June 5, 2025

i-Cubed Hosts Innovation Spotlight Featuring Duke-born Startup Inquisite

At i-Cubed’s second Innovation Spotlight, held June 3 at the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), Duke faculty founders Jon Reifschneider and Pramod Singh introduced Inquisite, an AI-powered platform built to streamline life sciences research and development.

Built on a custom knowledge graph that pulls from scientific literature, clinical trials, patents, and more, Inquisite uses agentic AI to automate and enhance complex research workflows such as literature reviews, evidence synthesis, grant writing, and continuous research monitoring. The platform offers domain-specific intelligence and context awareness that surpasses the capabilities of other large language models.

“We built Inquisite to reflect how researchers actually think – linking evidence, context, and intent across a constantly evolving knowledge base,” said Singh. “It’s not just about generating answers; it’s about accelerating discovery with the rigor science demands.”

“The need for innovation in how we conduct and support research has never been greater,” said i-Cubed Operations Director Donna Parker. “Tools like Inquisite help research teams move faster, and with more clarity and confidence.”

Reifschneider demonstrated two of Inqusite’s flagship assistants:

• The Research Assistant, which helps users search, screen, and synthesize research literature with full transparency, citing sources down to the sentence level.
• The Grants Assistant, which identifies relevant funding opportunities and builds application templates with AI-powered writing support.

Attendees from across DCRI, Duke, and the broader clinical research and startup communities gathered in person at the Durham Centre for the event. During the live Q&A, attendees asked about Inquisite’s technical capabilities, intended user base, efficacy, and approach to responsible AI use.

“The i-Cubed Innovation Spotlight is an excellent opportunity to bring together clinical researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and others to collaborate in tackling one of the greatest challenges of our generation – how to decrease the time and cost to bring new life-saving therapeutics to market while ensuring safety and efficacy,” said Reifschneider.  “We are proud to engage with such forward-thinking organizations in this effort.”

i-Cubed is currently working with Inquisite to help the team identify early adopters and use cases in clinical trial research organizations. Inquisite is available as a subscription-based service and is actively gathering feedback from researchers to refine and expand its capabilities, including agents for trial design and data analysis. Inquisite is structured as a public benefit corporation to reflect its dual mission: advancing research and doing so responsibly.

To learn more, watch the full recording of the session here or visit Inquisite.ai.

About i-Cubed 
i-Cubed™ is the center for clinical research innovation, powered by the unique expertise and resources of the Duke Clinical Research Institute. The center supports individuals, teams, and organizations in turning their ideas into tools, technologies, and processes that transform how clinical research is done — for the benefit of people everywhere. 

The Innovation Spotlight is an event series hosted by i-Cubed designed to showcase early-stage startups, tools, technologies, and ideas that are actively transforming clinical research. 

Contact: icubedcenter@duke.edu