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FEBRUARY 2024
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IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
- From the Cancer Consortium
- CCSG Submitted!
- Join the Cancer Basic Biology Postdoc Symposium Committee!
- 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 Education & Training
- From the Consortium Shared Resources
- From Clinical Research Support
- From the Office of Translational Research
- From the NCI
- Consortium Leader Close Up: Dr. Eric Chow
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Note: This newsletter contains information about two different postdoc recruitment initiatives. As such, investigators are encouraged to forward this newsletter to trainees in their lab. Trainees who wish to be included on future Consortium newsletters can email amiller2@fredhutch.org to be added to the distribution list.
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FROM THE CANCER CONSORTIUM
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The CCSG Has Been Submitted!
The Consortium Administration team is thrilled and excited and delighted and exhausted and happy to announce that the Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) was submitted on Tuesday, January 23 (a whole two days ahead of our deadline!).
The CCSG represents years of hard work on the part of Consortium members, leaders, partners, and the Admin team. We are deeply grateful to everyone who contributed to this massive undertaking - we couldn't have done it without you!
Now that the grant has been submitted, we'll be turning our attention to the upcoming NCI Site Visit, which will take place on April 25, 2024. This site visit is the final step in the Competing Renewal process.
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The Consortium Admin team enjoys a champagne toast as the "submit" button is pressed!
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Join the Cancer Basic Biology Postdoc Symposium Committee!
The Cancer Basic Biology Program is looking for postdocs to join the CBB Postdoc Symposium Committee to help organize this year’s event!
For the past two years, the Cancer Basic Biology program has organized postdoctoral symposiums that have featured talks from keynote speakers and postdoctoral researchers across the Fred Hutch/UW/Seattle Children’s Cancer Consortium in addition to hosting postdoctoral mixers. The goal of these events is to provide postdocs with formal speaking opportunities and to help promote collaboration and networking among Seattle postdocs.
The committee is made up of a group of postdocs from each of the three Cancer Consortium institutions (Fred Hutch, UW, and Seattle Children’s). All postdocs are welcome to join the committee.
Perks and responsibilities of joining the Cancer Biology Postdoc Symposium Committee:
- Connect and meet other postdocs.
- CV booster!
- Opportunity to invite and host your favorite scientist to talk and help put on a fun event!
If you are interested in joining the committee or have any questions, please reach out to Rachel Lex ( rlex@fredhutch.org).
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Consortium Kudos
Congratulations to Drs. Cyrus Ghajar and Stan Riddell, who just published an exciting new study in Cancer Cell. Their work seeks to understand how dormant disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) are able to evade detection by cancer patients' immune systems and use this knowledge to prevent metastases. They found that the answer comes down to numbers: specifically, the relative scarcity of both DTCs and tumor-specific T cells means that interactions between the two are too rare to effect DTC elimination. Fortunately, the Ghajar and Riddell labs also found that three different immunotherapeutic approaches can be utilized to increase the number of tumor-specific T cells, thereby reducing the number of DTCs and the chance of metastasis.
This study marks a significant step in their search to target the seeds of metastasis towards curative therapies. According to Dr. Ghajar, "Our study suggests two testable hypotheses: i) that the frequency and function of tumor-specific T cells can predict who and who will not have significant DTC burden, and ii) that targeting these cells with T cell immunotherapies will result in their eradication. Our goal is to now test these hypotheses in humans.” Riddell, Ghajar and their laboratories are conducting this work through a DoD-funded Transformative Breast Cancer Research Consortium co-led by Christopher Li and Ghajar that includes Drs. Riddell, Joshua Veatch, Sara Javid, Meghan Flanagan, Wei Sun, and several other Consortium members. In addition to Drs. Riddell and Ghajar, Consortium members Drs. Shivani Srivastava and Joshua Veatch also contributed to this project.
