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AUGUST 2024
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IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
- From the Cancer Consortium
- University of Vermont Cancer Center Emerging EAB Experience Program
- Consortium Kudos
- In the Spotlight
- Current Funding Opportunities
- Save the Date - Upcoming Events
- From the Office of Education & Training
- From the Consortium Shared Resources
- Consortium Leadership Spotlight: Dr. Myron Evans
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FROM THE CANCER CONSORTIUM
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University of Vermont Cancer Center Emerging EAB Experience Program
The UVM Cancer Center is recruiting emerging leaders to join our external advisory board (EAB) for the 2024 review cycle.
Through this experience, early career faculty will learn about the EAB process and be prepared to enter into leadership opportunities related to cancer centers and cancer research in the future.
This opportunity is designed for future leaders from groups underrepresented in biomedical sciences and in cancer center leadership positions across the country. The deadline to apply is September 1st, 2024.
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Consortium Kudos
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Sita Kugel, who was recently spotlighted in an interview with the National Cancer Institute! You can read her interview here.
Dr. Kugel is a member of the Consortium's Cancer Basic Biology program.
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In the Spotlight
The following interinstitutional collaborations by Cancer Consortium members were featured in the most recent edition of Fred Hutch's Science Spotlight:
- "Timing of ART administration for HIV is more important than we thought" involved collaborative work by Drs. James Mullins (Pathogen Associated Malignancies) and Lisa Frenkel (Pathogen Associated Malignancies).
- "FBXO42 prevents mitotic calamity in glioblastoma stem-like cells" featured collaborative work by Drs. Patrick Paddison (Cancer Basic Biology) and James Olson (Cancer Basic Biology).
- "Mapping novel 'beacons' for targeted therapy in prostate cancer" featured collaborative work by Drs. Michael Haffner (Prostate Cancer), Peter Nelson (Prostate Cancer), Michael Schweizer (Prostate Cancer), Colm Morrissey (Prostate Cancer), Eva Corey (Prostate Cancer), Gavin Ha (Biostatistics & Computational Biology), Jessica Hawley (Prostate Cancer), Robert Montgomery (Prostate Cancer), Evan Yu (Prostate Cancer), Heather Cheng (Prostate Cancer), and Lawrence True (Prostate Cancer)
- "Detecting, detecting! A qPCR assay to detect WPRE sequences in CAR-T and TCR-T cells" featured collaborative work by Drs. Marie Bleakley (Cancer Immunology), Aude Chapuis (Cancer Immunology), Alexandre Hirayama (Cancer Immunology), David Maloney (Cancer Immunology), Jerald Radich (Hematologic Malignancies), Jennifer Specht (Breast & Ovary Cancers), Cameron Turtle (former member; Cancer Immunology), and Cecilia Yeung (Hematologic Malignancies).
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CURRENT FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
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Administrative Supplements to Support Cancer Disparity Collaborative Research (Clinical Trial Optional)
The purpose of this NOFO is to promote new cancer disparities research among investigators who do not normally conduct it and to encourage the partnership of experienced cancer research investigators with cancer disparities-focused researchers that is intended to accelerate and strengthen multi-disciplinary cancer disparities research in wide ranging areas. Proposed collaborations should focus on achieving research objectives that by necessity rely on diverse and complementary expertise, technical capabilities, and resource sets. Importantly, the supplemental proposal is required to be within the scope of the parent award and should expand the original aims to include a cancer disparity component and possible inclusion of international comparator cohorts.
Upcoming Application Receipt Due Dates: September 6th, 2024; January 23rd, 2025
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Funding Opportunities from the Translational Research Program in Colorectal Cancer Disparities (TRPCD)
1) Career Enhancement Program
The purpose of TRPCD‘s Career Enhancement Program (CEP) is to support early career investigators interested in pursuing cancer disparities research as well as associate professors without a prior track record in cancer disparities research to become engaged in this field. Individuals from a broad range of disciplines, including clinical, basic, translational, and population sciences, are encouraged to apply. Cornerstones of our program include identifying and providing multi-disciplinary mentors, assigning sponsors, and providing opportunities for leadership development as appropriate.
Eligibility:
- Fellows in their final year of clinical or post-doctoral fellowship who will continue on to an independent faculty appointment at one of the TRPCD participating institutions
- Assistant professors (or equivalent), with or without prior experience in cancer disparities research
- Associate professors (or equivalent), with no prior experience in translational cancer disparities research but with a strong interest in engaging in this field
Grant Size/Duration: Awarded amount will be $50,000 direct costs per year for up to two years ($100,000 direct costs over two years). The award period is 09/01/2024–08/31/2025.
