2021 New Investigator Award The Cancer Consortium is pleased to announce that the 6 Consortium researchers below have received developmental funding from the Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) to help propel their ideas into full-fledged research projects. The New Investigator Awards are designed to support early stage investigators, within three years of their arrival to a Consortium partner institution, toward becoming independently funded investigators. The awardees for 2021 are as follows:
Member
Research Program
Award Institution
Kalyan Banda, MD
Breast and Ovary Cancers
University of Washington
Kevin Barry, PhD
Cancer Immunology
Fred Hutch
Nicolas Lehrbach, PhD
Cancer Basic Biology
Fred Hutch
Shannon Oda, PhD
Cancer Immunology
Seattle Children’s
Shivani Srivastava, PhD
Cancer Immunology
Fred Hutch
Diane Tseng, MD, PhD
Other Oncology
University of Washington
Jay Shendure, MD, PhD joins Cancer Basic Biology Research
Program Leadership Team Dr. Jay Shendure is a Professor in Genome Sciences at the University of Washington and a Howard Hughes Investigator. His current projects fall generally into six areas: developing new molecular methods; genomic approaches to developmental biology; massively parallel functional genomics; translating genomics to the clinic; the genetic basis of human disease; and genome sequencing technologies. Ultimately, Jay’s aim is to develop innovations that make a big impact on our understanding of biology and disease. His innovations already support the research of many Consortium faculty and has been shared through the Brotman Baty Institute, for which Jay is the Scientific Director. Jay has joined the Cancer Basic Biology Research Program leadership team as Program Co-Leader alongside Dr. Jon Cooper at Fred Hutch. Jay transitions into this role after the departure of longtime Program Co-Leader Ray Monnat, MD. Thank you, Ray, for your contributions to the Cancer Basic Biology program and a warm welcome to Jay! Cancer Basic Biology Program Seminar Series: Fall Schedule The Cancer Basic Biology seminar series will re-launch on Monday, September 13. These seminars are open to cancer-relevant basic science researchers at all levels (student, postdoctoral, staff and faculty) in Seattle-area laboratories.
More information and the seminar schedule can be found here.
FROM NCI
New NCI Funding Opportunity A new Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) recently released by NCI supports the Cancer Target Discovery and Development (CTD2) Network in an effort to bridge the knowledge gap between cancer genomics and biology. Specifically, the FOA solicits applications for U01 cooperative agreement research projects that focus on identifying and understanding: pathways that influence cancer phenotypes (including understanding the function of the genes/targets which are essential in cancer transformation, maintenance and metastasis); perturbagens that can modulate such pathways; biomarkers predicting responses to treatments, prognosis, and other aspects of cancer etiology that need to be understood in order to develop effective treatments in the future and how to predict them.
Key Details Application Due Date(s): October 6, 2021; February 8, 2022; October 6, 2022. LOI is due 30 days prior to the application due date. Award Budget: Budgets up to $750,000 direct costs per year may be requested Award Project Period: A maximum project period of up to 5 years may be requested
FROM THE OFFICE OF COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT
Pathways to Equity Symposium
The OCOE held its annual Pathways to Equity Symposium on Friday, May 21, 2021. This year’s theme was “Racial Justice, Health Equity & Community Engagement” and featured keynote speaker Dr. Edith Mitchell of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson. If you missed the event, you can watch the recording on the Fred Hutch Facebook page. The Symposium included the presentation of this year’s Beti Thompson Community Health Trailblazer and Cancer Health Equity Research Award. Read about this year’s recipients, Dr. Consuelo Rodríguez de Negrete and Dr. Yaw Nyame here .
As the Office of Community Outreach & Engagement has pivoted from in person to virtual outreach and education, they have launched a monthly podcast series entitled, “Cancer Health Equity NOW”, hosted by Community Health Educator Danté Morehead. Since the last CCSG newsletter, they have released three new episodes.