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(Get it? It's a SEAL of approval)
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In the Spotlight
The following inter-institutional Cancer Consortium collaborations were featured in the most recent edition of the Science Spotlight:
- "Rethinking immunotherapy dosing frequency for better cost, time, and life savings!" featured collaborative work by Drs. Lisa Tachiki (Cancer Immunology), Evan Hall (Cancer Immunology), Joshua Veatch (Lung Cancer), Paul Nghiem (Pathogen Associated Malignancies), John Thompson (Cancer Immunology), and Shailender Bhatia (Pathogen Associated Malignancies).
- "From predicted neoantigen to T cell therapy for acute myeloid leukemia" featured collaborative work by Drs. Vivian Oehler (Hematologic Malignancies), Derek Stirewalt (Hematologic Malignancies), David Wu (Hematologic Malignancies), Anthony Rongvaux (Cancer Immunology), and Marie Bleakley (Cancer Immunology).
- "CD8 memory T cells and TGF-β have changed their relationship status to 'it’s complicated'" featured collaborative work by Drs. Paul Martin (Cancer Immunology) and Shannon Oda (Cancer Immunology).
Please join us in congratulating these investigators!
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CURRENT FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
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Pilot Funding Is Available from the Cancer Consortium
Cancer Consortium Pilot Awards
Funds are available from the Fred Hutch/UW/Seattle Children's Cancer Consortium to support cancer-related pilot projects.
This competition will provide awards of up to $100,000 direct costs (plus F&A/indirect costs as allowable) for one year of pilot project support. Pilot proposals should represent a new project or research direction for the principal investigator that will provide preliminary data needed to seek outside funding.
Applications are due February 20, 2024, and should be submitted via InfoReady.
Catchment Area Health Pilot Awards
Funds are available from the Fred Hutch/UW/Seattle Children's Cancer Consortium to support new cancer-related pilot projects or research directions focused on the Consortium’s catchment area, which now includes the entire state of Washington.
The research plan should address research on cancers relevant to the catchment area and/or the populations that face the highest burden or cancer disparities in the state. This competition will fund at least one project, at a maximum of up to $100,000, in direct costs, for one year.
Applications are due February 20, 2024, and should be submitted via InfoReady. Applicants must include a letter of support from their Cancer Consortium program co-leaders. Only one application per research program will be accepted.
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NIH Administrative Supplement: DEIA Mentorship Award
The Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has supplement funding available through a Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Administrative Supplements to Recognize Excellence in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Mentorship. This NOSI focuses on mentors who have dedicated their time and effort and made significant contributions, based on evaluation data and publications, to DEIA to apply for an administrative supplement to further their personal research and/or mentoring activities. Participating Institutes and Centers (ICs) are inviting applications to support administrative supplements to existing NIH awards to support scientists who have demonstrated compelling commitments and contributions to mentorship and enhancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the biomedical sciences.
Eligibility Criteria:
Please review the NOSI for details and full eligibility criteria ( link here)
- The PI must hold an eligible parent grant (see list of supporting institutes in the NOSI) with a mentoring component. Examples include but are not limited to:
- a Diversity Supplement associated within the current competitive segment of the parent award
- a Research Education Program that describes mentored research experiences
- a Plan to Provide Mentoring
- a Plan to Enhance Diverse Perspectives
- a discrete objective related to mentoring (examples include but are not limited to a description of mentoring others in a specific aim, a section in the research strategy, or a section in the research training program plan)
- The PI must be supported by no more than one institutional award considered an independent NIH grant at the time of application. Support from awards on the “smaller grants” list do not count toward the independent research project grant award.
- PIs with prior mentoring experience but no mentoring in their parent grant are not eligible.
- Individuals to be added and supported with funds from this administrative supplement must be citizens or noncitizen nationals of the United States or have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence.
- Active awards with project end dates in July 2025 or later are eligible. The award may not be in a terminal no-cost extension or going into a no-cost extension in FY2024.
Budget:
The application budget should not exceed $250,000 in direct costs per year for one or two years and should not exceed the direct costs of the parent grant.
