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MAY 2023
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IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
- From the Cancer Consortium
- Congratulations to the 2023 Cancer Consortium Pilot Awardees!
- CCSG Updates
- In the Spotlight
- Current Funding Opportunities
- Save the Date - Upcoming Events
- From the Consortium Shared Resources
- From the Office of Community Outreach & Engagement
- From the NCI
- From Clinical Research Support
- Consortium Leader Close Up: Dr. Tom Lynch
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FROM THE CANCER CONSORTIUM
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Please Join Us in Congratulating the 2023 Cancer Consortium Pilot Awardees!
Consortium leadership is pleased to announce that the following individuals were recently awarded CCSG pilot funding to pursue new, innovative research topics:
- Dr. Barbara Baquero (Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention & Control) : "Partnering with Latino-Owned Businesses to Advance Health Equity through Cancer Prevention and Control"
- Dr. Taran Gujral (Prostate Cancer): "Re-programming Cancer-associated Fibroblast Function to Combat Pancreatic Cancer"
- Dr. Hao Yuan Kueh (Cancer Basic Biology): "Massively-parallel Evaluation of Cytokine Combinations for Enhancing CAR T Cell Antitumor Function"
- Dr. Michael Haffner (Prostate Cancer): "Machine Learning Approaches to Predict Outcomes to Neo-Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Bladder Cancer"
- Dr. Kate Markey (Hematologic Malignancies): "Exploring the Role of Microbiota-derived Indoles in Leukemia Relapse after Allo-HCT"
- Dr. Arjee Restar (Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention & Control): "Gender Affirming Integration of HIV and Cancer Healthcare among Transgender and Nonbinary (Trans) People of Color in Washington"
- Dr. Surojit Sarkar (Cancer Immunology): "Locoregional Delivery of IL-21 Mutein by Engineered CAR-T Cells for Glioblastoma Immunotherapy"
- Dr. Megan Shen (Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention & Control): "Building Resistance to Cancer Nutrition Misinformation through an Escape Room Game Intervention"
- Dr. Rasi Subramaniam (Cancer Basic Biology): "Massively Parallel Decoding of T Cell Receptor Specificity for Peptide-MHC Complexes"
Please join us in congratulating these investigators!
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CCSG Updates
The Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) is due January of 2024, which means - it's Competing Renewal season! Here's what we're currently working on:
- Consortium leadership are currently conducting an internal review of the CCSG narrative first drafts that were completed last month.
- Feedback from this review process will be compiled and collated, and writers will use it in revising their second drafts, which are due at the end of May. These second drafts will then be presented to the Consortium's External Advisory Board (EAB) for a second review.
- In the coming weeks, the Consortium Administration team will conduct an annual audit of the Consortium's membership. The membership roster will be finalized this summer, and will be used to determine the data used in the CCSG.
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In the Spotlight
The following interinstitutional Cancer Consortium collaborations were included in recent editions of the Science Spotlight:
- "Introducing the Brain-UMAP: a reference map of the human brain" featured collaborative work by Drs. Siobhan Pattwell (Seattle Children's; Cancer Basic Biology) and Eric Holland (Fred Hutch; Cancer Basic Biology).
- "Localized delivery of CAR T cells to treat children with brain tumors" featured collaborative work by Drs. Nicholas Vitanza (Seattle Children's; Cancer Immunology) and Amanda Paulovich (Fred Hutch; Breast & Ovary Cancers).
- "Classifying prostate cancer subtypes from liquid biopsies" featured collaborative work by Drs. Jay Sarthy (Seattle Children's; Cancer Basic Biology), Colin Pritchard (UW; Prostate Cancer), Colm Morrissey (UW; Prostate Cancer), R. Bruce Montgomery (UW; Prostate Cancer), Eva Corey (UW; Prostate Cancer), Steve Henikoff (Fred Hutch; Cancer Basic Biology), Pete Nelson (Fred Hutch; Prostate Cancer), and Gavin Ha (Fred Hutch; Biostatistics & Computational Biology).
