Predecessor | Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Seattle Cancer Care Alliance |
---|---|
Formation | 1975 |
Type | Nonprofit organization |
Headquarters | Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
Leader | Thomas Lynch Jr., M.D. |
Budget | $654.62 million (2020) [1] |
Website | fredhutch.org |
The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, formerly known as the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and also known as Fred Hutch or The Hutch, is a cancer research institute established in 1975 in Seattle, Washington. [2] [3]
The center grew out of the Pacific Northwest Research Foundation, founded in 1956 by William B. Hutchinson (1909–1997). The Foundation was dedicated to the study of heart surgery, cancer, and diseases of the endocrine system. Hutchinson's younger brother Fred (1919–1964) was a major league pitcher and manager who died of lung cancer at age 45. The next year, William Hutchinson established the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as a division of the Pacific Northwest Research Foundation. [2]
In 1972, with the help of Senator Warren G. Magnuson, PNRF received federal funding under the National Cancer Act of 1971 to create in Seattle one of the 15 new NCI-designated Cancer Centers aimed at conducting basic research [4] called for under 1971 Act; the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center became independent 1972 and its building opened three years later in 1975. [2] [5] [6] [7] [8] : 3, 5 The center was named an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in 1976. [9]
In 1998, the center formed the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA), a separate nonprofit corporation, [10] with University of Washington School of Medicine (UW Medicine), and Seattle Children's. This solidified the center's reach into clinical care and was essential for it retaining its NCI comprehensive center designation; [11] the designation was extended to the center's consortium including the SCCA in 2003. [9] SCCA's outpatient clinic first opened in January 2001. [11]
In 2001, The Seattle Times published a series of articles alleging that investigators at the center (including the center's co-founder E. Donnall Thomas) were conducting unethical clinical studies on cancer patients. The paper alleged that in two cancer studies conducted in the 1980s and early 1990s, patients were not informed about all the risks of the study, nor about the study doctors' financial interest in study outcome. The paper also alleged that this financial interest may have contributed to the doctors' failure to halt the studies despite evidence that patients were dying sooner and more frequently than expected. [12] In response, the center formed a panel of independent experts to review its existing research practices, leading to adoption of new conflict-of-interest rules. [13]
In 2010 Lawrence Corey was appointed as the fourth President, following the retirement of Lee Hartwell. He was followed by Gary Gilliland in 2015 as president, who led the institute until 2020. [14] [15] [16] Under his leadership the center announced that it would expand into the former Lake Union steam plant, which previously housed ZymoGenetics. [17] The move was completed in October 2020. [18] In February 2020, Thomas J. Lynch Jr. took over as director. [19]
The year 2014 saw the organization adopt its longtime local nickname, "Fred Hutch", as its official name as part of a rebranding. [20]
On April 1, 2022, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) merged to form Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, a unified adult cancer research and care center that is clinically integrated with University of Washington (UW) Medicine and UW Medicine's cancer program. [21]
The center has employed three recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine:
The center is active in technology transfer. In 2013, it was one of the top ten biomedical research institutions in the field (excluding universities); it made 18 new deals with companies to develop inventions made at the center, and earned $10,684,882 in income from past deals it had signed. [27] Most notably, Juno Therapeutics, a company developing CAR-T immunotherapy for cancer and that raised $314 million in venture capital investments and had a $265 million initial public offering in 2014, was started based on inventions made at the center. [28] As of 2015, about twenty companies had been started based on center inventions since 1975, including Immunex and Icos. [28]
The institute's main campus consists of 13 buildings that are on fifteen acres (6.1 ha) in the South Lake Union neighborhood of Seattle. [29]
In 1987, the center began exploring possible new homes to replace its 9-building campus on First Hill that it was set to outgrow. [30] [31] A site in the South Lake Union neighborhood, envisioned by the city as a future high-tech and biotechnology hub, [32] was chosen in September 1988 after a deal to move to Fremont fell through earlier that year. [33] [34] The first phase of the campus, designed by firm Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership, [35] began construction in 1991 and opened on June 1, 1993, in a ceremony that included the burying of a time capsule set to open in 2093. [36] [37]
The campus is accessible via the Mercer Street exit of Interstate 5 as well as several public transportation routes, including the South Lake Union Streetcar. [38]
Leland Harrison "Lee" Hartwell is an American former president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. He shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Paul Nurse and Tim Hunt, for their discoveries of protein molecules that control the division (duplication) of cells.
Linda Brown Buck is an American biologist best known for her work on the olfactory system. She was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with Richard Axel, for their work on olfactory receptors. She is currently on the faculty of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
South Lake Union is a neighborhood in central Seattle, Washington, so named because it is at the southern tip of Lake Union.