Applications are due February 16, 2024. Before submitting an application, applicants are strongly encouraged to consult with the Program Official for the parent grant or the contact listed below to confirm eligibility and to obtain technical assistance. Applications for this initiative must be within scope of the parent award and must be submitted using the following opportunity or its subsequent reissued equivalent.
Please direct any questions to Kris Blair ( kblair@fredhutch.org), Research Development Specialist, Cancer Consortium Administration.
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NCI Notice of Special Interest: Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01)
This Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) invites applications from early career scientists conducting research within the mission of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) for the Mentored Research Scientist Development Award (K01) ( NOT-CA-24-022). The first available due date is February 12, 2024 (expires on May 8, 2029).
The mission of NCI's DCCPS is to advance research in cancer control and population sciences to eliminate cancer and its consequences for all.
Related Notices:
- Notice of NCI’s Participation in NIH Mentored Research Scientist Development Awards (Parent K01) Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOT-CA-24-020)
- NOSI: National Cancer Institute Supports Applications for the Mentored Research Scientist Development Awards (K01) Within the Mission of the Division of Cancer Prevention (NOT-CA-24-023)
For questions related to the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences' research interests, please contact April Oh, PhD, MPH ( april.oh@nih.gov).
For questions related to the NCI K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award, please contact Sergey Radaev, PhD ( sradaev@mail.nih.gov).
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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» [Ongoing] Steam Plant Seminar Series, Wednesdays at 4pm
Please join us for the Steam Plant Seminar Series (O’Mack Suites, Steam Plant Building, Fred Hutch Campus). Seminars will be followed by beer hour in the first floor lounge. See below or visit our CenterNet page* for a list of upcoming dates and hosts:
- Wednesday 2/7/2024 - Dudakov Lab
- Wednesday 2/14/2024 - Ha Lab
- Wednesday 2/21/2024 - Flow Core
- Wednesday 2/28/2024 - Headley Lab
- Wednesday 3/6/2024 - Newell Lab
- Wednesday 3/13/2024 - Warren Lab
- Wednesday 3/20/2024 - Ring Lab
*Requires Fred Hutch credentials.
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» [Ongoing] NCI Cancer Moonshot Seminar Series
This seminar series showcases research from different Cancer Moonshot initiatives. These presentations will inform the community about the progress of Cancer Moonshot–funded projects, provide outreach related to Cancer Moonshot projects, enhance discussions and collaborations related to Cancer Moonshot research, and promote the sharing of data from Cancer Moonshot initiatives. See below for a list of upcoming events and speakers:
February 22, 2024 (12:00-1:00pm ET / 9:00-10:00am PT) [Junior Investigator Session]: Advancing the Understanding and Treatment of Adult and Childhood Cancers with Cancer Biology featuring Drs. Jeremiah Wala (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) and Seth Zimmerman (Duke University)
March 28, 2024 (12:00-1:00pm ET / 9:00-10:00am PT) [Junior Investigator Session]: Developing Immunotherapies for Adult and Childhood Cancers, featuring Drs. Kristopher Bosse (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) and Xiao Huang (Drexel University)
April 25, 2024 (12:00-1:00pm ET / 9:00-10:00am PT) [Junior Investigator Session]: Implementation Science and Patient Engagement Approaches to Improve the Early Detection and Treatment of Cancer, featuring Drs. Rachel Issaka (Fred Hutch) and Francesco Tomassoni-Ardori (NCI).
