Washington Research Foundation awards $5.2M to establish new clinical trials program

A new $5.2 million grant from the Washington Research Foundation, or WRF, will help develop a new clinical trials program between Fred Hutch Cancer Center and Seattle Children’s Research Institute.

The collaborative program, Bridging the Clinical Gap: Adding Value to the “Discovered Here in Washington” Therapeutic Ecosystem, will focus on first-in-human clinical studies of brand-new therapeutics developed by the two institutions for rare cancers and other diseases that affect adults and children. 

Dr. Folashade “Shade” Otegbeye, associate professor (Hematology and Oncology) and facility director of the Therapeutic Products Program, will co-lead the program with Dr. Mignon Loh, director of the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders Research at Seattle Children’s.

“There is exceptional expertise in cell, gene, and protein therapeutics discovery and translational research across Fred Hutch and Seattle Children’s,” Otegbeye said in a news release. “Each institution has independently invested in infrastructure supporting key stages of the bench-to-bedside continuum. By strategically leveraging our complementary infrastructure and expertise, we can more sustainably advance first-in-human studies, particularly as traditional research funding streams become increasingly constrained.”