Areas of Interest: The CEP is interested in translational cancer disparities research proposals across a range of fields, including molecular biology, epidemiology (primary and secondary prevention), risk prediction, early detection, prognosis, therapeutics, and survivorship.
2) Developmental Research Program
The purpose of the Developmental Research Program (DRP) for the TRPCD is to support early-phase projects in the area of translational cancer disparities research related to any cancer type with a well-documented disparity among racial and ethnic populations. The DRP is meant to develop potential future projects to be included in TRPCD SPORE renewal or independent R type of grants. The DRP provides a flexible means of funding basic, clinical, and population sciences research with outstanding translational promise.
Eligibility: Applications are invited from any researcher who is eligible to apply for NIH R01 grants. Investigators new to the field of cancer disparities demonstrating an interest in working in this field, junior faculty with evidence of exceptional talent during post-doctoral residency or fellowship training, and senior faculty with a track record for conducting significant original research are encouraged to apply. Investigators from underrepresented minority groups are encouraged to apply.
Grant Size/Duration: Awarded amount will be $50,000 direct costs per year for up to two years ($100,000 direct costs over two years). The award period is 09/01/2024–08/31/2025.
Areas of Interest: The DRP is interested in translational cancer disparities research proposals across a range of fields, including molecular biology, epidemiology (primary and secondary prevention), risk prediction, early detection, prognosis, therapeutics, and survivorship.
The immediate goal of the DRP is to identify impactful projects with the potential to advance to a SPORE project or R type grant. The ultimate goal of the program is to fund projects that will lead to a reduction in the morbidity and mortality of cancer among underserved populations.
Targeted research areas include, but are not limited to, the following topics as related to cancer disparities:
- Tumoral immune response
- Risk Prediction
- Novel prevention approaches, including dietary interventions
- Biological aging and cancer progression
- Novel biomarkers for early detection in underserved populations
- Genetic and environmental factors that enhance susceptibility
- Factors that contribute to cancer progression or recurrence
- New prognostic or predictive markers
- Novel treatments or therapeutic approaches
- Population, behavioral, or psychosocial studies that address mechanistic aspects of the cancer biology
All proposals must be applicable to health disparities in cancer, but otherwise can cover the full spectrum of basic, population, and clinical research. While pilot projects focusing on early detection are within the scope, those focused on improving cancer screening are outside the scope of this funding announcement.
Submission Details
Applications for both the Career Enhancement Program and the Developmental Research Program are due by 5:00pm on Friday, August 9th. To submit, please email one PDF copy of the complete proposal to trpcd@fredhutch.org.
Questions?
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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» [Ongoing]: IIRC Seminars
Please see below for a list of upcoming seminars hosted by the Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center:
Talk Title: Functional identification and therapeutic targeting of cancer neoantigens
Details: Pelton Auditorium (Fred Hutch Campus) or Zoom ( click here)
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» September 25, 2024: Save the Date for the Beverly Torok-Storb Symposium: A Lifetime of Science and Mentorship
Fred Hutch is pleased to present the Dr. Beverly Torok-Storb Symposium: A Lifetime of Science and Mentorship. The one-day symposium will feature scientific presentations on the advances in hematopoietic stem cell research, as well as highlighting “Dr. Bev’s” extraordinary impact on the future generation of researchers in the field. This one-day event will take place on Wednesday, September 25 th, 2024.
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» September 26-27, 2024: Save the Date for the E. Donnall Thomas Symposium
The 2nd bi-annual E. Donnall Thomas Symposium will be held from September 26-27 th, 2024. This two-day event will feature leading researchers from around the world sharing their current research on improving survival after hematopoietic transplantation, adoptive cell therapy, gene therapy and hybrid therapies.
Dr. E. Donnall Thomas and his colleagues discovered a way to treat advanced leukemia by eradicating malignant white blood cells in the bone marrow using high doses of chemotherapy and radiation, and then replacing them with healthy donor cells. This revolutionary approach was the first definitive and reproducible example of the human immune system’s potential to eliminate cancer, and it earned Thomas a Nobel Prize in 1990. Today, cell-based therapies have become a standard of care for many patients with cancer and other diseases.
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» November 14, 2024: Save the Date for the Joint BOC + CEPC Program Retreat!