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» April 3 - May 29, 2024: PAM IRC Seminars
Please see below for a list of upcoming seminars hosted by the Pathogen Associated Malignancies Integrated Research Center and organized by PAM IRC trainees:
Wednesday, April 3, 2-3pm: Dr. Daniel Blanco-Melo
Wednesday, April 17, 2-3pm: Dr. Hazem Ghoneim (Ohio State University)
Wednesday, May 22, 2-3pm: Dr. Heather Brandt (St. Jude's)
Wednesday, May 29, 2-3pm: Dr. Manuel R. Amieva (Stanford University School of Medicine)
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» April 28 - May 1, 2024: Annual National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP) Conference
The 16th annual NORDP Conference will be held in Bellevue, WA, this year. The theme for this year's event is "Shaping the Future: Building on our Research Development Tools." Attendees can look forward to a variety of keynotes, panels, and networking opportunities focused on research development and supporting team science.
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» May 7, 2024: PAM IRC, Cancer Consortium PAM Program, and Microbiome Research Initiative (MRI) Joint Retreat
Registration is now open for the 2024 Pathogen Associated Malignancies IRC and Microbiome Research Initiative Joint Retreat that will take place on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, at Pacific Tower (Seattle).
The retreat's agenda will include keynote presentations by Drs. Wendy Garrett (Harvard Medical School) and Shannon Kenney (University of Wisconsin Department of Medicine). For more information about the retreat, visit our CenterNet page (FH users) or email Marcie Dominguez ( mdomingu@fredhutch.org) (non-FH users).
Click here to register. Registration will be open until March 29, 2024.
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» June 6, 2024: Save the Date for the Pathways to Equity Symposium
Please save the date! You are invited to the 2024 Pathways to Equity Symposium on June 6th at Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle and online.
This year’s theme is Taking the next step: Bidirectional Partnerships for Health Equity. We’ll hear from keynote speakers Dr. Tabia Henry Akintobi and LaShawn Hoffman from the Morehouse School of Medicine. We’ll also learn from two panels of patients, researchers, and community-based organizations on topics of diversity, equity and inclusion in research and community-investigator collaborations. There will also be opportunities for conversation and networking.
Nominations are open for the Beti Thompson Community Health Champion Award, Beti Thompson Cancer Health Equity Research Award, and the Stephaun Wallace Health Equity Staff Champion Award. Please visit the OCOE Awards Page for award information and to submit a nomination.
More information and a registration link will be coming soon. This event is free, and lunch will be provided to those attending in person.
Please share this save the date with anyone who may be interested in joining, and thank you!
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FROM THE RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT OFFICE
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ACCA Team Science Network
Each month, the Association of Cancer Center Administrators (ACCA) sponsors an hour-long Team Science Network meetings. This monthly meeting is for anyone actively involved or interested in supporting team science at their Cancer Centers. This group was started to share ideas, best practices, and challenges, and to collaborate on large team science endeavors across our centers. Past topics of discussion include, "What Makes a Good P01?", "SPORE Data Management Requirements," and more.
Next Meeting: February 7, 2024 (3-4pm ET / 12-1pm PT)
The next Team Science meeting will feature a panel on "Community Informed Team Science" with Drs. Larkin Strong (MD Anderson) and Eric Lau (Moffitt Cancer Center). All are welcome to attend.
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FROM THE OFFICE OF COMMUNITY OUTREACH & ENGAGEMENT
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Now Accepting Applications for the 2024 Community Grants Program
We are now accepting applications to the 2024 Community Grants Program for projects that address significant health inequities within affected communities. Applications are due February 29, 2024.
Learn more about the application requirements and download the RFA on our website.
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New Podcast Episode
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This episode focuses on raising awareness about cervical cancer, including the role of HPV in cervical cancer, overcoming barriers to screening, and the importance of resources like the Breast, Cervical, and Colon Health Program (BCCHP).
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FROM THE OFFICE OF EDUCAION & TRAINING
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Seattle DROP: Virtual Postdoc Recruitment Event
Please join the Fred Hutch/University of Washington/Seattle Children's Cancer Consortium on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, for a collaborative postdoc recruitment initiative! This virtual event is a great opportunity to learn more about research opportunities in Seattle, hear from leading Consortium mentors with T32 grants, and enjoy a free lunch! All are welcome to attend; individuals from groups underrepresented in biomedical research are encouraged to come.
