“The first time I came to Fred Hutch Cancer Center was as a summer intern after my first year of medical school,” said Christopher Li, MD, PhD. “That’s when I learned about epidemiology and the impact that public health-oriented research can have.”
Li had planned to become a physician ― to help patients on an individual basis ― but once he was introduced to research, he realized he could have a much larger impact by helping whole populations instead of just individuals. He finished medical school then switched to a research track, formally joining the Fred Hutch faculty in 2002 as an epidemiologist.
From there, Li continued to rise in the center’s ranks until his recent promotion to senior vice president and director of the Public Health Sciences (PHS) Division, succeeding Garnet Anderson, PhD, who holds the Fred Hutch 40th Anniversary Endowed Chair.
“Chris is internationally recognized for his work at the intersection of cancer epidemiology, tumor biology and health equity, with a longstanding commitment to breast cancer research,” said Thomas J. Lynch Jr., MD, of Li’s appointment, which came after a large national search. Lynch holds the Raisbeck Endowed Chair.
Li, who began the new role July 1, holds the Helen G. Edson Endowed Chair for Breast Cancer Research. He was also recently elected to the American Association of Cancer Research, or AACR’s, Board of Directors.
Now that he’s been on the job for a few months, Fred Hutch News caught up with Li to talk about his vision for Fred Hutch’s PHS Division ― including his plans to incorporate more AI and data science into research ― to help communities sidestep cancer and other diseases.
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Although he’s been part of PHS for decades, Li spent the summer learning even more about the division, meeting one-on-one with dozens of faculty members to better understand their research, their challenges and their scientific priorities.
Taking what he learned, he then developed an initial vision and set of scientific and administrative priorities.
“My overarching goal is that together, we make population science at Fred Hutch more connected, more impactful and more visible,” he said. “So that we can turn rigorous discovery into measurable reductions in cancer burden.”
Li said he wants to help PHS researchers connect with each other and with members of the other divisions, as well as with researchers from local and national institutions. He also wants to make sure that the discoveries made at Fred Hutch don’t just languish within the pages of scientific journals.
“We don’t want our work to just sit in academic journals, but to impact community,” he said. “We have opportunities to expand our visibility within Fred Hutch, within our communities and with our colleagues nationally.”
Li also outlined the principles he would bring to his new position: emphasizing the importance of partnership, transparency, accountability, inclusion, adaptability, respect and fairness.
“Our work is central and vital to Fred Hutch’s mission,” he said. “Fred Hutch cannot achieve its mission without the success of the people in PHS.”
‘We don’t want our work to just sit in academic journals, but to impact community. We have opportunities to expand our visibility within Fred Hutch, within our communities and with our colleagues nationally.’
― Dr. Christopher Li, senior vice president and director of Fred Hutch’s Public Health Sciences Division
Funding for PHS research remains a primary concern, he said, especially as the federal government’s priorities shift.
“One of the greatest concerns people have is the future of funding, the future of the research enterprise, given that it's primarily been supported by federal funds,” he said. “And there are a number of different threats to research funding.”
Li said the budget for the National Cancer Institute has been preserved “for the most part,” but there are still ongoing challenges.
“People are trying to diversify their sources of funding, looking at different foundations and seeing how we can broaden the ways that we fund our science,” he said.
PHS has traditionally done well with federal grants ― in 2025, for instance, its researchers received 41% of all grants submitted ― but the success rate has begun to drop over time.
Li pointed to philanthropy as a future funding partner, and suggested researchers develop relationships with other foundations and granting organizations.
He also wants to build out a better system of support for grant writing, to improve scores and outcomes.
“One of the common programs used by other cancer centers is peer-to-peer review of specific aims,” he said. “That’s something we should pilot. We should also have enhanced support for unfunded grants that have scored well to help them get over the funding line.”
Despite shifting priorities in federal funding, he said, “cancer remains an incredibly important public health problem in our country.”
The PHS Division ― and Li himself ― will continue to be part of large multi-institution research collaborations such as the Cancer Screening Research Network (CSRN), Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), Population-based Research to Optimize the Screening Process (PROSPR), Multi-ethnic Observational Study in Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities (MOSAAIC), etc. – but will fold in new tools and priorities.
Top considerations, he said, will be given to artificial intelligence, or AI, precision cancer screening and early detection, cancer survivorship and metastatic disease.
“We all recognize the potential for advancements in the field with AI and data science and other new technologies,” he said. “The fields are evolving rapidly and there are both opportunities and challenges. It’s important to develop a plan.”
Unfortunately, Li said there are still “major bottlenecks with the data,” with not enough access to clinical data to power research.
There’s also room for improvement with regard to precision screening and early detection, Li said.
“We’re still largely stuck with a one-size-fits-all system that’s based on age,” he said. “But I think we can do much better in terms of more efficiently and effectively delivering screening based on more of a risk-based model.”
Li pointed to the success of both the Early Detection Research Network, or EDRN, and CSRN, two large multi-institutional cancer screening networks that use Fred Hutch as their data coordinating centers, but stressed there was more PHS can do.
“Our faculty need to focus on new tools and strategies for precision screening and early detection,” he said. “There are a lot of opportunities to further grow national leadership in this space.”
With regard to survivorship, Li pointed to the 18 million cancer survivors currently in the U.S.
“The number of survivors continues to grow,” he said. “We have developed expertise in survivorship in partnership with the Clinical Research Division and have also considerably advanced our expertise in metastasis through the MET-X program. We have clear opportunities to further grow our national and international presence in these fields.”
Li also stressed the importance of being nimble and responding to emerging cancer epidemics and exposures.
“There are now many more early onset cancers across multiple cancer sites,” he said. “There are emerging exposures due to everything from climate change to GLP-1 medications. We want to continue to be responsive to new and emerging public health challenges.”
There’s also more that can be done to expand Fred Hutch science into communities, he said. Li serves as the associate director of Population Sciences for the Fred Hutch/University of Washington/Seattle Children's Cancer Consortium, which has a mandate to serve the needs of the communities within its catchment area, which encompasses all of Washington state.
“One thing I’ve been thinking about a lot is ‘How do we have a greater impact on our community locally?’” he said. “Fred Hutch recently expanded the catchment area of our cancer consortium to include the full state of Washington. We've done a good job meeting the needs of people in the Seattle-Tacoma and Puget Sound area. But there are still a lot of opportunities to better deliver cancer prevention, cancer screening, cancer treatment, and survivorship services to Washington state more broadly.”
Li wants to better understand the challenges affecting communities and “engage with them to set research priorities.”
“We are the only cancer center serving the state of Washington,” he said. “We have a commitment to reduce the burden of cancer in our community and PHS is the epicenter of community-engaged research at Fred Hutch.”
Li also stressed the importance of team science, a longstanding practice within PHS and Fred Hutch.
“The more connected we are, the more scientific advantages we have,” he said. “The more time we spend together, the more we can develop new collaborations and support mentoring, and these types of exchanges can generate new ideas that lead to new collaborative grants.”
He is working to establish regular PHS retreats and monthly lunches for assistant and associate professors as a platform to support more team science and career development. Plans are also in the works to have more engagement across programs (within divisions) as well as across divisions.
“I’m very optimistic about the future of Public Health Sciences,” he said. “We face a number of challenges in our external environment, but we have an incredibly strong core, exceptional faculty and a clear mission. My goal is to help us work even more closely across disciplines, so that our research translates faster, reaches farther and saves more lives.”
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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