eCLOSE Institute

eCLOSE Institute is a U.S.-based nonprofit biomedical research and STEM education organization that uses a citizen-science model to involve students and teachers in ongoing disease research. Its programs center on classroom, summer, and virtual-hybrid research experiences in which participants use Drosophila melanogaster and home or classroom lab kits to study how diet and environmental factors influence diseases such as cancer and diabetes. The organization emphasizes workforce diversity, research access, and culturally relevant science education, particularly for students historically marginalized from research opportunities. Rather than operating as a traditional drug-development biotech, eCLOSE functions as a research-and-training platform that generates educational and biological data for professional research projects and publications.