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FROM THE CONSORTIUM SHARED RESOURCES
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Please Complete the Shared Resources Feedback Form!
A new feedback form is now available from Shared Resources! This form, which is separate from the annual user satisfaction survey conducted by Shared Resources, has been reformatted to be more user-friendly.
The annual survey will still be conducted; however, the new form allows feedback year-round. Please submit feedback as often as you like.
Click here to access the Shared Resources User Feedback Form.
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FROM CLINICAL RESEARCH SUPPORT
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Updated Consortium DSMP Released
The updated Cancer Consortium Data Safety & Monitoring Plan (DSMP) has been approved by the NCI and is not posted on the Cancer Consortium Policies web page.
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FROM THE OFFICE OF TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH
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OpenSpecimen Now Available
The OTR is pleased to announce that OpenSpecimen, the specimen-associated data management tool, is officially launched! OpenSpecimen allows investigators to manage consent, clinical annotations, and specimen-associated data for a wide range of research projects, clinical trials, or repositories. The tool is available at no charge to investigators at Fred Hutch, the University of Washington, or Seattle Children's.
The OTR is now accepting a new cohort of teams to onboard into OpenSpecimen. We continue to have funding – provided by Fred Hutch – to support data migration from legacy applications, for groups who would like to use OpenSpecimen for projects but don’t have the capacity to move prior data. This funding will not be available forever, so please reach out soon if you would like to plan a migration.
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FROM THE NCI
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NCI Postdoc Recruitment Event
The NCI Postdoc Recruitment Event (PRE) (formerly known as the Graduate Student Recruiting Program) invites applications through February 7, 2024. PRE is a 2-day, in-person event held on May 1-2, 2024, at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). PRE provides Ph.D. candidates the opportunity to explore postdoctoral opportunities and determine if the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is an ideal fit for their professional goals. Candidates will learn about the NIH, NCI, and postdoctoral research opportunities in basic science, clinical research, cancer epidemiology, genetics, cancer control science, health disparities, or global health at NCI. There will be opportunities to meet with investigators, learn about the resources and training available, network with current NCI postdocs, conduct interviews, and tour our state-of-the-art facilities.
To learn more or apply, visit the PRE application site. Following application submission, prospective candidates are reviewed and selected by NCI investigators, many of whom are seeking to fill open postdoc positions. Accepted applicants will be notified by the end of March to coordinate their travel and interviews.
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CONSORTIUM LEADER CLOSE-UP: DR. ERIC CHOW
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The Consortium is pleased to announce that as of 2024, Dr. Eric Chow will serve as the new co-leader of the Consortium's Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention & Control (CEPC) research program.
In addition to his role as CEPC co-leader, Dr. Eric Chow is a pediatric oncologist, survivorship researcher, and co-leader of the Prevention Center Shared Resource. In addition to talking to him about his work in this month's newsletter, we chatted about the REALLY important stuff - namely, paddleboarding, national parks, and dinosaurs.
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How did you find your way to this career in general, and survivorship research more specifically?
In college I took an elective epidemiology course as a senior, that I found interesting, and it stuck with me. When I started medical school, I think we had a very brief, cursory overview of epidemiology as well, which I also enjoyed. But between the third and fourth years of medical school, we had the opportunity to apply for a master’s program – this was at UCSF, back in the day. Those of us who wanted to do that would go to the school of public health at Berkeley, where they had a one-year master’s program for physicians, or medical students and people who were doing fellowships. So I did that, and that was a great year. I think what I enjoyed about it was, compared to medicine, epidemiology is a lot more theoretical. Medicine is a lot of memorization, to be honest. You know, anatomy, pharmacology, you memorize body parts and drugs. With epidemiology, you felt like you were using a part of your brain that didn’t get used much during medical school. I really enjoyed that and I did research with a cancer epidemiologist at UCSF, Elizabeth Holly, for that year. So that’s kind of what led me to this epidemiology part. When I came to Seattle for my pediatric residency at Seattle Children’s/University of Washington, I decided to do oncology, so I did pediatric oncology, which is sponsored jointly by Fred Hutch. I had the chance to be mentored by Beth Mueller, who was in the Cancer Epidemiology program – she just retired last year – and Deborah Friedman, who is a pediatric oncologist but also a survivorship outcomes researchers. So the two of them were my primary mentors during that time.
