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DECEMBER 2024
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IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
- From the Cancer Consortium
- Consortium Kudos
- In the Spotlight
- Current Funding Opportunities
- Save the Date - Upcoming Events
- From the Research Development Office
- From the Office of Community Outreach & Engagement
- From the Office of Faculty Affairs & Diversity
- Consortium Leadership Spotlight: Dr. Eric Collisson
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FROM THE CANCER CONSORTIUM
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Consortium Kudos
New Merkel Cell Carcinoma Institute
The Nghiem Lab is thrilled to announce the formation of the Merkel Cell Carcinoma Collaborative (MC3) – a dedicated Institute advancing research and improving patient care for Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). The mission of MC3 is Collaborate to Cure Merkel Cell Carcinoma.
As part of this exciting transition, some research and resources from the Nghiem Lab will be incorporated into the MC3 Institute, expanding our capabilities. However, the Nghiem Lab will continue its work as a distinct entity, maintaining its ongoing research projects.
"We are truly excited by how this new Institute will promote collaboration around the world to advance research and clinical care for patients with this aggressive skin cancer," said Dr. Nghiem of this new initiative.
Please see the "Events" section below for more information about upcoming launch events on January 27th and 31st.
Membership in the MC3 is open to researchers and clinicians from all over the world committed to advancing care and knowledge in the MCC field. For more information about the Institute or becoming a member, contact mc3institute@uw.edu.
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Drs. Kathi Malone and Kevin Cheung Awarded $2M Grant from Department of Defense for Breast Cancer Research
Congratulations to Drs. Kevin Cheung and Kathi Malone, who just received a new four-year, $2M Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Breakthrough Award!
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Their project, “Targeting Epidermal Plasticity to Prevent Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Recurrence,” seeks to elucidate the relationship between triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell differentiation and vitamin A, and to explore the therapeutic potential of leveraging that relationship to prevent TNBC recurrence. TNBC is among the most aggressive and deadly types of breast cancer, and is particularly difficult to treat once it has metastasized.
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If successful, their project could open new pathways for treating – and potentially curing – TNBC.
“I am very excited about this synergistic partnership with Kathi Malone,” said Dr. Cheung. “This project is exciting to me because it proposes a potential solution to a core problem that my lab has been working on since its inception. My group was among the first to identify that cancer cells with a basal-like phenotype lead breast cancer invasion and metastasis. These basal-like cancer cells are very aggressive and very difficult to eliminate. What we’ve discovered is that these basal-like cancer cells adopt molecular features resembling keratinocyte cells of epidermis, the normal cells that make up the outer surface of our skin. Importantly, we’ve uncovered different ways to push these breast tumor cells toward a terminally differentiated epidermal state, rendering these cells unable to proliferate and metastasize. With Kathi, we’ve now identified that a key factor in controlling this plasticity is vitamin A, something we’ve confirmed is associated with breast cancer recurrence in epidemiologic studies performed by her research team. This project now aims to level up our results. We want to identify drug candidates to channel cancer cell plasticity toward terminal epidermal states - drugs we hope to take forward to an early phase clinical trial in patients with triple negative breast cancer. In addition, there is also a public health dimension to this work. Because vitamin A and their derivatives are pretty ubiquitously taken in different forms, we are interested in the question of whether patients with breast cancer should be optimizing their diet, and in which patients.”
Regarding the partnership, Dr. Malone noted, "Kevin and I have had many interesting discussions over the years, and I am always struck by what a creative scientist he is. This new work is no exception. Our ability to examine Vitamin A’s association with breast cancer outcomes in a well-characterized cohort of women with breast cancer is only possible because of the generosity of the many women who participate in our studies. I am so pleased to be collaborating with Kevin on this novel approach to preventing recurrences in women with triple negative breast cancer."
Drs. Cheung and Malone are members of the Cancer Consortium’s Breast & Ovary Cancers and Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention & Control programs, respectively. This project will also involve collaborations with Drs. Chris Li (Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention & Control) and Tim Randolph (Biostatistics & Computational Biology), as well as with the Consortium’s Genomics & Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Shared Resources.
