In November 2000, the Stowers Institute opened its doors in Kansas City thanks to the philanthropy of our founders, Jim and Virginia Stowers. They bestowed us with an ambitious and selfless mission — to understand how life works at its most foundational level for the betterment of humanity.
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A timeline of the Stowers Institute25 Years of Discovery, Innovation, and Hope
Step into the moments that brought the Stowers Institute from vision to reality—short videos that introduce the people, questions, and discoveries that have propelled the Institute to where it is today. Go behind the scenes of the founding of the Institute, what we’re learning, and what’s to come.
Many thought creating a prominent scientific center in the Midwest was impossible. The Stowers’ gambled despite skepticism — a grand experiment that worked.
The Stowers’ extraordinary and visionary gift resonates in the spirit of the Institute, emboldening fearless science and supporting state-of-the-art technologies and the pioneering scientists leading our Investigator Labs and Technology Centers.
"The discoveries that will spring from knowledge yet unimagined will reshape our understanding of life in ways both transformative and extraordinary." - Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Stowers Institute President and Chief Scientific Officer
Learn more about key discoveries from the past 25 years that have not only influenced our understanding of fundamental biology, but have also improved our knowledge of human health and disease.
#Stowers25
Stowers science has thrived and continues to do so in large part due to the generosity and vision of our founders, Jim and Virginia Stowers. Not only did they endow the majority of their fortune toward building a world-class biomedical research institution, Jim and Virginia ensured that their gift would endure far into the future.
The Stowers’ created a unique funding model where more than 40% of annual dividends from American Century Investments, the global asset management firm Jim founded in 1958, directly support the Stowers Institute.
The Stowers Institute is dedicated to the next 25 years of discovery, innovation, and hope. In the words of our founders, “The best is yet to be.”
To commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Stowers Institute in Kansas City, use the hashtags #Stowers25 and #StowersStories on social media. Explore what makes the Stowers Institute so unique by clicking the link below.
Curiosity-driven foundational biological research at the Stowers Institute is rooted in its potential for profound impact on human health. Our scientists ask big questions with far-reaching effects, propelling our understanding of how to alleviate, cure, or prevent disease — spanning conditions such as cancer, infertility, neurodegenerative disease, developmental disorders, aging, and more.
Training new generations of scientists is essential for the future of science. In 2012, the first class of students entered the Graduate School of the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. Just nine years after its founding, the Graduate School earned accreditation and continues to grow into an internationally recognized center of excellence in education. Additional educational opportunities include our acclaimed postdoctoral program, our annual Summer Scholars Program, and our Computational Biology Scholars Program.
Dive into science by the sea at our year-round satellite lab at the world-renowned Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Self-sustaining science and prospering with purpose unite the Stowers Institute and American Century Investments. Learn more about how the Stowers Institute and ACI are securing scientific discovery, innovation and hope.
At the Stowers Institute, we explore fundamental processes of biology in our collective quest to uncover the secrets of life, pushing the boundaries of biological knowledge in areas such as development, regeneration, genetics, neuroscience, and more.
Over the last 25 years, Stowers Technology Centers have matured from providing service and instrumentation support to seamlessly integrating with our Investigator Labs to help ask and answer profound biological questions.
From zebrafish and fruit flies, yeast and bacteria, plants and planarian flatworms, sea anemones and coral, to mice, killifish, apple snails, and more, a broad range of research organisms reside at the Institute.
News
14 June 2021
Longtime Kansas Citian, Virginia Glascock Stowers—wife of the late James “Jim” E. Stowers Jr., mother of three daughters and one son, nurse, and co-founder of the research institute that bears the family name—died at her home in Kansas City, MO, on June 5, 2021. She was 91.
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News
27 May 2022
The Stowers Institute puts the focus on the work, not finding money, and has built local life sciences culture in the process.
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News
01 November 2021
At the Stowers Institute, the mission set forth by founders Jim and Virginia Stowers continues to inspire employees and shape growth.
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News
26 October 2023
By coaxing out the secrets underlying (un)ordinary biological feats of research organisms—like whole-body regeneration in the case of planarian flatworms—Stowers scientists are investigating how life works at its most fundamental level to ultimately understand human health and find treatments for diseases.
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