Seattle is the largest city in the U.S. state of Washington and has several large medical facilities and institutions that serve the Pacific Northwest region. The University of Washington is consistently ranked among the country's leading institutions in medical research and manages the UW Medicine system, which owns and operates Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington Medical Center, and Northwest Hospital & Medical Center. Harborview is the only Level I trauma center in the Pacific Northwest and serves patients with traumatic injuries from the states of Washington, Alaska, Idaho, and Montana.
The Hutch Award is given annually to an active Major League Baseball (MLB) player who "best exemplifies the fighting spirit and competitive desire" of Fred Hutchinson, by persevering through adversity. The award was created in 1965 in honor of Hutchinson, the former MLB pitcher and manager, who died of lung cancer the previous year. The Hutch Award was created by Hutch's longtime friends Bob Prince, a broadcaster for the Pittsburgh Pirates and KDKA; Jim Enright, a Chicago sportswriter; and Ritter Collett, the sports editor of the Dayton Journal Herald. They also created a scholarship fund for medical students engaged in cancer research to honor Hutchinson's memory.
Edward Donnall "Don" Thomas was an American physician, professor emeritus at the University of Washington, and director emeritus of the clinical research division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. In 1990 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Joseph E. Murray for the development of cell and organ transplantation. Thomas and his wife and research partner Dottie Thomas developed bone marrow transplantation as a treatment for leukemia.
Frederick Charles Hutchinson was an American professional baseball player, a major league pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, and the manager for three major league teams.
The University of Washington School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Washington, a public research university in Seattle, Washington. According to U.S. News & World Report's 2022 Best Graduate School rankings, University of Washington School of Medicine ranked #1 in the nation for primary care education, and #7 for research.
The Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI) is a private non-profit biomedical and clinical research institute in the northwest United States, located in Seattle, Washington.
Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) is a public, specialized, tertiary care medical facility owned by the Uganda Ministry of Health. It is designated as East Africa's Centre of Excellence in Oncology. In collaboration with Makerere University College of Health Sciences, UCI plans to start offering master's degrees, doctoral programs and post-doctoral fellowships in oncology care.
Suresh Hariram Advani is an oncologist who pioneered hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in India. Struck by poliomyelitis at the age of 8, he studied at Grant Medical College, Mumbai, where he obtained his MBBS and MD degrees. Following his education, he worked at the Tata Memorial Centre for several years as a medical oncologist. He currently consults at Sushrut Hospital & Research Centre. He gained experience in the field of bone marrow transplantation from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) is a cancer treatment and research center in Seattle, Washington. Established in 1998, this nonprofit provides clinical oncology care for patients treated at its three partner organizations: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle Children's and UW Medicine. Together, these four institutions form the Fred Hutch/University of Washington Cancer Consortium.
Dorothy "Dottie" Thomas was an American hematology researcher and administrator known for her work in developing bone marrow transplants. She and her husband, Edward Donnall Thomas, partnered to research leukemia and other blood disorders, and developed the technique for transplanting bone marrow. Her husband was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990 due to his discoveries about cell and organ transplantation in the treatment of human diseases that he had completed along with Dorothy. This Nobel Prize was shared with Joseph Edward Murray, an American plastic surgeon.
Jackson Orem is a Ugandan physician, oncologist and researcher. He has served as the director of the Uganda Cancer Institute, since 2004.
Nancy E. Davidson is the executive director and president of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, senior vice president, director of clinical oncology at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and head of the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She focuses her research on breast cancer treatments and the genes that are mutated in various forms of breast cancer. She was president of American Association for Cancer Research from 2015 to 2016 and president of American Society of Clinical Oncology from 2007 to 2008.
Victoria Walusansa-Abaliwano, is a Ugandan physician and oncologist, who works as the Deputy Director of the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI), a cancer treatment and research institution, based in Kampala, Uganda and serving the countries of the African Great Lakes area.
Stephanie J. Lee is an American haematologist and physician scientist who is professor and associate director at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Lee works to improve the lives of blood stem cell transplant and bone marrow patients by better understanding the chronic form of graft-versus-host disease. Lee is the former president of the American Society of Hematology.
Philip Greenberg is a professor of medicine, oncology, and immunology at the University of Washington and head of program in immunology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. His research is centered around T cell biology and therapeutic cell therapies. He is a co-founder of Juno Therapeutics.
Amanda Grace Paulovich is an oncologist, and a pioneer in proteomics using multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry to study tailored cancer treatment.
Beverly Jo Torok-Storb was an American physician who was Professor of Clinical Research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Her work considered the stem cells that generate blood and the microenvironment of bone marrow.