June: Increasing Diversity in STEM & Healthcare: Creating Pathways for Students & Education (Featuring Dr. Jeanne Chowning, Kate Ceronsky RNP, our OCOE Community Health Education Manager, Hallie Pritchett, and a promising student/intern Roberto Ramirez) July: Grief, Intergenerational Trauma, and Healing Among Indigenous People (Special collaboration episode with Seattle Cancer Care Alliance’s həliʔil Program featuring Ursula Tsosie, MSPH, Program Manager and Tribal Liaison and Leona Swamp, Wolf clan from the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation and Executive Director of ASESHATE:KA'TE Grief Services) August: Policies for Health Equity in Washington State (Featuring Senator Emily Randall (26th district legislator) and CHE for Rural Populations, Dillon van Rensburg) September: Season 1 Finale! OCOE staff reflect on various moments and lessons learned from
Season 1.
Check these and other past episodes at: https://cancerhealthequitynow.libsyn.com/.
The Annual Latina Health Symposium The WA state Latina Health Symposium provides a forum for participants to come together to learn and discuss health-related topics that impact Hispanic/Latina women. The symposium will be held virtually on Wednesday, September 22, 2021 from
9 AM – 12:30 PM. Event is free, but registration is required: http://redcap.link/LHS2021Registration.
FROM THE CONSORTIUM SHARED RESOURCES
New Shared Resources Website Shared Resources is proud to announce that our new public website is complete! Thank you so much to Communications & Marketing for your efforts designing and creating our new site, which offers a fresh look at how our core services can support you. Click here to view the new Shared Resources public website.
Shared Resources collaborates with Bullman Lab to perform spatial transcriptomics Shared Resources was recently featured in the CenterNet News for the collaboration of Experimental Histopathology and Genomics & Bioinformatics with Dr. Susan Bullman’s Human Biology / PAM IRC lab to perform spatial transcriptomics on human colorectal tumors with both high and low/no bacterial load. Click here to view CenterNet news article and learn more!
New z-Movi Cell Avidity Analyzer in Immune Monitoring Immune Monitoring (IM) Shared Resource is hosting a new instrument, the z-Movi Cell Avidity Analyzer. Target cells, such as tumor cells, are attached to a polylysine-coated surface in a chip. Then effector cells, such as T cells, are added and allowed to interact with target cells. In an automated process, acoustic power is applied to separate cells and cell layer changes imaged and analyzed.
Prior training is required to use this instrument. The specific chips are provided by the IM Lab. For more information, please contact Jianhong Cao at jcao@fredhutch.org.
Comparative Medicine Welcomes the Translational Research Model Services Core! Comparative Medicine Shared Resource is thrilled to announce the integration of the Translational Research Model Services Core. This group, formerly known as the Co-Operative Center for Excellence in Hematology (CCEH) Specialized Mouse Services Core E, has provided immune-deficient mice and expert technical services to Fred Hutch researchers for over 20 years. The team – Don Parrilla, Ekram Gad, and Alana Hope – will continue to provide NSG, NRG, NSG-SGM3 and NBSGW mice, and access to a wide array of individual technical services, including, but not limited to:
• injections and implants through multiple routes,
• irradiation, both focal and total body irradiation,
• drug administration by injection or oral gavage,
• noninvasive bioluminescence and fluorescence optical imaging,
• generation of humanized mice (adult and neonates), and
• sample collection.
For all questions and assistance using this resource please contact the Core Director, Dr. Maura Parker, at mparker@fredhutch.org or 206-667-1623.
New 7T MRI installed in Comparative Medicine, Preclinical Imaging Comparative Medicine – Preclinical Imaging has a new preclinical MRI installed in the Day campus vivarium. This instrument should be fully operational and ready for use in September. This scanner operates with a magnetic field at 3T or 7T without the need for energy-intensive liquid helium or liquid nitrogen to cool the magnet. This system is optimal for distinction of soft tissues, including tumors and vasculature visualization within brain, lung, and kidney tissues.
If your research group would like to use the preclinical MRI for your studies, please reach out to preclinicalimaging@fredhutch.org to discuss next steps and to initiate an IACUC amendment to add this instrument to your experimental protocol.
