MARCH 2025
 
IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

  • From the Cancer Consortium
  • Consortium Kudos
  • Current Funding Opportunities
  • Save the Date - Upcoming Events
  • From the Office of Community Outreach & Engagement
  • From the Institute of Translational Health Services
  • Consortium Leadership Spotlight: Dr. Jen Specht
 

FROM THE CANCER CONSORTIUM

Consortium Kudos

Dr. Fred Appelbaum Inducted into the 2025 Class of the American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT) Fellows Program

Congratulations to Dr. Fred Appelbaum, who was recently appointed an ASTCT Fellow in recognition of the impact of his work in the field of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. According to the ASTCT, "Appointment as an ASTCT Fellow in our professional society is designed to honor exceptional achievement and service within our member community."

Dr. Appelbaum is a member and co-leader of the Consortium's Hematologic Malignancies program. Please join us in congratulating him!

Dr. Liz Swisher Named First Clinical Director for the Gynecology Group at Fred Hutch

Congratulations to Dr. Liz Swisher, who was recently named the first Clinical Director for the Gynecology Group at Fred Hutch.

"All the established disease groups at FHCC have a clinical director. The growth of gynecology and gynecologic oncology at FHCC provided the need for a clinical director for gyn," said Dr. Swisher. "I am very excited to take on that role. In the last 12 months we have welcomed two new gyn-onc MDs (Isabel Rodriguez and Nicole Fleming - also Deputy CMO at FHCC), and a new APP - Mike Marecki, ARNP) to join the prior core group (myself; Kalyan Banda, MD; and Barbara Silko, PhD, ARNP). In July, we will have Dr. Zachary Pollack taking over for Dr. Linda Mihalov, who is retiring as our primary benign gynecologist. This rapid growth has led to enormous opportunities to enhance patient care and clinical research and I look forward to bringing best practices to our group and learning from other disease group leaders."

Dr. Swisher is a member and co-leader of the Consortium's Breast & Ovary Cancers program. Please join us in congratulating her!
 

CURRENT FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

TRPCD Career Enhancement Program and Developmental Research Program Awards

The Translational Research Program in Cancer Disparities (TRPCD) SPORE is pleased to announce the following funding opportunities.

1. Career Enhancement Program
The purpose of TRPCD’s Career Enhancement Program (CEP) is to support early career investigators interested in pursuing translational cancer disparities research projects related to any cancer type with a well-documented disparity, as well as Associate Professors without a prior track record in cancer disparities research to become engaged in this field. The CEP award provides a flexible means of funding basic, clinical, and population sciences research with outstanding translational promise. Cornerstones of our program include identifying and providing multi-disciplinary mentors, assigning sponsors, and providing opportunities for leadership development as appropriate.

For more details, click here to see the CEP RFA. Applications are due by EOD on April 18th.

2. Developmental Research Program
The purpose of the Developmental Research Program (DRP) for the TRPCD is to support early-phase translational cancer disparities research projects related to any cancer type with a well-documented disparity. The DRP provides a flexible means of funding basic, clinical, and population sciences research with outstanding translational promise.

For more details, click here to see the DRP RFA. Applications are due by EOD on April 18th.

About the Funder
The Translational Research Program in Cancer Disparities (TRPCD) SPORE grant addresses gaps in understanding drivers of disparities in cancer risk and outcomes.

Questions?
Contact ssthomas@fredhutch.org or trpcd@fredhutch.org for more information.

Fred Hutch Bench-to-Bedside (B2B) Adult Oncology Awards

Funds are available to support three unique funding mechanisms available over the next three years for projects in adult oncology.

In 2022, the Bezos family pledged a landmark gift to Fred Hutch Cancer Center to dramatically increase the pace and scale of cancer research, with the goal of driving collaborations amongst clinical, laboratory, and population scientists. To facilitate transdisciplinary bench-to-bedside cancer research in adult oncology, Fred Hutch is using these philanthropic funds to offer three unique funding mechanisms available over the next three years to support:
  • A small, investigator-initiated, proof-of-concept trial in humans using a novel therapy
  • Non-interventional cross-disciplinary studies
  • Preclinical projects to enable the next generation of cellular therapies
Proposed projects should be focused on adult cancers and represent a new project or new research direction for the principal investigator that will provide preliminary data needed to seek external funding and continue scientific investigation. Collaborations amongst clinical, laboratory, and population scientists across disciplines as well as inclusion of patient advocates in study design, implementation, analysis, and dissemination of results are highly encouraged where relevant, if not explicitly required. Faculty can only serve as PI on one application per year for any of the three mechanisms; however, they may be collaborators/co-Investigators on more than one application.

