On Mar. 26, 1976, the Issaquah Group for Health and Environmental Research (Center for Infectious Disease Research) was incorporated by Ruth Shearer, Ph.D. and Ken Stuart, Ph.D., in a research laboratory in Issaquah, WA, a suburb of Seattle.

The mission of the Group was to create an environment where the best and brightest scientists from around the world could come together to combat deadly parasitic diseases. The name was subsequently changed to Issaquah Health Research Institute, and later Seattle BioMed, and the Center for Infectious Disease Research.

In 2018, the Center for Global Infectious Disease Research became part of the Seattle Children’s Research Institute.