- "CMV breakthrough and resistance to antiviral drug after blood stem cell transplants" featured collaborative work by Drs. Michael Boeckh (Fred Hutch; Cancer Immunology), Paul Martin (UW; Hematologic Malignancies), Brenda Sandmaier (Fred Hutch; Hematologic Malignancies), Keith Jerome (UW; Pathogen Associated Malignancies), and Masumi Ueda Oshima (Fred Hutch; Hematologic Malignancies).
- "Work smarter not harder: Leveraging cancer immunotherapies to improve organ transplantation" featured collaborative work by Drs. Joshua Hill (Fred Hutch; Hematologic Malignancies), Damian Green (Fred Hutch; Hematologic Malignancies), David Maloney (Fred Hutch; Cancer Immunology), Rebecca Gardner (Seattle Children's; Cancer Immunology), and Christopher Blosser (UW; Other Oncology).
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CURRENT FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
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The New Investigator Award Application Is Now Open
Funds are available from the Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) for four to five awards of up to $100,000 each in direct costs (plus F&A/indirect costs). These awards are intended to provide developmental support to new or junior faculty who are establishing their research within the Cancer Consortium.
To be eligible, investigators must 1) be a current Consortium member or be eligible to become a member at the time of award, 2) be doing cancer-related research, and 3) not have received CCSG funding of any kind within three years of the application deadline (since June 2020).
Applications are due Friday, June 16, by 5:00pm and should be submitted through InfoReady. For additional information about eligibility and detailed application instructions, please see the RFA on the Consortium website.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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» May 12, 2023: Cancer Consortium Survivorship Program Research Symposium
Join us from 10am-3pm on Friday, May 12, for the Cancer Consortium Survivorship Program 2023 Research Symposium: Cardiometabolic Outcomes After Cancer.
In addition to a keynote presentation by Dr. Bonnie Ky (University of Pennsylvania), the symposium will feature research talks by investigators across the Consortium, a panel discussion on survivorship research resources, and short talks by investigators applying for the 2023 Survivorship Pilot Award.
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» May 16, 2023: Spring Open House at Fred Hutch - Open to All!
Please join us for our second annual Open House! More than 45 groups representing teams at Fred Hutch and the University of Washington who support scientific and clinical research will be hosting a fun and collaborative gathering. Last year, we had more than 400 attendees! This year we have even more participants and a new location.
When: May 16th, 2:30-4:30pm
Where: Fred Hutch Double Helix Café and B-Suites across the hall
Who is invited? Everyone! Faculty, clinicians, postdocs, grad students, technicians, administrators, operations, and more!
Snacks will be provided, and you will have an opportunity to enter a raffle for a prize!
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Teams hosting this event include Shared Resources, Clinical Research Support, Integrated Research Centers (IRC), Office of Scientific Career Development, Cancer Consortium Programs, Global Oncology, Office of Translational Research (OTR)/Seattle Translational Tumor Research (STTR), Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research (HICOR), Arnold Library, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and more!
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» May 19: Dr. Eli Estey Honorary Symposium
Please join us for "AML Pathogenesis and Therapy: a Scientific Symposium in Honor of Dr. Eli Estey" at Fred Hutch Cancer Center. Featured presenters include:
- Jorge Cortes, MD (Georgia Cancer Center)
- John DiPersio, MD, PhD (Washington University School of Medicine)`
- Sergei Doulatov, PhD (University of Washington)
- Benjamin Ebert, MD, PhD (Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University)
- Christopher Hourigan, DM, DPhil. (NHLBI, National Institutes of Health)
- Mary-Beth Percival, MD (University of Washington & Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center)
- David Scadden, MD (Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University)
- Charles Schiffer, MD (Wayne State University)
- Lucy Godley, MD, PhD (University of Chicago)
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» June 3, 2023: 17th Annual Survivorship Event: Moving Beyond Cancer To Wellness
The Fred Hutch Survivorship Program is pleased to announce that the 17th Annual Survivorship Event will be held on Saturday, June 3, 2023. The seminar will take place on the Fred Hutch Campus in Pelton Auditorium (Arnold Building) from 8:30am-3:00pm.
