmable manufacturing material of the future.

Perspectives

Mapping the path to one cent electricity

A new Astera Resident investigates not just how transformative fusion could be, but what would have to be true to get there.

Perspectives

From systems operators to systems architects

Going up a level from data generation to think about the data systems we design and embed

Perspectives

Understanding intelligence: Simplex views on complex systems

A conversation with Adam Shai and Paul Riechers, co-founders of Simplex

Perspectives

A night sky full of living worlds

A conversation with Astera Resident Edwin Kite on applied planetary science, applied astrobiology, and what it would take to terraform Mars

by date
Program Update

Astera Partnering with the National Science Foundation to Support Open Science

Today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a partnership with the Astera Institute related to the first round of investment in building a national network of automated laboratory infrastructure, known as the Programmable Cloud Laboratories (PCL) Test Bed Initiative. The NSF will spend $380 million spread across 20 awardees to advance AI and automated instrumentation […]

Program Update

What Scientists Said: Results from Astera’s First Essay Competition

Astera recently hosted its first essay competition, focused around metascience. This competition was always more about starting a conversation than finding a bunch of perfect solutions. We wanted to hear from working researchers, not policy experts or administrators, about the structural problems they actually run into, described concretely enough that someone could do something about […]

Perspectives

The Data Problem Killing Drug Discovery

Pat Walters | Chief Scientist, OpenADMET

Program Update

Radial Supports The Deliverome Project

Building the missing data layer for precision medicine delivery

Perspectives

Spinning a new future with programmable fibers

Proteins are the programmable manufacturing material of the future.

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Seemay Chou
Co-Founder & President – Foundation
Seemay is a scientist, co-founder and CEO at Arcadia Science, chairperson of The Navigation Fund, and forever-Texan at heart. She received a PhD in Molecular Cell Biology from UC Berkeley and was previously a Pew Scholar and an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UC San Francisco.
Full bio
Jed McCaleb
Co-Founder & CEO – Neuro & AGI
Jed McCaleb is the founder of the Astera Institute. His focus is on accelerating progress, expanding potential, and increasing net happiness. He is also co-founder and Chief Architect of the Stellar Development Foundation, the organization that maintains the open-source Stellar Network and founder of Vast, the organization that is building the first commercial space station.
Full bio
Dakota Gruener
Studying sunlight reflection to limit climate impact
Full bio
Chongxi Lai
Building brain-like models
Full bio