# NIH Awards Sinopia $2.5M AI Grant

On October 20, 2026, the National Institutes of Health awarded Sinopia Biosciences a **$2.5 million SBIR Phase II grant** (R44GM154585) to develop and validate an AI-powered metabolomics foundation model through its LEADS platform. The research will integrate data across experimental platforms to support drug discovery; this is a funded R&D award, not an open solicitation. The award highlights NIH investment in AI-enabled biomedical research and may inform future opportunities for firms and research organizations working in metabolomics and preclinical drug discovery.

- **Why this matters:** The award signals federal support for combining AI and metabolomics to advance drug-discovery research, relevant to contractors and research organizations developing biomedical data and modeling capabilities.
- The funding is already awarded, so businesses cannot compete for this specific grant; organizations with related capabilities can assess their fit for future NIH SBIR opportunities in AI, metabolomics, and preclinical drug discovery.
- The project is associated with the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and is based at JLABS San Diego in California.

**Jurisdictions:** federal
**Industries:** Healthcare, Information Technology
**Topics:** Artificial Intelligence, Grants & Funding
**Published:** October 20, 2026

### Government Entities
- National Institutes of Health (NIH)
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)

### Vendors
- Sinopia Biosciences, Inc. (SBIR Phase II grant recipient)

### Key Quotes
> The goal is not simply to combine more data, but to build a model that can learn shared biological patterns across diverse metabolomics datasets and use that knowledge to interpret new experiments, identify common mechanisms, and uncover new opportunities for drug discovery.
> — Bernard Bloem, Ph.D., Principal Investigator

### Sources
- [Sinopia Biosciences Secures $2.5 Million NIH Grant to Advance Metabolomics Foundation Model for Drug Discovery - BioSpace](https://www.biospace.com/press-releases/sinopia-biosciences-secures-2-5-million-nih-grant-to-advance-metabolomics-foundation-model-for-drug-discovery) - BioSpace