Please join us in congratulating these investigators!
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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:
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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: January 23rd, 2025
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Survivorship Pilot Award
The Cancer Consortium Survivorship Program invites proposals of high impact and innovation that will promote new research directions focused on cancer survivors. The goal of this award is to stimulate cross-institutional collaborations (Fred Hutch, UW, Seattle Children’s) and/or new collaborations between Consortium investigators who have not previously worked together.
According to the National Cancer Institute, "Survivorship focuses on the health and well-being of a person with cancer from the time of diagnosis until the end of life. This includes the physical, mental, emotional, social, and financial effects of cancer that begin at diagnosis and continue through treatment and beyond. The survivorship experience also includes issues related to follow-up care (including regular health and wellness checkups), late effects of treatment, cancer recurrence, second cancers, and quality of life. Family members, friends, and caregivers are also considered part of the survivorship experience." However, for the purposes of this application, projects that focus on timepoints at time of cancer diagnosis and treatment will be accepted only if they are clearly linked to a long-term health or psychosocial outcome. Health services research proposals otherwise meeting these criteria are also welcome.
Funding details: Up to $50,000 direct costs over 1 year, to begin June 1, 2025. Payment of indirect costs is not allowed for this award.
Click here to view the RFA with additional details, including application instructions.
Eligibility Criteria:
2) Priority will be given to applications that involve cross-institutional collaborations (investigators with primary appointments at different Consortium partners) and/or new collaborations (which can be among investigators based at the same Consortium partner but who have no previously co-funded work and no significant non-funded prior collaborations).
3) Priority will be given to investigators who have not previously received a Survivorship Pilot Award.
4) A member of the application team will be asked to pitch their proposal at the "Late Effects & Survivorship Seminar" on January 9, 2025 (1-3pm).
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Cancer Consortium Pilot Awards Applications Will Open on January 2, 2025
Funds are available from the Fred Hutch/University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Cancer Consortium (“the Consortium”) to support cancer-related pilot projects. This competition will provide 3-4 awards of up to $100,000 direct costs (plus F&A/indirect costs) for one year of pilot project support. Consortium members are eligible for this pilot funding.
There are no limitations on research topic, provided the problem under study is focused on cancer. Highly innovative concepts that have the potential to improve the lives of cancer patients are encouraged. Also included in this competition are two categories targeted as areas of special interest to the Consortium: health equity research and cross-disciplinary translational research.
Applications are due February 14th, 2025. Additional information about the award, including an RFA and instructions on how to apply, will be released in early January.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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» [Ongoing] Steam Plant Seminar Series
Please join us in the Steam Plant O’Mack Suites (Fred Hutch Campus) at 4pm on Wednesdays for a seminar series organized by Steam Plant trainees.
- December 4th: Rasia Glabman (Comparative Medicine, Pathology)
- December 11th: Bleakley Lab
A schedule of talks can be found on the Steam Plant’s Community CenterNet site ( *requires FH credentials). To receive notifications, please join the mailing list at https://lists.fhcrc.org/postorius/lists/steamplant-seminar.lists.fhcrc.org/. You will need to copy and paste this link into your browser, if using a Mac. If you are working remotely, you will need to be on VPN to access the listserv.
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» [Ongoing] Integrated Research Center Seminar Series
Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center (IIRC) Seminars
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» [Ongoing] Monthly Shared Resources Seminar Series
Please join the shared resources team for their new monthly seminar series. Each hour-long seminar will be presented by a different shared resource, and will focus on a topic pertinent to the work of that core.
Upcoming Seminar Dates:
- December 18th (11:30am): "Advancing Cancer Research: Spatial Analysis and Cell Sorting with the BD Discover S8 Imaging Cell Sorter," hosted by Flow Cytometry (D1-080, Sze Suites, Fred Hutch Campus)
- January 15th (11:30am): Topic TBD, hosted by Proteomics & Metabolomics (D1-080, Sze Suites, Fred Hutch Campus)
- February 12th (11:30am): "Preclinical Positron Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography (PET/CT) Imaging at UW," hosted by Translational Bioimaging (D1-080, Sze Suites, Fred Hutch Campus)
Click here to sign up for the upcoming December seminar.
