Johns Hopkins University

Haystack Oncology was founded on intellectual property licensed from JHU. The company focuses on highly sensitive liquid biopsies to detect minimal residual disease in cancer patients. Haystack raised $66 million in venture funding before being acquired by Quest Diagnostics for $300 million in 2023. The technologies licensed by Haystack were supported by funding from the NIH and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Infinity Bio also grew out of fundamental scientific research conducted at JHU that was supported and funded by the NIH. The company develops innovative solutions for cell and gene therapy workflows. It has raised $4 million in venture funding and established a lab in downtown Baltimore to help support the city’s biotech innovation.

Haystack Oncology reflects a cluster of early cancer detection ventures–including Thrive Earlier Detection, Personal Genome Diagnostics, and Delfi Diagnostics–that emerged from the same pool of JHU researchers. Collectively, these companies aim to detect cancer earlier using liquid biopsy techniques and have collectively raised over $1 billion in venture capital.

Haystack Oncology’s 46 fulltime staff are now employed at Quest Diagnostics and continue to contribute to the company’s broader portfolio.

Infinity Bio employs 15 full-time staff and has catalyzed biotech development in Baltimore through its local lab space.

Cancer diagnostics is one of many clusters within JHU’s life sciences ecosystem. While Haystack Oncology exemplifies the cancer diagnostics cluster, infinity Bio highlights the diversity of JHU-supported ventures that drive innovation across fields of biomedical science.

Nearly 87% of Johns Hopkins R&D funding comes from federal sources, enabling groundbreaking projects across diverse fields, such as human genetics and artificial intelligence. These federal investments in research help Johns Hopkins University strengthen its economic impact across the Baltimore region by driving innovation, creating jobs and attracting substantial private funding.

In 2022, Johns Hopkins and its affiliates directly and indirectly accounted for more than 93,643 jobs in Maryland alone. The university’s activities generated nearly $15.1 billion in total economic impact, including direct employment, as well as indirect effects through purchasing, construction, and visitor spending.