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.
Fred Hutch’s Folashade “Shade” Otegbeye, MBChB, MPH, facility director of the Therapeutic Products Program and Mignon Loh, MD, director of the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders Research at Seattle Children’s will lead the program.
“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.”
A previous $200,000 grant from WRF allowed the research teams to evaluate the potential of a dozen plus technologies, two of which they selected as research priorities: an engineered tumor cell receptor, or TCR, T-cell therapy for high-risk acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, in adult patients and a CAR T-cell therapy for AML in children.
The research teams are also evaluating how to create time- and resource-efficient ways to translate protein therapeutic research into first-in-human trials.
The three-year grant is part of WRF’s BioInnovation Grants program, created to increase support for big, emergent opportunities to advance Washington state’s life sciences ecosystem and improve lives.
Grant funding will used for two main purposes, according to Otegbeye, who holds the Fred Hutch Fleischauer Family Endowed Chair in Cell and Gene Therapy Translation.
“Four million dollars will be used as direct support for four clinical trials (two each at Fred Hutch and Seattle Children’s Research Institute), with matching commitments by each institution for Phase 1 trials,” she said.
The remaining $1.2 million will go towards strategic planning and infrastructure development to enable these clinical trials to take off, she said, adding that this money will also help “create a sustainable framework for translating other innovative therapies from both institutions.”
Fred Hutch and Seattle Children’s routinely conduct clinical trials, but the “one-off” nature of clinical trial funding makes it difficult for institutions to strategically monitor their pipelines and conduct advance planning for bringing promising products to patients. First-in-human studies at research institutions are often the only way for patients to access leading-edge therapies and provide crucial evidence of a drug’s safety and efficacy that could result in development at scale.
Otegbeye emphasized the potential for “discovered here in Washington” technologies to improve patients’ lives and treatment options.
“Recognizing our shared responsibility to ensure that our collective science tangibly improves lives across Washington, we have an opportunity — and an obligation — to collaborate intentionally,” she said.
Washington Research Foundation supports research and scholarship in Washington state, with a focus on life sciences and enabling technologies. Founded in 1981 to assist universities and other nonprofit research institutions in Washington state with the commercialization of their technologies, WRF has provided, to date, over $184 million in grants to the state’s research institutions.
“WRF has long recognized the value of our most inventive research institutions translating their research expertise into actual clinical impact,” said Meher Antia, PhD, WRF’s director of grant programs. “By partnering with Fred Hutch and Seattle Children’s and leveraging the strong financial and operational support from these institutions, our funding can help to strengthen the pipeline of early-stage research that actually reaches patients for their benefit and also demonstrates potential for future commercialization.”
Diane Mapes is a senior editor and writer at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, who's written for NBC News, TODAY, CNN, MSN, Seattle Magazine and other publications. A breast cancer survivor and patient advocate, you can reach her at dmapes@fredhutch.org or doublewhammied.com / @double_whammied / @doublewhammied.bsky.social. Just diagnosed and need information and resources? Visit our Patient Care page.
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