To be eligible for these funding opportunities, principal investigators (PIs) must:
  • Have a primary or joint faculty appointment at any rank (i.e. assistant, associate, or full professor) at Fred Hutch Cancer Center
  • Be a Fred Hutch/University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Cancer Consortium member
Click here to refer to the RFA for more details. Applications may be submitted via InfoReady starting March 24th, and are due May 9th at 5pm.
 

UPCOMING EVENTS

» [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. 

  • March 12: Elena Thieme (Setty Lab)
  • March 19: Mark Mendoza (Furlan Lab)
  • March 26: Iyabode Tiamiyu (Warren Lab)
  • April 1: Sylvain Simon (Riddell Lab)
  • April 9: Nick Petty (Kiem Lab) *virtual only
  • April 16: TBD (Srivastava Lab)
  • April 30: Rebecca Reeves (Flow Core)
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.

Contact Becca Jourdan (rjourdan@fredhutch.org) for more information.  

» [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:

  • March 12 (11:30am): "Preclinical Imaging with Ultrasound for Rodent Imaging and Welfare," hosted by Preclinical Imaging  and FUJIFILM (D1-080, Sze Suites, Thomas Building, Fred Hutch Campus). Pizza will be provided for those who register to attend the seminar. Live imaging sessions are being offered all day for those who sign up.
  • April 9 (11:30am): "DNA and RNA Sequencing Methods," hosted by Genomics & Bioinformatics (D1-080, Sze Suites, Thomas Building, Fred Hutch Campus)
  • May 14 (11:30am): "Introduction to Image Analysis," hosted by Cellular Imaging (B1-072, Weintraub Building, Fred Hutch Campus)
  • June 11 (11:30am): IVIS & MicroCT Applications (full talk title TBD), hosted by Preclinical Imaging & Revity (D1-080, Sze Suites, Thomas Building, Fred Hutch Campus
Click here to sign up for the upcoming March 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.

» April 2: ACCA Team Science Network Meeting

Each other month, ACCA's Team Science Network holds a virtual meeting to discuss various topics related to facilitating team science at Cancer Centers. Please see below for information about the upcoming Team Science Network Meeting.

  • Date: Wednesday, April 2nd, 12-1pm (PST)
  • Location: Virtual (Zoom)
  • Speaker: Jim Spohrer, PhD. Topic: "Discover and Learn about Digital Twining: Where AI and Team Science Come Together."
Click here to access the Zoom link for the meeting.

Dr. Spohrer was the former Chief Technology Officer at IBM and a Distinguished Scientist in Learning and Research at Apple Computer. he currently serves on the Board of Directors for the ISSIP (International Society of Service Innovation Professionals) and for ServCollab ("Serving Humanity through Collaboration").

» May 1: STTR Innovation Retreat 2025 - Save the Date + Call for Poster Submissions!

The Office of Translational Research is proud to host the next Seattle Translational Tumor Research (STTR) Retreat, bringing together a network of researchers and clinicians for an engaging and collaborative event. The event will take place on Thursday, May 1st, at the Museum of Flight. The theme for the retreat is "Innovation." The event will feature scientific talks, a poster session, and a late afternoon reception.  

We invite STTR members, postdocs, and trainees to present their research in the poster session. This is a great opportunity to share your work with the community, engage in meaningful discussions, and receive valuable feedback from peers and experts. To participate, please submit your poster title and abstract to STTRCancer@fredhutch.org by March 14th. Due to space constraints, we are only able to accept a limited number of posters. Selected presenters will be notified by email. 