Please save the date for a joint retreat hosted by the Consortium's Breast & Ovary Cancers (BOC) and Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention & Control (CEPC) Programs. The retreat will take place from 8:00am-3:00pm on Thursday, November 14th, in the O’Mack Symposium Suite in the Steam Plant Building (Fred Hutch campus).
The theme for this retreat is "Understanding disparities contributing to oncogenesis and cancer outcomes." This is a unique opportunity to learn from leading minds in the field, alongside basic scientists, epidemiologists, and clinicians involved in developing genetic tests for predicting patient outcomes and response to therapy.
We are especially thrilled to announce that our keynote speaker for this year's retreat is the esteemed Professor Melissa Davis from the Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Davis’s pioneering research is leveraging high-throughput genomics technologies to uncover how genetic underpinnings interplay with social factors to drive health disparities. A testament to her original and highly rigorous research program is that her team was just awarded a Cancer Research UK Grand Challenge Award.
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FROM THE OFFICE OF EDUCATION & TRAINING (OET)
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Spread the Word - OET Is Hiring!
The Office of Education & Training is looking for a Program Manager for the Responsible Conduct of Research Programs to join the team. This role develops training activities and tracks compliance to meet federal and Fred Hutch requirements for the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) and Rigor, Reproducible and Transparency (RRT) training. The program manager reports to the Director of the Office of Scientific Career Development and works with the Director in making decisions that affect the current and future success of the program. Click here to view the full job posting and instructions on how to apply.
If you or someone you know might be a good fit for this position, please reach out!
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FROM THE CONSORTIUM SHARED RESOURCES
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Fred Hutch Genomics Shared Resource Offering Cell Line Authentication
The Fred Hutch Genomics and Bioinformatics Shared Resource is now offering a cell line authentication service using the CLA IdentiFiler Plus PCR Amplification Kit (ThermoFisher Scientific P/N A65672) which profiles 16 genomic loci. A growing number of scientific journals as well as NIH now require researchers to authenticate their cell lines using a standard method such as short tandem repeat (STR) profiling. Cell line DNA is amplified using the reagents provided in the kit and the PCR products are then analyzed using our ABI 3730xl Genetic Analyzer. The resulting fragment profiles can then be assigned to alleles using the freely available, online ThermoFisher MSA Software or GeneMapper 6. Resulting allele profiles can then be compared to the profiles in the ATCC or DSMZ databases. Contact genomics@fredhutch.org today for more information and to submit your samples.
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CONSORTIUM LEADERSHIP SPOTLIGHT: DR. MYRON EVANS
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In addition to working as a principal investigator at Seattle Children's, Dr. Myron Evans serves as the Deputy Associate Director of DEI for the Cancer Consortium, where he collaborates with Drs. Chris Li and Yaw Nyame on the Consortium's Plan to Enhance Diversity (PED) component. This month, we sat down with him to talk about his research, his thoughts on DEI in cancer research, his deepest darkest fears, and his love for board games.
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Talk a little bit about your research. What drew you to that specialty?
So my lab is a blend of the all the stuff I’ve done in my science career in probably the worst possible way I could have shoved it all together. I started in undergrad as a developmental biologist. We studied how your pigment cells get to where they’re supposed to be in your body and how you get covered in pigment everywhere. Those same cells are the ones that get mutated when you get melanoma, so it got me sort of interested in cancer, but I was like, “I really like the stem cell stuff, this will be cool, and that’s what I’ll do when I go to grad school.” I went off to Duke and got there and couldn’t find a lab that I really liked, so one of my best friends was in a lab and was like, “Come join the lab, it’s not what you want to do but it will be fun because can hang out every day.” So I started working on breast cancer, to develop therapies for women with a rare form of breast cancer called inflammatory breast cancer. And then, I realized that I still wanted to do the neuroscience stuff – I really liked the stem cell biology – so I jumped back to it when I moved off to St. Jude’s, and worked on that, and then did a second postdoc at St. Jude’s while looking at rhabdomyosarcoma, which is a pediatric soft tissue tumor that kids get.