This year's event will feature a keynote speech from Mary Elizabeth Williams, a panel discussion and breakout sessions on survivorship topics, and more. Light continental breakfast and lunch will be provided.
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» [Ongoing] Translational Data Sciences Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC) Seminar Series
May 4, 2023, 11:00am: Stephanie Hicks, PhD (Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)
This talk will be held in the O'Mack Symposium Suites (Steam Plant Building, Fred Hutch Campus) and will also be streamed live. (Zoom link: click here / Meeting ID: 832 5814 4605 / Passcode: 595947)
June 1, 2023, 11:00am: Peter Kharchenko, PhD (Gilbert S. Omenn Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School)
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» [Ongoing] Pathogen Associated Malignancies Integrated Research Center (PAM IRC) Seminar Series
May 17, 2023, 2:00pm: Qian Yin, PhD (Faculty Member, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida State University) will give a talk titled "Higher order oligomerization of KSHV KicGAS is essential for DNA-induced phase separation and cGAS inhibition."
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» [Ongoing] Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center (IIRC) Seminar Series
May 25, 2023 at 2:00pm: Dr. J.H.E. Kuball (Department of Hematology Chair, Principal Investigator, University Medical Center Utrecht), will be giving a talk titled "GD T cell-receptor based immune therapies."
The talk will be held in Pelton Auditorium (Weintraub Building, Fred Hutch Campus) and will also be streamed live via Zoom. (Meeting ID: 976 5640 3994 / Meeting Passcode: 734407)
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» September 10-13, 2023: REDCap Conference 2023
The annual REDCap conference is a three-and-a-half-day event that offers educational and networking opportunities to REDCap administrators around the world. This year, ITHS is helping to host the event in Seattle.
The conference will be held at the Westin in Seattle (1900 5th Avenue, Seattle WA 98101) and is open to all REDCap Administrators. To learn more about the event or register to attend, click here.
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» [Ongoing] Fred Hutch Steam Plan Seminar Series
The postdocs in the Steam Plant have organized a seminar series for trainees and invite all Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center (IIRC) faculty and their lab members to attend. All seminars take place at 4pm in the O’Mack Suites on the first floor of the Steam Plant.
FH users can join our mailing list to receive notifications about seminars. (Be aware that 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.) UW and SC users can contact Becca Jourdan ( rjourdan@fredhutch.org) for more information.
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FROM THE CONSORTIUM SHARED RESOURCES
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The 2023 Shared Resources User Satisfaction Survey Is Now Open!
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center Shared Resources appreciates your engagement with our services. We want to hear your feedback and perspectives! Everyone who completes the survey will be entered into our raffles and will have the opportunity to win a coffee/donut hour for your lab, a lab lunch, or logo items.
Please share your feedback and experience with our Shared Resources Core Facilities and their services. The purpose of this confidential survey is to gather actionable feedback on our Shared Resources core services. The survey is open to Consortium members at all institutions.
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The survey will only take 5-10 minutes, and your feedback will help us direct the continued improvement of Shared Resources. If you have any questions about the survey, please reach out to the Shared Resources staff at SRAdmin@fredhutch.org.
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Reminder: Interns and Students Need INA Background Checks Before Beginning Work
An animal-specific background check is required for anyone who will need access to Comparative Medicine spaces, including interns, summer students, visiting scientists and new employees. The check takes a minimum of one week to complete, so please plan ahead. Contact hrops@fredhutch.org with any questions.