» May 6: Pathogen Associated Malignancies (PAM) Integrated Research Center (IRC) and Microbiome Research Initiative Joint Retreat

The 2025 Pathogen Associated Malignancies IRC and Microbiome Research Initiative Joint Retreat will take place on Tuesday, May 6th, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. The retreat is open to all Consortium members, including trainees and staff. Click here for more information about the retreat.

The deadline to register for this event is April 4th. Click here to register.

 This year's event will feature the following keynotes:
  • Eric Engels, MD, MPH  Director, Infections and Immunoepidemiology Branch, National Cancer Institute
  • Sean Gibbons, PhD  Associate Professor, Institute for Systems Biology. Talk title: “Microbial community-scale metabolic modeling enables microbiome-mediated precision nutrition”
There will also be talks from the following:
Meghan Koch, PhD
Michael Lagunoff, PhD
Jared Mayers, MD, PhD
Andy McGuire, PhD
Sam Minot, PhD     
Viswam Nair, MD, MS
Warren Phipps, MD MPH
Nick Salisbury, PhD
Rachel Winer, PhD MPH
Albert Yeh, MD      
Lightning Talks from Postdocs, Graduate Students or Research Technicians

Are you a Postdoc, Graduate Student, or Research Technician interested in presenting your research?
You are invited to submit an abstract of your research to participate via poster and/or lightning talk.  Please indicate on the registration form if you wish to receive submission instructions. If interested, the deadline to submit your abstract is April 15th, 2025.

» May 13: Pathways to Equity Symposium

You are invited to the 2025 Pathways to Equity Symposium!
  • Date: Tuesday, May 13th, 2025
  • Time: 8:30 am – 4:00 pm
  • Location: Fred Hutch Campus and streaming online
This annual event is hosted by the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement and brings together researchers, community members, and providers to learn best practices and share experiences to address cancer inequities. This year’s theme is "Mountains, Valleys, and Islands: Bridging Access to Care in Washington State" with a keynote address by Yamilé Molina, PhD, MS, MPH, from the University of Illinois Chicago.

This event is free, and lunch will be provided to those attending in person. Click here to register. 

The OCOE is also nominations for the 2025 Health Equity Champion Awards, which will be presented at the symposium. Click here to nominate someone. For more information, see the "From the Office of Community Outreach & Engagement" section below.

» June 19-21: 4th International Symposium on Late Complications after Childhood Cancer (ISLCCC)

Please join us this summer for the 4th ISLCCC Conference, hosted by the Fred Hutch Survivorship Program. This in-person event will take place at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle.

The 2025 symposium will provide a venue for the multidisciplinary exchange of innovative ideas among clinicians and researchers engaged in pediatric and adolescent cancer survivorship care and research. This year's topics will include emerging research results and insights from real-word clinical experience to promote research collaborations and improve survivorship care throughout the world, and will include the following keynote presentations and panels:
  • Dr. Les Robison (St. Jude Children's Research Hospital): "Ann Mertens & Marilynn Stovall memorial lecture on childhood cancer survivorship, past, present, and future."
  • Dr. Joshua Hill (Fred Hutch Cancer Center): "Immune reconstitution following cancer therapy."
  • Dr. Angela Bradbury (University of Pennsylvania): “Cancer predisposition and genetic considerations in long-term cancer survivors."
  • Dr. Ruth Etzioni (Fred Hutch Cancer Center): “Current evidence and future implementation of multi-cancer detection screening."
  • Panel: "Transition of AYA survivors to adult care."
  • Panel: "Development of survivorship care and research in LMIC settings."
The meeting will immediately follow the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) Investigators' Meeting and a meeting of the International Guideline Harmonization Group (IGHG).

Registration is now open for ISLCCC 2025. Click here to register.

For more information, visit the event web page or contact islccc25@fredhutch.org.

» June 27: Dr. Rainer Storb Symposium

The Fred Hutch Cancer Center Clinical Research and Translational Science and Therapeutics Divisions invite colleagues and friends of Dr. Rainer Storb to a scientific symposium and reception in his honor. 