All seminars are hybrid. Attendees will receive a Teams link once they sign up. Please contact Tony Bohn ( abohn@fredhutch.org) with any questions.
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» December 7, 2024: Healthy for the Holidays Event
Join the Fred Hutch Survivorship Program for their 15th annual holiday educational event for cancer survivors, patients, caregivers, and family!
The event will take place in Pelton Auditorium (Fred Hutch Campus), 8:30am-12:30pm. The agenda will include programming relevant to cancer patients and survivors, including talks on the therapeutic benefits of creative expression; the importance of sleep; and maintaining a healthy diet over the holidays (including a taste test and recipe demo!).
More information about the event, including a full agenda and link to register, can be found here.
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» January 27 & 31: Merkel Cell Carcinoma Collaborative (MC3) Institute Launch Events
Join us for the official launch celebration for the MC3 Institute! These events are a wonderful way to connect with the MCC community, learn about the Institute, and get involved.
1) Monday, January 27th: In-Person & Virtual MC3 Launch Event.
Time: 4:00-6:30pm PT
Location: Orin Smith Auditorium, University of Washington Campus (850 Republican Street, Seattle, WA) or Zoom
Description: This hybrid event will feature a one-hour presentation on the Institute's mission and vision, its shared resources, how to become a member, and its approach to making a difference in MCC treatment and patient care. A reception will follow for in-person attendees.
2) Friday, January 31st: Virtual-Only Launch Event
Time: 9:00-10:00am PT
Location: Zoom (link to be provided)
Description: For those unable to attend on the 27th, this virtual launch event will feature the same presentation and opportunities to engage and ask questions.
Contact mc3institute@uw.edu for more information or to request the Zoom link for either of the virtual events.
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FROM THE RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT OFFICE
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ACCA Team Science Network Meetings
The Association of Cancer Center Administrators (ACCA) hosts a bimonthly Team Science Network meeting to discuss various topics related to facilitating team science specifically at cancer centers. Meetings take place on the first Wednesday of every other month from 11am-12pm PT and are open to anyone with an interest in research development and team science. The next meeting will take place on Wednesday, December 4th.
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The RDO Provides Support for Diversity Supplement Applications
The National Institute of Health’s Diversity Supplement program ( PAR-23-189) provides funding to enhance the diversity of the research workforce by recruiting, mentoring, and supporting high school, undergraduate and graduate/clinical students, postbaccalaureate and post Masters individuals, postdoctoral researchers (including health professionals), and eligible investigators from diverse backgrounds. This includes people from groups that have been shown to be underrepresented in health-related research, who have a qualifying disability, or come from a financially and/or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds.
Supplements are open to trainees of all levels, from high school to investigator-level career stages. For more information on Diversity Supplements, click here.
The Research Development Office (RDO) provides diversity supplement application support by sharing resources and connecting eligible trainees and investigators. To schedule a consultation or request RDO support, click here.
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FROM THE OFFICE OF COMMUNITY OUTREACH & ENGAGEMENT
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Call for Mentors and Reviewers for the 2025 Community Grants Program
This small grants program supports community-based organizations and Tribes working toward health equity in diverse communities across Washington State. Mentors are matched with applicants to help develop or review proposal drafts. Reviewers will then evaluate and score submitted projects.
Grant timeline:
- November 2024: RFA released
- January - February 2025: Mentors matched with applicants
- March 2025: Reviewers score applications
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FROM THE OFFICE OF FACULTY AFFAIRS & DIVERSITY
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Applications Are Open for the Eddie Mendéz Scholar Award
The Dr. Eddie Mendéz Scholar Award recognizes early-career underrepresented minority scientists and scientists with disabilities. The award is open to current postdoctoral fellows or those who have recently completed their postdoctoral fellowship at any of the Consortium institutions and who are interested in pursuing a faculty position. Awardees will be invited to share their research at the annual Méndez Symposium in July 2025.