Once your student, intern, or new employee has a Fred Hutch email, they can request their onboarding, orientation, and training task list by contacting CMSharePointAccess@fredhutch.onmicrosoft.com. Background check clearance is required prior to facility orientation.
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Collaborative Data Services
Collaborative Data Services (CDS) is a Consortium Shared Resource based at Fred Hutch on the first floor of the Arnold Building. We have a fee-for-service pricing structure with market competitive rates. CDS provides support to investigators in the Fred Hutch/University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Cancer Consortium and external organizations that focus their efforts on research and health. Our support goes from study start to end of study.
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Our services comprise three different programs:
Programming Services (PS)
- Custom scientific software development.
- Website creation
- Data coordination and operation oversight for multisite projects
- Electronic data collection
- Provide REDCap workshops/training
Project Management Services (PMS)
- Project Management
- Data Operations (mailings- assembly, tracking and sending mailings; qualitative data coding and analysis, data entry and freezer farm inventory)
- Compliance and Regulatory Tasks— IRB submission/maintenance, CTMS/Oncore reporting
Interviewing, Translation and Interpretation Services (ITIS)
- Bilingual Interviewing
- Administer Qualitative and Quantitative research phone interviews (English and Spanish)
- Eligibility screening, surveys and questionnaires conducted in English and Spanish
- Spanish Translations
- Multimedia Translation
- Transcription in English and Spanish
- Localization Service
- Interpretation Services (English and Spanish)
- Assessing Bilingual New Hires
- Connect investigators/research teams with external vendors for services in other languages
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Don't Forget to Cite the CCSG!
If you are creating any publications, press releases, or other documents that cite results from the work of Shared Resources or any CCSG-supported research, don’t forget to include proper acknowledgement of the grant and compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.
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FROM THE OFFICE OF COMMUNITY OUTREACH & ENGAGEMENT
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Applications Are Now Open for the Geographic Management of Cancer Health Disparities Program (GMaP) Region 5 Career Development Workshop (July 11-12, 2023)
Are you a graduate student, postdoc, or junior faculty? Gearing up to apply for a grant within the next year? This workshop is for you!
The Career Development Workshop is an annual two-day workshop that brings together trainees, early-career investigators, and senior investigators from institutions throughout the region. The purpose of the workshop is to provide small group instruction and one-on-one mentoring to individuals who intend to apply for grant funding in the coming year.
Presenters for this workshops will include NIH funded trainees and investigators and NCI Program Officers on topics including: specific aim development, NIH biosketch, how to choose a funding mechanism, responding to NIH critiques, putting together competitive F, K, R series NCI applications, and other career planning related sessions. As GMaP is a program supported by NCI, we are especially interested in promoting CURE funding mechanisms.
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Interested in learning more about health equity? Check out the OCOE podcast!
The OCOE podcast, “Cancer Health Equity NOW,” is currently in Season 3! Listen in as members of the OCOE catch up with folks across the state to talk about what we can do to work towards better outcomes for all Washingtonians.
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FROM THE NCI
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Milestones Is Now Available
A Message from Tom Misteli, PhD, Director of the NCI Center for Cancer Research:
The NCI Center for Cancer Research (CCR) is home to more than 250 dedicated research groups which pursue high-risk basic, translational and clinical research in an environment at the NIH Clinical Center that supports innovative and interdisciplinary cancer research aimed at improving human health.
I am happy to share with you the digital version of Milestones, a selection of research highlights from the past year by CCR investigators. We are proud to continue making meaningful contributions to our mission of improving the lives of cancer patients with a particular focus on high-risk, long-term projects that address some of the most challenging questions in cancer research and fulfill unmet needs across the basic-to-clinical spectrum, including cancer health disparities.