  • Date: Friday, June 27, 2025
  • Location: Fred Hutch Cancer Center, Thomas Building (1100 Fairview Ave N., Seattle, WA)
  • Schedule: Scientific Talks: 8am - 4pm; Reception: 4 - 6pm
Click here to learn more and RSVP. For additional questions about the Dr. Rainer Storb Symposium, contact Sara Kraft (skraft@fredhutch.org).
 

FROM THE OFFICE OF COMMUNITY OUTREACH & ENGAGEMENT

Beti Thompson Health Equity Champion Awards

Nominations are open for the 2025 Health Equity Champion Awards!

Do you know someone who is a:
  • Community member and health champion who has had an extraordinary impact on the health and well-being of their community?
  • Outstanding scientist from the Cancer Consortium who has made significant contributions to cancer health equity research?
  • Outstanding staff member from the Cancer Consortium who has made an extraordinary contribution in elevating health equity and engagement with underrepresented communities within their program?
Tell us about them! Click here to submit a nomination before March 28th. Awards will be presented at the 2025 Pathways to Equity Symposium (see events section above for more information).

Stay Up to Date on All Things OCOE!

Did you know the OCOE has a newsletter? Click here to view past editions or subscribe to our mailing list and stay connected to all our health equity initiatives!
 

FROM THE INSTITUTE OF TRANSLATIONAL HEALTH SCIENCES (ITHS)
 

CONSORTIUM LEADERSHIP SPOTLIGHT
Dr. Jennifer Specht is a professor at UW and Fred Hutch, and also serves as the Clinical Research Director of Breast Oncology at UW Medicine. Within the Consortium, she is one of two associate program leaders for the Breast & Ovary Cancers program. This month, we talked with Dr. Specht about her work, the inherent challenges of facilitating cross-disciplinary research, and her non-work-related hobbies (spoiler: it's probably not what you think!).
Can you talk a little bit about your roles, both in and out of the Consortium, and your specific research interests?
I’m a professor, clinician scholar at the University of Washington and in the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutch. My research interests span different areas in breast oncology. I have a keen interest in molecular imaging, which is using techniques – primarily FDG PET, and other PET tracers – to understand the biology of breast cancer and mechanisms of resistance. We are looking specifically at patients who have breast cancer bone metastasis and utilizing FDG PET as a way to be able to assess how well patients are responding to novel therapies. I have the privilege of leading an ECOG-ACRIN trial that is validating the use of FDG PET to predict response and to hopefully help us have a criterion so that these patients with bone-only disease can be part of clinical trials. That also has an R01 funding where I work with Eric Konnick and the molecular pathology lab at the University of Washington, where we’re doing synergy between imaging and ctDNA as assessing response to therapy in this patient population.

My interests include novel and experimental therapeutics. So, for a few years I’ve worked with the IIRC [Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center] and was involved in a two of the first-in-human CAR T cell study trials for patients with breast cancer. Based on work coming out of Stan Riddell’s labs during our Breast SPORE grant, an antigen called ROR1 was identified as a therapeutic target for CAR T cell therapy. With David Maloney, Stan Riddell, Carla Jaeger, Sylvia Lee, and team, we conducted first-in-human trial with of autologous CAR T cell therapy targeting ROR1 in patients with triple negative breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, as well as CLL [chronic lymphocytic leukemia]. I continue to be involved CTAC [Clinical Trials Advisory Committee] through the IIRC.

I’m a member of the Phase I team representing the breast group at the University of Washington side for experimental therapeutics, Phase I clinical trials. Our breast investigators were among the first group investigator-initiated trial conducted in the phase I program evaluating PARP inhibitor and chemotherapy in patients with metastatic TNBC. As the clinical research director, I have the privilege of leading our breast oncology research portfolio, so we conduct Phase I to Phase III clinical trials. I have a phenomenal team with our research nurse and our clinical research coordinators, and we have a robust portfolio of clinical trials that we’re able to offer to our patients at FHCC and now at FHCC Northwest Hospital.