Then when I started my lab, I was like, “How do I combine all of those things?” What my lab does is really understand the basic mechanisms of neurodevelopment – so how does the brain normally form, and then what things go awry when kids get brain tumors? How do kids actually develop brain tumors? What are the different causes? Can we identify the cells of origin? Which, for us, is really the most important thing if we ever get to a phase of preventative medicine for kids, is figuring out which cells these tumors come from. And then part of that understanding helps us figure out, are those cells still around? Should they be something else? Can we design better therapies instead of using chemo and radiation? That was part of the reason I got interested in pediatric cancer – the first time I went to St. Jude’s, they were telling us how they treat kids with brain tumors and they said, “Yeah, we give them chemo.” And I was like, “Oh yeah, special chemo for kids with brain tumors,” and they said, “Nope, it’s the same chemo that we give adults, we just give them smaller amounts because they’re tiny humans.” And I was like, “But they’re not adults, they’re children and their bodies are different.” We don’t really have anything that’s specific for kids.
Over time I’ve gotten to learn more about that, and I think now the reason I like staying in this specialty is that there are only – don’t quote me on this number – I think it’s seven drugs that have been approved specifically for kids with cancer. And that’s sort of scary, right, in the long run? We give them stuff that’s for adults. I think one of the things I really want to focus on is identifying things that are for kids first, and if they work for adults that’s great, but I want to make sure the kids have something that’s specific to them and will not affect their normal development, which is a huge problem with a lot of the drugs we give them.
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Yeah, giving chemo to kids is scary.
Yeah, it is. When I talk to the clinicians we work with they say, “Yeah, it’s the standard, and it’s going to be really hard one day to get away from that because it does work for a lot of kids.” But especially in the brain tumor world, we look at kids and we follow them for years and all of them have endocrine disorders, they’re all slightly behind their age-matched counterparts. Yeah, we cured your tumor, but did we do something bad in the long run, and can we make that better? And I think we can. We have some projects in the lab that are, you know, the high bar – we never use chemo or radiation again – and some are, can we just make what we already give slightly better, and can we give them significantly less chemo and less radiation?
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That’s wildly impressive – I took one developmental biology class in college and it was so hard.
Mine was only easy because my boss was the teacher, so I was like, “This is great.” She actually made me teach the class halfway through because she got sick and I was like, “I’m IN this class, I’m taking the exam.” She was like, “No, you’re fine.” Everyone else said, “It’s fine, we all know you’re going to pass,” and I was like, “Well, yeah, I mean obviously, but it’s still not fair.”
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You are the Deputy Associate Director of DEI for the Consortium, which is a new component of the CCSG. Can you talk a little bit about what you feel is the biggest need with regard to DEI in cancer research? What about any upcoming initiatives or changes that you’re excited about?
I think the biggest need is the hardest need to fix, which is just that there’s not a lot of representation. When I was interviewing, before the Hutch did their cluster hire and I didn’t know who was coming, I was like, “Oh…it’s me. Let me look around.” There’s a lot of clinicians – there’s a lot of Black and female clinicians, but then when you look at the staff side, and as you go up, it always decreases. Now there’s, what, ten of us total across institutions, maybe a few extras, and that number obviously gets lower and lower as you move up the ranks because people don’t get promoted because they don’t feel a sense of community. And when the cluster hire came up – and we’re not the only place that’s doing it, other institutions are also running these big cluster hires – I think what they all have realized is it’s not really about the total number of people. That’s really helpful, but it’s about bringing them in in a place where they can make a community for themselves. I think that’s been the biggest shift that’s happened in probably the last ten years. Prior to me going up for my job on the faculty market, they would say, “We’re specifically looking for diverse candidates,” and you would get one or two, and it was great, and then it’s like, well now they’re there by themselves and they’re not going to stay. Rates of retention are really low but your rates of getting new people in are great, so you’re patting yourself on the back but really you didn’t do anything in the long run.
I think the coolest stuff that’s really come out of that in the last five or six years – and oddly enough, it happened during the pandemic – was a lot of grad students and postdocs put together what we now call the “Black in X” networks. It was this huge thing on Twitter where grad students were getting together who were like, “We all do cancer research and I’m the only Black or brown student at my institution, but what if I just meet everybody else on Twitter who does cancer research?” and you realize there’s thousands of other people, but it’s just one person or two people at every institution. So they’ve built these networks, and I was just at the Black in Cancer conference a couple months ago, and it was just a room full of like two hundred Black and brown scientists. I remember walking in and I was like, “This would never have happened when I was a grad student” – you know, Twitter wasn’t cool, we were on Facebook and you had to know somebody, you couldn’t find new people like this. It was great science, but I think the coolest part for a lot of the students, and even for me as a faculty member, was being able to make new connections. Now I’ve got all of these friends all over the country, which is great for having that community, but also when I need to pad my CV with a new talk I can literally pick up the phone and be like, “Hey, I’m going to be in Boston, can you schedule me for a talk?” so I can give it and then it’s on my CV as a new thing. So I get to boost my resume as well as build new and better friendships with people.
