New York Structural Biology Center Inc
Public records show a registered, tax-exempt organization in good standing.
What it says it does
THE NYSBC MISSION IS TO PROVIDE ADVANCED RESEARCH RESOURCES TO THE FACULTY OF ITS PARTICIPATING MEMBER INSTITUTIONS AND RESEARCHERS FROM THE NATIONAL COMMUNITY IN THREE KEY AREAS OF STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY: NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY; CRYOELECTRON MICROSCOPY; AND X-RAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHY.
- Income
- $20.0 million
- Spending
- $28.5 million
- Spent on programs
- 84%
- Reserves
- 5.9 months of spending
- Largest source of income
- government grants, 69%
- Employees
- 85
- Volunteers
- 17
- Highest pay
- $685,846, executive director
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Financial health
Fair: 55 out of 100. Higher than 26% of charities in its peer group (science, $10m to $100m).
Reserves
20 of 35Spendable reserves would cover 5.9 months of spending.
Debt
20 of 20It owes 8% of what it owns.
Living within its means
0 of 15Spending exceeded income by 43% of income.
Income trend
0 of 15Income fell 47% on the year before.
Spending floor
15 of 1584% of spending went to programs and raising each dollar of donations cost 0 cents.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Governance
Strong: 90 out of 100. Higher than 25% of charities in its peer group (science, $10m to $100m).
Independent board
25 of 2517 of 17 voting board members are independent.
Conflict of interest policy
15 of 15Has a written conflict of interest policy.
Whistleblower policy
8 of 8Has a written whistleblower policy.
Record keeping policy
7 of 7Has a written policy on keeping and destroying records.
Board minutes
5 of 5Keeps minutes of board meetings.
Board sees the tax return
0 of 10Did not give the board a copy of this return before filing it.
Pay set independently
5 of 5Sets its chief executive's pay through independent review and comparison.
Independent check of accounts
15 of 15Its accounts were audited by an independent accountant.
No reported misuse
10 of 10Reports no diversion of assets, excess benefits or loans to insiders.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Impact evidence
Describes programs. Its tax return describes what it does but we have found no measurable results in it.
Programs described in its return (4)
- $15.7 million spent. RESEARCH CONDUCTED AT THE SIMONS ELECTRON MICROSCOPY CENTER (SEMC) IS AIMED AT DETERMINING THE STRUCTURE OF MACROMOLECULES TO HELP UNDERSTAND THEIR FUNCTION. AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2024, THE FACILITY HAD 15 TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPES, 3 DUAL-BEAM FOCUSED ION BEAM SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPES, AS WELL AS ANCILLARY EQUIPMENT FOR CRYOEM SAMPLE PREPARATION. SEMC SERVES USERS FROM NYSBC'S NINE MEMBER INSTITUTIONS AS WELL AS USERS FROM THE NATIONAL COMMUNITY THROUGH NIH-FUNDED CENTERS (NATIONAL CENTER FOR CRYOEM ACCESS AND TRAINING AND NATIONAL CENTER FOR IN-SITU TOMOGRAPHIC ULTRAMICROSCOPY). SEMC DEVELOPS OPEN-SOURCE TECHNOLOGIES TO ACCELERATE CRYOEM WORKFLOWS FROM SAMPLE PREPARATION TO STRUCTURE DETERMINATION THROUGH ITS SIMONS FOUNDATION INITIATIVES (SIMONS RESOURCE FOR AUTOMATED MOLECULAR MICROSCOPY AND SIMONS MACHINE LEARNING CENTER). SEMC ALSO PROVIDES EXTENSIVE TRAINING TO MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY THROUGH WORKSHOPS, COURSES, AND OTHER TRAINING SESSIONS. IN SEVERAL PROJECTS, SEMC STAFF HAS BEEN INVOLVED EXTENSIVELY AS COLLABORATORS DEVELOPING NEW MACHINE LEARNING ALGORITHMS AND SOFTWARE FOR AUTOMATING CRYOEM, AND CONTRIBUTING TO SOLVING THE STRUCTURES OF: CRISPR-CAS COMPLEXES, ION CHANNELS, GPCRS, AND MANY DRUG TARGETS, E.G., AGAINST DISEASES LIKE COVID-19. OVER 200 SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES ACKNOWLEDGED SEMC SUPPORT IN 2024.
- $3.1 million spent. NYSBC PROVIDES ACCESS TO HIGH-FIELD NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE (NMR) SPECTROSCOPY TO FACULTY FROM ITS NINE MEMBER INSTITUTIONS. THE NMR FACILITY INSTRUMENTATION INCLUDES NINE NMR SPECTROMETERS THAT GENERALLY OPERATE 24 HRS/DAY, 7 DAYS/WEEK. IN 2024, EACH SPECTROMETER WAS AVAILABLE, ON AVERAGE, 345 DAYS. THESE RESOURCES ALLOW RESEARCHERS TO DETERMINE THE STRUCTURE OF PROTEINS IN SOLUTION AND IN SOLID STATE ATOMIC RESOLUTION, DATA THAT PROVIDES INSIGHT INTO THE FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES OF THE PROTEINS. IN 2024, GROUP MEMBERS FROM THE LABORATORIES OF 17 AFFILIATED PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS MADE USE OF THESE INSTRUMENTS. DATA COLLECTED WITH THESE INSTRUMENTS PRODUCED 18 PUBLICATIONS IN EMINENT SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. THE CENTER OPERATES THE CENTER ON MOLECULAR DYNAMICS BY COMD/NMR, A BIOMEDICAL TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH RESOURCE SUPPORTED BY U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH GRANTS RM1 GM145397 AND LOCATED AT NYSBC. THE MISSION OF COMD-NMR IS TO MAKE AVAILABLE TO THE BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH COMMUNITY ADVANCED NMR SPECTROSCOPIC AND COMPUTATIONAL METHODS FOR CHARACTERIZING PROTEIN AND NUCLEIC ACID CONFORMATIONAL DYNAMICS IN BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES.