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FROM CLINICAL RESEARCH SUPPORT
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Quarterly Update on the Seattle Children's-Fred Hutch Research Partnership
Seattle Children's and Fred Hutch have a Research Affiliation Agreement (RAA) that formalizes the governance structure for identifying and resolving issues that impact collaborative research. The Research Operation Integration Committee (ROIC) is responsible for monitoring collaborative research progress and supporting subcommittees that handle data, compliance, and operations. Click here to see the most recent update from the ROIC.
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New and Updated Cancer Consortium Policies
The following new and updated Cancer Consortium policies are now available on the Consortium website.
- [NEW] PI on Leave: New policy establishing documentation and reporting guidelines for the extended absence of a PI.
- [UPDATED] Delegation of Authority (DOA): Policy updated to expand sections on documentation methods, as well as requirements for specific roles and service areas.
- [UPDATED] Clinical Research Training Requirements (previously titled Good Clinical Practice Training Policy): Policy now covers requirements for Good Clinical Practice and Human Subjects Protection trainings for all personnel involved in the design, conduct, or reporting of a cancer-related clinical trial.
- [UPDATED] Consortium Study Coordinator Training: Updated to expand on user training requirements and timing related to CTMS access.
- [UPDATED] Review of Safety Reports (previously titled Third Party Safety Reports): Clarifies that screening/review of safety reports is not necessary when a study is no longer enrolling or monitoring participants.
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CONSORTIUM LEADER CLOSE-UP: DR. TOM LYNCH
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Ever wondered what Dr. Lynch does in his free time? Or what sort of music he listens to? Or why he considers himself to be akin to goldfish? Wonder no more! We sat down with Dr. Lynch recently and got him to spill the tea on everything from his career to his most memorable Halloween costume. You're welcome.
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What would you say has been the highlight of your career?
I always say two things when asked that question. Obviously the highlight of my career has been coming to Fred Hutch to lead Fred Hutch at this incredible time in its journey. In terms of big picture things, this job is definitely the highlight of my career, without a doubt.
I was thinking of smaller things before that. I think being involved in the discovery of EGFR mutations was really exciting. Creating something called the Schwartz rounds, which enabled discussions about the connections between patients and caregivers, that was really exciting. Training fellows, which I really enjoyed, that was exciting. But all those things are little things, they’re not highlights – they’re just nice things. The highlight would be coming to the Hutch and being given the opportunity to lead the Hutch.
Rank your top five favorite bands or artists.
Number one is Bruce Springsteen, without a doubt. Number two is a singer named Patty Griffin. Number three is a singer named Neil Diamond. Number four is a guy named Ellis Paul, who’s a folk singer from Maine. Number five is a singer named Dar Williams. Definitely those five. But I can tell you this, I consume a lot of music. I love Taylor Swift – a lot. I think she’s a fantastic performer, and I listen to her music all the time, which is not demographically me. I think she’s fantastic. There’s a crazy guy named Billy Raffoul, who I really like. I listen to a ton of music, I really do. I’m not musical – I can’t read music, I can’t notice tones, I can’t sing or play instruments, but I spend a lot of time on curating music and music videos. It’s a really important part of what I do. I love catchy pop songs as well. I can sing all the bars of the Meghan Trainor song, “I Made You Look.”
(In spite of the interviewer’s best efforts, Dr. Lynch declined to give a demonstration at this time)
What's your favorite thing to do when you're not at work?
Favorite thing to do when not at work is to play sports. My wife and I are both sports players. We play a lot of tennis, play a lot of golf, do a lot of biking, do a lot of running. Playing sports has always been what we have done. Mostly together, but sometimes apart, depending on the leagues we’re in and stuff. If you said, “what’s a perfect Saturday?” it would be to play golf in the morning, play tennis in the league with my wife in the evening, and then go out to dinner. That’s a perfect night. Have beers at the club where we play tennis – we’ve played at tennis clubs all over the northwest, and then we go out to dinner afterwards. That is the perfect day.
In your opinion, what is the most essential element of leadership?