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In addition to your leadership role as the Deputy Associate Director of DEI for the Consortium you also lead a lab, which is a leadership role. Can you talk about the biggest leadership lesson you’ve learned over the course of your career or since joining Seattle Children’s specifically?
I’ve noticed it throughout my career. I was in really small labs and we were always really tight-knit and it was fun. Like, this is fun, we can be friends, we can hang out, but we do really cool science. And when I started to build my lab I realized, “Wait a minute, that’s actually a thing that I think my bosses were doing on purpose.” It never registered to me that they were purposely picking people that were smart, but you also mesh well with the group. I don’t need somebody in my lab who’s going to mess up the flow that we already have going. And so, I think the biggest leadership thing has been trying to learn how to get a good read on people in an actual interview – because they’re trying to impress me, I’m interviewing them, so I don’t want to seem like I’m asking weird questions like, “What do you like to do on the weekends for fun?” cause that’s probably not super appropriate in an interview. But I’m trying to gauge it in a way where I’m asking, “Do you mesh well with the people in my group?” I think the best lesson I got taught was when my second postdoc mentor told me that everybody in the lab should interview every single person that you hire, because they’ll tell you if they pick up something weird, like they’re disrespectful to the women in the lab or they talk down to the technicians because they have a PhD. We do that with everyone who comes through the lab and have had a really good time building a really nice group over at Children’s, which has been fantastic.
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What is your overall favorite part of your job?
You know, I think it’s mentoring my staff. The science is cool – I like to think my science is super cool – although grant agencies will tell me otherwise when they tell me I’m not getting funded. But you know, we’re doing well, we’re getting grant funding overall and so I think things are moving well. But you know, the science will just go the way it’s going to go, right? You do the experiments, you figure out what you’re going to get, you follow up on those cool things. But it’s been fun to watch especially my fresh-out-of-college technicians move from these people who had skills – they had all worked in a lab, so they could do the bench stuff – but watch them grow from following directions to being able to come into my office and be like, “I have a question and it’s this specific thing, and it’s because I saw it in a paper or I’m taking a logical leap from X to Y based on something I saw.” So really watching them grow into what I think are a group of really fantastic scientists and hoping obviously that they’ll never leave, but I know that’s not true. But I think it’s been really fun to be able to build that group, and I think that’s been the best part of my job – because the other parts, the administrative stuff and all that, is not as much fun as I thought it would be. Writing grant application after application is not really the fun part of my day.
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You did your graduate work at Duke in North Carolina and a postdoc at St. Jude’s in Tennessee, and you grew up in Florida, and now you’re here in Seattle, so you’ve lived at least four different places. Rank the places you’ve lived and provide a rationale for each.
Oh, that’s rough, because I know what I want to pick for number one but I hate that it’s my number one choice. It’s Florida, and I think part of it is it’s my home state, it’s where I’m from, so I have to deal with it with all of its problems and everything else. But I grew up on the beach, I could walk to the beach, and it was really nice to be able to do that all the time. But I don’t know, if I didn’t grow up there, if I would love the beach as much. So that’s probably number one. I think here is probably number two – I really love Seattle. I think as much as I love the beach, I’m not really an outdoorsy person, so I’ve been trying to figure out how to be more of a hiker and do all those cool things. But I have really enjoyed living in a much larger city, because every city I’ve lived in prior to this has been not small, but definitely not a Seattle, not a New York, not a Chicago. So this has been really fun, actually living in a much larger city.
Then, it’s hard – I think Durham and Memphis are really similar. I remember when I drove from Duke, from grad school when I finished, and I got to Memphis and I was like, “Did I turn around? Is this the same city? This looks the exact same.” Other than that I lived right on the Mississippi. But they’re really similar. They’re pretty similar in size, the demographics are the same. I think both of them have really near and dear places to me because those are some of the people I’m closest to in this world – my friends from grad school and my friends from when I was a postdoc. Whatever the cities had in common were fine, but it was the people that were there. Seattle’s great, but it’s been a little different meeting people – partly maybe because it’s Seattle, but partly because now I have an adult job for the first time in my life. I always joke with my friends, “How do you make friends as an adult? Like do I just go to a bar and talk to people?” All my friends are work friends, which I guess is fine, but also I would like friends who don’t do science, but I’m like, “How do I do that?”
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What is your most irrational fear? I’m talking snakes-on-a-plane level fear.