As a resident, I was drawn to the idea of survivorship because it was a chance to understand how kids do long-term. As a pediatrician, when we take care of children, we want them not to just be healthy as children, but ideally, you know, grow up into healthy adults, right? That’s a lot of the focus of child care – it’s about making sure they’re getting all their vaccinations and anticipatory guidance about how they’re going to be healthy and successful later in life. So I think that kind of aligned well with my interest in survivorship. The Childhood Cancer Survivor Study was just getting started at that time. Back then there might have been 27 sites – it’s expanded a bit since then – and Seattle was one of them. So I had chance to work with some of the people at Fred Hutch who were working on that, and that became one of my projects during residency. That set the stage for that area of research and how I ended up in the cancer epidemiology program.
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What topic or problem interests you most within the broader realm of survivorship?
The issues vary a lot depending on whether people are treated as children – even young children versus older children or adolescents – or adults. There are a lot more people now living with advanced disease for many years, which wasn’t the case just a few years ago. That’s kind of this whole new domain of survivorship that we didn’t really think about as much, where patient care and survivorship are kind of starting to become conjoined for some people. So I think the overall theme of survivorship is, how do we maximize quality of life for people with cancer, no matter what their prognosis may be? – that’s one way of looking at it more holistically.
Within that, there’s obviously so many different ways that one can go. My personal focus in children has been better understanding cardiovascular disease risk, because that ends up being one of the major causes of more serious early disease, and people who survive early childhood cancers tend to be more likely to develop heart disease early on. Just as it is in the general population, that becomes a major cause of early death and disability, so we’ve done a lot of work looking at primary and secondary prevention strategies related to reducing cardiovascular disease risk in people who have cancer as children.
On the adult side, some of our work has been kind of similar, but we’re also looking at how we help improve the transition back to primary care. There’s a phenomenon that once people have cancer, they oftentimes lose connection with primary care – they kind of assume that because they’re seeing an oncologist, all their healthcare needs are taken care of. But there’s other things like hypertension or diabetes that are going to be important problems still, and oncologists are usually not in the best position to help manage those things. So, educating and trying to work with patients to make sure that they’re integrated into primary care is a challenge that we’re trying to look at in some of our studies. But there’s a lot of other research going on, obviously. A lot of people focus on quality of life, symptoms, fatigue, sleep, brain function – you can look at a lot of different things.
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You co-lead both the Prevention Center Shared Resource and now the CEPC research program – what leadership advice would you give to someone just starting their career, medical or otherwise?
[laughs] I could probably use some of that myself. With the Prevention Center, I think I’ve been fortunate because I’ve been able to co-lead it with Johanna Lampe, who’s very experienced, a great collaborator and co-leader, very thoughtful, gives great feedback, understands the lay of the land and helps prioritize things. One benefits from having colleagues – in an official role or not – who are able and willing to give good advice. That’s a great place to start from.
Otherwise, I think a lot of it is good listening – I don’t know if my wife would always agree – I try to be a good listener, and listen to everyone, not just [air quotes] “senior faculty.” Junior faculty have a lot of good feedback, and they may have different perspectives on certain topics than people who have been here a long time might have, and different perspectives can be useful. One of the reasons I’m excited about this job – not even just the CEPC part, but just the epidemiology part – is I think we have a really nice culture within the research staff of the program. We like to maintain that, where it’s very collaborative and faculty share staff across projects, which I think is a little different than how most groups are set up at Fred Hutch, where it tends to be one or two faculty who work together who might share staff. But the idea of ten faculty who share staff is a little bit less common [in other divisions]. Over the years, a lot of us have maintained a core group of staff, and because there’s a large pool of faculty using them, they worry less about attrition or the vagaries of grant funding. We’ve had the luxury of having some staff with us for decades, and there’s a lot of institutional memory associated with that – just a lot of camaraderie because you’ve been working with the same group of people for many many years.
