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, the name was changed to Issaquah Health Research Institute, was to create an environment where the best and brightest scientists from around the world could come together to combat deadly parasitic diseases.