A couple things – one, you’ve got to be able to make decisions. You’re not always going to be right, but you’ve got to be able to make decisions. The worst leaders are people who are indecisive and can’t make decisions. I struggle with leaders who can’t make decisions, so making decisions is key. And then I think listening is really important. Trying to hear what people are telling you, and pausing and saying, “Okay, this is what I’m hearing.” Sometimes you don’t like what you’re hearing, but that’s key in my mind.
So decisiveness and then listening, and I guess if I had to put a third thing down, it’s – someone told me this, and it’s true – recognizing the shadow that you cast. Meaning that as a leader, people hang on what you say. I thought I had that down, and I kind of got myself in trouble a couple weeks ago when I made a comment during Town Hall when I answered a question about our masking policy going forward and I made the comment, “Gosh, I am so done with masks, but we have to protect our patients. Therefore, we are going to have to mask in clinical areas because our patients need to be safe. Our patients are immunocompromised, and they need to be safe.” People didn’t hang on the second part of it, but there’s a whole population at the Hutch that hung on the first part when I said I was "so done with masks," because they felt that was very critical of people who are wearing masks still. And I know why people wear masks still – they wear masks still because they may be immunocompromised, or they might have a baby at home who hasn’t been vaccinated. There are all kinds of reasons that people wear masks. But as a leader you can’t really say the first thing that comes to mind, and by saying that I’m "so done with masks" – that might be fine to say at a dinner party with your family, but you probably don’t say that at a Town Hall. So there’s an example of how you still have to be able to learn and move and progress as a leader. I’ve been a leader for a long time and I still screwed it up. It's something you have to keep front of mind.
What’s something you know a lot about that’s not related to science or work?
I’d say three things. I spend a lot of time following sports. I spend a lot of time following politics. And then, the third thing – which sounds insane – I am fascinated by airline timetables and airline schedules. I probably know more about airline schedules and airlines than I have a need to. I watch TikToks of planes landing and planes taking off – I find that kind of stuff fun.
Do you have a favorite sports team?
Yeah, the New England Patriots are my favorite sports team, which is not popular here. It’s not popular anywhere. Nobody except for New England likes the Patriots.
Describe your ideal pizza.
I am a huge pizza fan. I eat a lot of pizza. Maybe this is just my generation, but remember when you had a fish tank, or you had a goldfish, and you couldn’t feed all the food to the goldfish at once because the fish would eat all the food and just explode? That’s my problem with pizza. I’m like that goldfish. If you put pizza in front of me, I will eat pizza until I explode. I will eat way beyond the point when my hunger is satisfied. It’s one of the few foods I eat for pleasure. I absolutely love pizza. The kind of pizza I really like is very thin crust, cooked all the way through – I don’t like doughy, soft crust, I don’t like deep dish, but I respect people who do. But I like thin crust. I often order margarita pizza, but I like peppers, onion, sausage on pizza, if I had to put something on it. But I don’t like to put too much on it because if you put too much on it, it’s no longer crusty and crispy, it’s soft. I like New Haven pizza – we have a home in Seattle and a home in New Haven, Connecticut, and pizza is really a New Haven thing.
What is your best Halloween costume ever?
Batman with a beard. It’s one that my parents took pictures of me, and one that I remember the best. I had a Batman costume, but I thought it wasn’t cool enough, so I got a beard – I was like 10, 11 – and I put a beard on it. So it was a commercial Batman costume that came from Sears or someplace, I don’t know where we got it. And then a beard. I don’t know what goes through a ten-year-old’s head that makes them think suddenly that’s cool, like the Batman costume wasn’t cool? So it’s a little off.
(Dr. Lynch also declined to provide pictures of Batman with a beard.)
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FRED HUTCH/UNIVERISTY OF WASHINGTON/SEATTLE CHILDREN'S CANCER CONSORTIUM
1100 FAIRVIEW AVE. N., SEATTLE, WA 98109
Award number P30 CA015704-48
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