- $1.4 million spent. NYSBC HAS MAINTAINED X-RAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHY RESOURCES AT BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY (BNL) SINCE 2003. NYSBC HAS DEVELOPED AND OPERATES BEAMLINE 19ID-NYX AT THE NATIONAL SYNCHROTRON LIGHT SOURCE II (NSLS-II). NYX PROVIDES THE NYSBC MEMBER INSTITUTIONS AND ASSOCIATED INVESTIGATORS WITH ACCESS TO SYNCHROTRON RADIATION AND INSTRUMENTATION NECESSARY FOR COLLECTING CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC DATA ON BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES. NYX HAS PERFORMED TECHNICAL AND SCIENTIFIC COMMISSIONING AND STARTED USER OPERATIONS IN THE SPRING OF 2019. THE PRIMARY ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE BEAMLINE PROGRAM FOR 2024 WERE UPGRADES TO AUTOMATION AND SOFTWARE AND SUPPORTING USER EXPERIMENTS.
- $3.6 million spent. SPECIAL PROJECTS GROUP: THE SPECIAL PROJECTS GROUP AT NYSBC IS A TEAM OF EXPERT SCIENTISTS THAT PERFORMS FEE-FOR-SERVICE PROTEIN STRUCTURE DETERMINATION AND PROTEIN PRODUCTION SERVICES FOR EXTERNAL CLIENTS. IN ADDITION, THEY ALSO RECEIVE FUNDING THROUGH COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS WITH ACADEMIC AND GOVERNMENT LABORATORIES. THEY ENTERED THE SECOND YEAR OF A FIVE-YEAR NIAID CONTRACT USING STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY TO INVESTIGATE THE ETIOLOGIC AGENT FOR LYME DISEASE, BORRELIELLA BURGDORFERI, TO DESIGN A VACCINE OR DISCOVER ANTIBODY THERAPEUTICS AGAINST LYME DISEASE. THEY ALSO CONTINUED TO PARTICIPATE IN STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY RESEARCH PROJECTS ENTERING THE SECOND YEAR OF A FIVE-YEAR NIAID GRANT WITH COLLABORATORS AT RUTGERS UNIVERSITY INVESTIGATING RICIN AND SHIGA TOXINS TO RATIONALLY DESIGN BETTER INHIBITORS AGAINST THESE TWO TOXINS. IN ADDITION, THE TEAM HAS INITIATED NIH-FUNDED WORK IN A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT WITH RESEARCHERS AT VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY THAT INVOLVES STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF A CONSERVED STREPTOCOCCAL MEMBRANE PROTEIN THAT AFFECTS MANGANESE UTILIZATION.RNA LAB: THE RNA RESEARCH CONDUCTED AT NYSBC FOCUSES ON UNDERSTANDING HOW THE 3-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURES OF RNA FORM AND HOW THIS STRUCTURE, CONFORMATIONAL DYNAMICS, AND INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER MOLECULES ENABLE DIVERSE BIOLOGICAL FUNCTION. THIS NIH-FUNDED EFFORT IS PRIMARILY CENTERED ON UNDERSTANDING RNAS OF VIRAL ORIGIN, WITH PARTICULAR INTEREST IN HOW THESE VIRAL RNAS INTERACT WITH THE CELLULAR MACHINERY AND MANIPULATE THAT MACHINERY. THE RNA GROUP CONSISTS OF RESEARCHERS AT SEVERAL LEVELS OF TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE, WHO EMPLOY AND INTEGRATE BIOCHEMICAL, BIOPHYSICAL, STRUCTURAL, AND BIOINFORMATIC APPROACHES. THIS RESEARCH PROGRAM IS WORLD RESPECTED AND FREQUENTLY PUBLISHES IN THE HIGHEST IMPACT JOURNALS.
Source: Form 990 for the year ending December 31, 2024, filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Rating method 2026.2. How we rate
Legitimacy checks
Is it registered with the IRS? Passed.
Listed in the IRS master file of tax-exempt organizations as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Has the IRS revoked its tax-exempt status? Passed.
Not on the IRS automatic revocation list.
Source: Automatic revocation of exemption list, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 30, 2026.
Are donations tax-deductible? Passed.
On the IRS list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Source: Publication 78 data: organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 10, 2026.
Is it keeping up with its IRS filings? Passed.
Most recent return on file covers the year ending December 2024.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
How long has it been tax-exempt? Passed.
Recognized by the IRS since July 1999.
Source: Exempt Organizations Business Master File, Internal Revenue Service, file dated September 7, 2026.
Is it in good standing with state regulators? Passed.
Not on California's list of charities barred from soliciting. Other states are not yet checked.
Source: May Not Operate or Solicit for Charitable Purposes list, California Attorney General, Registry of Charities and Fundraisers, file dated October 7, 2026.
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