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What are your favorite things to do when you’re not at work?
I have two kids, 12 and 14, so they keep us pretty busy with all their extracurriculars, like all the other families that we know of. In the wintertime we usually like to go skiing for a week or more. This year, so far, we haven’t managed to go skiing yet, but I think the weather’s been a little weird too. But we’re hopefully going to go during their midwinter break, which is coming up in a couple of weeks in mid-February. We like to take trips together – they still like going on trips with us, which is good. We like to visit National Parks – this year I think we’ll go to Joshua Tree down in Southern California in April. Last year we went to the Grand Canyon. In the summer, we’ll usually take them to go visit grandparents and go swimming down in Los Angeles, and we do fun stuff around Puget Sound as well.
We didn’t get animals or pets during the pandemic, which our kids regret, but we did get two paddleboards. They’re the inflatable ones, so we can transport them more easily. In the summertime we’ll go to Lake Washington or something and do some paddleboarding there. We used to be able to fit both kids and me on one paddleboard, but now they’re too big, so now we have to have two, maybe even three.
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Do you have a favorite National Park?
The local ones of course we always like. I like Olympic National Park a lot just because it’s so varied in the types of environment it has. But if I had to pick a favorite, I guess it’d be Glacier National Park in Montana. There’s a place you can stay called the Apgar Inn. It’s in the park, it’s right on Lake McDonald, so you just look out at the lake and it’s amazing. We’ve gone there twice and both times we’ve managed to stay there. You just basically walk out and the lake’s right there, you can put your paddleboards in the lake – which is what we did during the pandemic. It’s just an amazing view. And the rest of the park is great as well. It’s a little bit like the lake here, but just much larger and has all the mountains around it. You’re literally just on the shore, it’s really amazing. So if you go, I recommend the Apgar.
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What’s your favorite place in Seattle, or the place you think is the best-kept secret?
There’s lots of places. It’s not a secret, but – if I worked from home, I would personally love to live next to Discovery Park, but it’s kind of hard to get here [to the Hutch] from Magnolia. I like Discovery Park a lot – they have this three-mile loop you can do where you see a little bit of everything: the forest, the meadow, you can see Puget Sound and if it’s clear you can see Mount Ranier. You can go down to the beach as well. That’s probably my favorite spot in Seattle.
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What is your favorite dinosaur? Please explain your answer.
That’s a good question. You know the ones that first started to fly? No one really knows what they look like – they probably had feathers. We saw that Netflix show, Life on Our Planet, which is about life and evolution on the planet, and the different phases and extinctions and how life persists and comes back. Morgan Freeman was the narrator, of course. They did a lot of special effects and recreated all these animals so they looked realistic, including these first flying dinosaurs that were almost like gliders. We don’t watch that much TV, but we try to occasionally find shows that all of us will watch, including our two kids, and everyone liked it. It’s only seven or eight episodes, but it goes from the very beginning of life to the most recent Ice Age and the rise of humans.
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Is there anything else we should know about the CEPC program or the Prevention Center Shared Resource?
For the shared resource, we used to be better about just letting people know it exists, because not everyone may realize that there is essentially a research clinic, exercise lab, and nutrition lab in the basement of Arnold. So that’s the most important thing – is that that exists. And if you’re interested in doing a study where you’re bringing patients back in, or even remote studies that revolve around lifestyle interventions, the staff there are really experienced at doing that. And importantly for a shared resource, we try to keep the rates really low. There’s thinks like exercise testing and DEXA Scans that are much lower priced than what you’d get in a clinical facility.
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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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