Okay, I have two. One of them is definitely snakes on a plane. But I just had this conversation with somebody and was like, “What is my irrational fear?” and my best friend said, “You know what it is. You live it every day.” I am actually afraid of heights – but I also live on the 29th floor of my building. But I love it, I like being up high, as long as I don’t have to look at the ground. I love flying, I love roller coasters, I actually like going up in tall buildings as long as I can’t see how far up I am. You if you tell me I’m on the fiftieth floor, I’m cool, but if I look out a window and I can see people and they’re the size of ants then I get vertigo. My body is like, “Oh, what if you fall?” I’m behind a glass pane, I’m not going anywhere. I know it’s an irrational fear because it’s like, you’re not going to fall, that’s not how this works, and also you could just leave, you don’t have to be here. When I moved into this building, they told me, “You can be on the twenty-ninth floor or you can be on the sixth.” Everyone thought I would pick the sixth, but I was like, “I’m going to pick the twenty-ninth. I’ve never lived in a city that had skyscrapers so I’m going to pick one up at the top.” But sometimes when I walk out on my balcony, I have to be like, take a deep breath, close your eyes, okay – now open them, and breathe before you look over the edge. Nothing is going to happen, but I’m still in a full state of panic.
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What floor is your office on?
I’m on the eighth floor, which is not that bad. And I’ve got a great view. From the eighth floor in our building, it doesn’t feel high at all – I mean, eight’s not that far off the ground. But it’s because there’s a billboard that is the same height as me, so I’m like, “Okay, I know how tall billboards are generally, that’s not that bad, I can see the parking lot.” But when I look out I overlook Westlake, and I’m right above the Shake Shack, so when people are going in and out of the building I can’t really make out what they look like, it’s very weird, and that terrifies me.
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What is something you know a lot about that isn’t related to your job at all?
Oh no. People are going to read this? Now I have to make up something that doesn’t make me sound like a horrible nerd. I’m just going to do it. I’m a pretty big board game nerd. Here it’s great. Everybody’s like, “Oh, come play board games with us,” and I’m like, “Oh cool, this is great.” This doesn’t really have anything to do with work. I mean, I guess it does because I’m always trying to be the best scientist – but I’m super competitive, so any kind of sport, whether it’s board games, video games. I just joined a volleyball league and they’re like, “This is a rec league,” and I was like, “No, where’s the competitive league? Because I’m gonna hurt somebody.” I’m willing to admit it up front that I’m a little overly aggressive. I’m pretty good at the game – I’m not Olympic level, but I don’t want to hurt anybody who’s just playing around.
I think it’s either that or I like to tell myself I’m a very good cook. I think that’s the other thing, but that feels sort of related to my job, because coking is really just doing science, but hot on a stove. Anybody who’s like, “I’m a scientist and I love baking,” I’m like, “Of course you do. You’re literally doing science. All you’re doing is following a recipe, just like we do in lab, so that’s not really a nerdy hobby.” But cooking takes a little bit of skill, a little bit of finesse. All of my friends in grad school tell me my Instagram is just a cooking blog because it’s just photos of food, there’s no photos of me unless you go dig for them. All I want to do is cook and then be like, look at this cool thing I made.
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Do you have a favorite board game or a favorite dish that you prepare?
Yeah. Favorite dish – I think everybody who has eaten my food will tell you their favorite thing I make is my family recipe mac and cheese. I just made it for a friend’s party and I was like, “Please take it home,” and everybody was like, “Wait, we can have this?! We want to take it home. Also what’s in it??” I was like, “Can’t tell you, it’s a secret.” It’s one of those. It’s a secret, but also there’s nothing in there that’s special. It’s a regular mac and cheese, just with slightly different versions of ingredients that you definitely already know.
And then board games – I don’t know if I have a favorite board game. I have a really good friend who also works at Children’s who’s been introducing me to a bunch of new stuff. The ones I like are the ones where you’re on a full team and somebody’s playing the traitor, you’re sort of trying to figure out who that person is. Those games are always really fun to me, especially with a good group of people, rather than the very classic games. But I mean, we love the classics. We love Sorry, I love Trouble, I’ll still play those. I’m a big old kid, so I will definitely play Chutes and Ladders with everybody’s children.
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FRED HUTCH/UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON/SEATTLE CHILDREN'S CANCER CONSORTIUM
1100 FAIRVIEW AVE. N., SEATTLE, WA 98109
Award number P30 CA015704-49
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