No Boundaries. Launched in 2020 during the height of the pandemic, Project BENTO set out to reduce the burden of clinical trial participation for autoimmune patients in the medical research community of the Lupus Research Alliance (LRA). With patients and investigators working side-by-side, Biomedical Equity for Next-Generation Trials and Outcomes (”BENTO”) was structured as a code-named project to develop a technology system that would go beyond telehealth and tackle fundamental pain points that limited accessibility, inclusiveness and enrollment in Pharma-sponsored trials. The North American translational science accelerator we founded in 2017 — the Lupus Clinical Investigators Network (LuCIN) — comprised then of 57 academic medical centers (sites), 200 clinical investigators, over 25,000 autoimmune patients, and regulators — gave us an unmatched proving ground for conducting real world pilots and clinical studies. Today, Bento Biology Platforms is bringing the clinical trial to patient doorsteps and community clinics, empowering participants with BENTO’s signature Out-of-the-Box-Experience (OOBE) of self-service biospecimen collection tools and sample-to-lab logistics.