In addition to seeing patients, I also spend a lot of time mentoring both our oncology fellows and kind of working with fellows in the continuity clinic. On the Consortium side, it is a privilege to work with John Liao and Liz Swisher and Cyrus Ghajar to represent the Breast & Ovary Cancers program. We continue to work to create synergy and develop clinical trials which include and leverage biologic pathways which are important in both breast and ovarian cancer such as DNA damage repair and cellular based therapies.   
One thing that gets talked about a lot in the Consortium (and in general) is facilitating cross-disciplinary research. The Breast & Ovary Cancers program has sort of a double problem in that regard, because you have to facilitate collaboration with other programs, but also across the two categories of researchers within your own program. As someone who’s heavily involved in a lot of cross-disciplinary projects yourself, can you talk about what you feel are the most important ingredients for cultivating successful interdisciplinary collaboration?
Yes! FHCC is a fantastic cancer center and there’s so much great research going on across the institution. One of the things that I think is essential, and that we try very hard to do in the Breast & Ovary program, is to create opportunities for collaboration. It is easy to get so involved in our own projects and patients, and with time being precious, we need to be intentional about making time to meet with colleagues who are working in different areas of study. So we try to bring those people and those groups together so that we can plan the next impactful study and understand and translate the advances from our lab-based colleagues back to the clinic. So, the first step is getting people in the same room, honestly. I think it’s key to develop opportunities where you get everyone together so you can brainstorm and talk about how you might move ideas and concepts forward.
I imagine that’s the hardest part because everyone is so busy. 
Everyone’s so busy. Clinicians are often in clinic and it’s hard to find the time and space. I think we do a little better with virtual, but even virtual is tough because people are so much more interactive when you’re face-to-face and you have opportunities to just talk. That’s usually where the best ideas come from, at least in my experience: more informal or in-person meetings rather than virtual seminars.
You work on a lot of different teams and have a lot of different leadership roles. Can you talk about your thoughts on team cohesion and the most important elements of leadership when you’re trying to get a group of people to all do the same thing or be in the same room?
As a leader it’s important to really focus on being present and being present in a way that your team sees that you’re passionate and you’re interested in the mission and simply showing up and being available. My role as director is to bring trials to our group and help make sure that we are enrolling and caring for the patients we see. I think we all strive to conduct research which will improve the lives of people with cancer and it’s an honor to work with colleagues who share this mission.

One of the other things we try hard to do is to help support our faculty. We have a weekly faculty research meetings and prioritizing discussions on trials and opportunities for success. Making space for these discussions is critical. We work to be as collaborative and democratic as possible with intent of generating excitement, ownership and success in the endeavor. There are always challenges—with our complex processes and fast-moving trials and practice changes. I won’t say that any of these things are perfect, but I think demonstrating commitment, being present, open to new ideas, and trying to make sure everyone has a path to success has been helpful in terms of building good rapport and helping kind of pull teams together.
You’ve been in Seattle a long time – you did your medical school and your residency at UW. Are you from here?
Yes, I grew up in Southwest Washington. I completed my undergraduate work at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, and then medical school and residency at UW. So, I’ve been here a really long time – I’m pretty boring that way. I love the Northwest. We love to spend time in the summer hiking, and anytime I can be outside with trees or playing in the snow, I’m happy. 
What’s your favorite season in Seattle?
I think summer in Seattle is pretty amazing. I also like winter, but specifically winter weather with snow, which there’s not much of here. So, you have to kind of go east into the mountains or the Cascades to enjoy it. But summers in Seattle – with the Puget Sound, Rainier, Olympics, Cascades and so many trees and beauty… it is a privilege to live in the northwest.
You don’t have to give away a secret spot if you have one – but do you have a favorite hiking trial or place you like to be outside?
We really love North Cascades and Alpine Lakes area. 
What is something you know a lot about that is not in any way related to your research or work?
My husband and I have old BMWs. I was also a high-performance driving instructor, so I have a 1990 BMW M3 that I used to take out on the track and do high-performance driving. Our family loves Formula 1.
Do you have a favorite Formula 1 team or driver?
If I say Michael Schumacher, I will age myself, however he is still the GOAT. Right now, I’m cheering for McLaren as a team and have affection for Fernando Alonzo.  
 
FRED HUTCH/UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON/SEATTLE CHILDREN'S CANCER CONSORTIUM
1100 FAIRVIEW AVE. N., SEATTLE, WA 98109
https://www.cancerconsortium.org/

Award number P30 CA015704-49