Applications are due by midnight (Eastern Time) on February 1st, 2025. For more information about the award, including a link to apply, click here.
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CONSORTIUM LEADERSHIP SPOTLIGHT: DR. ERIC COLLISSON
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This month's newsletter features Dr. Eric Collisson, who recently joined the Cancer Consortium as co-leader of the Cancer Basic Biology Program. A California transplant, Dr. Collisson also serves as the Director of Translational Integration for the Stuart and Molly Sloan Precision Oncology Institute. In this interview, we talk about his vision for precision medicine, his favorite holiday, and why backpacking in Washington is way, way harder than it needs to be.
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Can you give us a high-level overview of your career trajectory and your research interests? What brought you to this specific specialty?
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I was an architecture major out of high school thinking I wanted to do that. Then, I did an afternoon with a local architect in Berkeley, and I saw basically this guy spent his whole day talking to people about remodeling their kitchens and it was extremely boring. I knew I didn’t want to do that, so I got involved in a genetics project about the genetics of behavior in Border Collies and Newfoundland dogs. I was just amazed by what you could do with genetics and how powerful it was. I went to med school at UCLA but didn’t really consider being a scientist until later in med school – I hadn’t applied to MD/PhD or anything like that, but I did a year at the NIH in the Howard Hughes program and worked with Harold Varmus there. Actually, Eric Holland had just left that lab when I got there, so small world.
I got to see there that genetics was not only important, but that you can actually modify it in mice and change the genetics of model organisms. I basically have spent the last 20 years doing that: studying the mutations we see in human tumors and realizing we can actually put that right back in the mouse and see what is signal and what is noise. The world’s a dangerous place with too much sunlight, too many hot dogs, too many cigarettes. We all do too much of a lot of things, and so there’s a lot of damage in our genomes. But amazingly, a lot of it doesn’t matter. You can get thousands of mutations in a cell and not have cancer, and you can put one mutation in a mouse, and every one of those mice gets cancer. So for me, it was how specific and seemingly logical it all was that drew me to this specialty, but the truth turns out to be more complicated. It’s been really fun trying to sort harmful mutations from benign ones and which ones happen over and over again versus which ones are just random lottery ticket winners that we’ll never really be able to do anything about.
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I would love to hear your thoughts on the future of precision medicine. What’s one new development or breakthrough in precision medicine that you would like to witness in your career?
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So I’m also a medical oncologist, so I see patients one day a week. There’s certain parts that are very formulaic. You try chemo that other people have tried and supposedly works, and then just wait for three months and see if the CT scan gets better. And you have to do this safely and manage the toxicity and the nausea – that’s the job in between. But you basically don’t have any insight – is this even working, right? I think we’ve all been on bad plane flight or had a poor travel experience where you’re like, “I don’t even want to go here, this is not worth it.” It’s like that for months for cancer patients, some of whom know statistically they only have six to nine months to live, and we’re spending three months doing this therapy and we don’t even know if it’s working.
The way we currently adjudicate that is with CT scans every three months, but I would love to change that to a blood test in three days to tell us what’s likely to happen, and I think we can probably do that. And the neat thing here is that we don’t have to invent any new therapies for this to be successful, we can just use the therapies we have more effectively. If we can quit things that aren’t working quickly and change to something that has another 50/50 chance, there’s room for actually making progress without any new drugs, which are also very important and another part of what I’d like to do. But we think of precision medicine often as very fancy drugs that fit very neatly into this fancy target. But I also think of it as precision management – you know, can we use the data available to us to make treatment decisions more quickly, more economically, or in a better manner to serve patients.
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I imagine that would also alleviate so much of the emotional distress that comes with the hurry-up-and-wait part for patients.
