Evergreen Fund Awardees
Eight researchers (including three from the Department of Medicine) will receive a total of $975,000 for research projects as part of Fred Hutch’s Evergreen Fund, an internal grant program designed to advance translational discoveries to a commercially viable stage.
An advisory board of pharma and biotech leaders, venture capitalists and other members of the life sciences industry chose the projects to receive funding based on the projects’ potential to move from the lab bench to the clinic and commercial markets.
The fund offers two tiers of awards: Pilot Awards of up to $75,000 for projects in the earliest stages of development, and Beyond Pilot Awards of up to $200,000 for projects that have already generated compelling data and are poised for industry engagement.
Beyond Pilot awards
Dr. Kevin Cheung, associate professor (Hematology and Oncology) is building on his lab’s discoveries about cooperative signaling between cancer cells to develop new treatments to disrupt breast tumor survival, growth and metastasis.
Dr. Erik Kimble, acting assistant professor (Hematology and Oncology) is exploring a method to boost the effectiveness of CAR T-cell therapy after an initial infusion of these engineered cells. The approach is aimed to prevent relapse in people receiving CAR-T for blood cancers.
Pilot Awards
Dr. Lev Silberstein, associate professor (Hematology and Oncology) will test a new approach to eradicate pre-leukemic cells and prevent the development of aggressive, full-blown leukemia.