Comparative Medicine Welcomes Amelia Bothel, Veterinary Technician Manager and Alexandria Hicks-Nelson, Clinical Veterinarian Amelia Bothel stepped into the role of Veterinary Technician Manager in July. She has been working in the Comparative Medicine (CM) Large Animal Unit as a Veterinary Technician for the last two years and brings extensive prior experience in private practice veterinary medicine. Amelia is a native of Maine and attained her BS in veterinary technology from Mount Ida College in Newton, MA; she is a licensed veterinary technician and also has her AALAS Laboratory Animal Technician certification.
Amelia will be managing both large and small animal veterinary services as we consolidate and cross-train our veterinary staff to create a more versatile and unified veterinary team. A total of 7 veterinary technicians will be reporting to Amelia, who will in turn report to Dr. Cassie Miller.
The Comparative Medicine Veterinary Team is also pleased to announce that Dr. Alexandria Hicks-Nelson has joined our group as a Clinical Veterinarian as of July 30th. Alex is a NYC native who attended Stanford University for undergraduate studies, where initially an interest in cetaceans led to meeting the campus veterinarians – all who worked in the field of comparative medicine. After graduating, she returned to the east coast to attend Tufts University for veterinary school. While there, Alex received combined degrees including a doctorate in veterinary medicine, a master’s in laboratory animal science, and a masters in comparative biosciences. Her research at Tufts focused on maternal stress and offspring behavior in a rat model. Upon completion of these studies, Alex returned to Stanford to complete a residency in comparative medicine. In addition to her focus on working with research animals, Alex has also worked in private practice, enjoys teaching and mentoring students and staff, and has championed DEI efforts in veterinary medicine at a national level.
Please join CM in welcoming Alex to our team!
News from Seattle Translational Tumor Research (STTR)
Specimen Acquisition Network STTR is excited to announce the official launch of the Specimen Acquisition Network (SAN). The SAN is a regional network of health focused institutions in partnership with the Fred Hutch Coordinating Center. Together the network is intent on improving investigator access to high quality specimens and data. The SAN will connect you with partner institutions and facilitate a streamlined request and transfer of specimens. We also provide guidance on IRB applications and help identifying potential collaborators. Please contact us at SAN@fredhutch.org with any requests. More information about the SAN can be found here.
Specimen Data Management Tool
After several years of working with research teams across the Consortium, we are excited to share that we have an approved budget and are beginning implementation of a specimen data management tool. With involvement from a cross-divisional working group, STTR has developed a data model and requirements for a tool that can meet the diverse needs across our enterprise. Current work includes conducting an RFP to select the final vendor, based on an initial RFI and feedback from our specimen advisory committee members, and beginning work with selected pilot user groups. Pilot users represent different use cases across our community and will provide feedback throughout implementation to ensure a smooth process as we expand access to the tool in coming years.
If you have interest in using the specimen data management tool and would like to get on a waiting list for future onboarding phases, please fill out this form. Please direct any questions to: SpecimenData@fredhutch.org
Ben Greer Award: Funding Opportunity
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) is offering a Clinical Trial Award in honor of the lasting efforts of Ben Greer, MD, the Founding Medical Director of the SCCA Network. This award is intended to support the development of a clinical trial by a Cancer Consortium investigator working in collaboration with an SCCA Network affiliate investigator addressing a research question of specific interest to community oncologists. This award will provide up to $50,000 in direct costs over 2 years.
Please click this link for additional information.
Buccal cell samples available from VITamins And Lifestyle (VITAL) prospective study
The VITamins And Lifestyle (VITAL) prospective study has buccal cell samples and associated cancer and lifestyle information available to researchers at the Hutch and elsewhere. Between 2000-2002, 77,738 men and women, aged 50-76 from western Washington State completed a baseline questionnaire to enter this study. This included detailed information on use of supplements, diet, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug use, anthropometrics, exercise, health history and cancer risk factors. The cohort was followed for 10 years for cancer incidence by linkage to the western Washington SEER cancer registry and for deaths by linkage to the Washington State death files.