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Absolutely. Just count the number of scans people get. Reducing the radiation, or using the scanners for people in car accidents instead, is a general good, even if it doesn’t do anything for the patient. But on top of that, it really does spend three months of your life wondering if this is working. If you could shrink that to three days it would be great.
I think you probably pay your taxes. I pay my taxes. Maybe the taxpayer doesn’t want to pay for three months of this treatment when it’s not working. And these treatments are often 20 grand a month, right? So with an incremental change in testing, you could theoretically have one ineffective dose instead of eight consecutive ineffective doses of this expensive medicine. So lots of ways to measure success there.
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You wear a lot of hats: you serve as the Director of Translational Integration for the Sloan Precision Oncology Institute, you now have a leadership position as co-leader of the Cancer Basic Biology program for the Cancer Consortium, and you’re also a physician. Can you talk about some of your biggest leadership takeaways from those roles, or previous roles you've held?
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Oh boy – look before you leap. [laughs] I mean, the first six months I was quite proud that I really did a lot of listening tours and didn’t really talk about what had to be done. I think we often think of leadership as a strong mandate to change things and break things. And I think especially in a place like Fred Hutch, coming in with humility and realizing a lot of people have done a lot of stuff here and are good at it, and trying to learn what that is, is important. That’s kind of a double problem in the Consortium, with not only Fred Hutch but also Children’s and University of Washington – what are these people good at and passionate about? I think most of leadership is letting great people do the things they’re good at and trying to unload them from things they don’t like or aren’t good at, and trying to make those matches rather than coming in charging in, anthem blaring, and trying to change everything.
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You’re fairly new to Seattle and the Hutch. What’s been your initial impressions of Seattle?
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I moved here this year. I got the tail end of winter, a beautiful summer. I’ll say the fall was much, much better than advertised. The winter was about as bad as I thought it would be. The summer I knew would be glorious, but I was really struck by the fall this year. Amazing.
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Are there any other big things that surprised you, coming from San Francisco?
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You know, the biggest thing I’ve noticed is really the difference of forest cover. I was a big hiker in the Sierras and the California chaparral, and I loved being outside for days at a time. The whole point of a hike in California is to get to the top, or to get to the view, and here you can walk for six hours and never see more than 20 feet out of the trees, but it’s still wonderful in a different way. It’s been a very pleasant difference in ecosystem, with the forest and the views and the coverage. I’ve just been amazed by the feeling of walking on carpet for hours outside, with all the squishy loamy soil.
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Do you have a favorite outdoor activity?
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Hiking, definitely. I have to say – I love backpacking, but you need a travel agent to go backpacking here. It’s extremely hard to get the reservations. I haven’t been able to book any of the backpacking permits despite trying quite hard. I started four months in advance and they’re sold out. I did a lottery for the Enchantments, they’re like, “You get nothing.” Had my wife do a lottery, she got nothing. I’m sure it’s nice, but I don’t know how to get a permit.
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Since it’s the holidays…what is your holiday to celebrate?
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I think the 4th of July is the best holiday, personally. I guess we’re lightly Christmas. We go to Idaho every Christmas. My wife’s family lives there and has a wood-burning sauna and wood-burning hot tub. It’s the equivalent of earning your turns in skiing – you have to earn your soak. You gotta start a major inferno and then wait for four and a half hours before it warms up. But this year we’re going to the Cook Islands for New Year’s, so looking forward to that.
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That was my next question: I was going to ask if you’d choose a ski trip or sandy beach to escape the Seattle winter, but it sounds like you’ve chosen sandy beach.
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Yeah – I love skiing, but my daughter ripped her ACL on the lacrosse field – another new Seattle sport – and so this year we’re beach-ing it. But next year, maybe British Columbia or Alberta.
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Any remaining fun facts you’d like to share?
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I bake a lot of bread, which I’m sure is very Seattle. I have imported endogenous San Francisco yeast in my sourdough starter, so if anyone needs any, please let me know. I have sent out from my lab several samples, which were starters for other scientists during COVID. It was a good community.
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Does your starter have a name?
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No. She is female, but I don’t think she has a name. I should come up with one.
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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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