Who We Are
A non-profit research foundation working across molecular biology, biotechnology, diagnostics and public health — and equally concerned with whether the results reach the people who need them.
A research centre defined by its second half
The Center for Health Innovation and Biotechnology was established as a non-profit research foundation. Our mandate covers scientific research in molecular biology, biotechnology, diagnostics and public health, including translational and clinical research — work carried out in the public interest, for the advancement of knowledge and the improvement of healthcare outcomes.
Plenty of institutions do the first half of that well. What shapes this Center is the second half. A diagnostic method that works in a laboratory but costs more than a family earns in a month has not improved a healthcare outcome; it has only demonstrated that an improvement is possible. So affordability and accessibility sit alongside scientific rigour as design constraints on the work itself, not as an afterthought once the science is finished.
That principle is written into our founding objectives, which commit us to developing biotechnological products, biomaterials and diagnostic systems with a focus on innovation, affordability and accessibility. It also shapes how we operate: subsidised testing for patients who could not otherwise access it, outreach that travels to communities rather than waiting for them, and findings published and shared on a non-profit basis.
Four commitments that shape the work
Non-profit basis
Scientific rigour
Affordability by design
Collaboration
Why this work matters here
Diagnostic and research capacity in Pakistan is unevenly distributed. Advanced laboratories cluster in a small number of major cities. For much of the population, the barrier to a diagnosis is not that the test does not exist — it is distance, cost, or the absence of a laboratory able to run it locally.
The same imbalance affects researchers. Early-career scientists frequently have the ability but not the bench space, the instrumentation, the supervision, or the funded time to develop it. Capacity that is never built is capacity permanently lost.
The Center is structured to address both gaps at once: building laboratory and research infrastructure, and building the people who will use it. Those two aims support each other. Facilities without trained researchers stand idle; trained researchers without facilities leave.
Laboratory capacity
Human capacity
Access to testing
Knowledge sharing
Work with the Center
We are actively building our research programmes, partnerships and teams. If any part of this is relevant to your work, we would like to hear from you.