Spurring Novel Technology Development and Adoption
In the Fred Hutch Innovation Lab, we are leading the in-house development and early adoption of powerful new research technologies that hold the potential to drive lifesaving discoveries in cancer immunology and other areas of science.
Our Areas of Focus
Unlocking Secrets of Cell Activity
We are introducing technologies for spatial analysis of single-cell transcription profiling, giving scientists unprecedented insights into cells’ inner workings.
Profiling the Immune System
We are increasing the availability of genetic data and analysis that makes information about the immune system more accessible to all scientists.
Driving Technological Innovation
We are discovering, testing and bringing new technologies online, targeting those of greatest utility for scientists at the vanguard of the promising field of immuno-oncology.
Our Facilities and Technology Pipeline
Our lab is one of the hallmarks of Fred Hutch’s Steam Plant building, a historic landmark newly redeveloped into a one-of-a-kind facility dedicated to spurring innovation at the nexus of data science and immunology.
We are a small team dedicated to develop novel technologies for use by the scientific community. As part of our three-step pipeline, we first we test, compare, advance and tailor new technologies that our Advisory Board has selected for their potential to facilitate the next discoveries in immunotherapy. Then, we work with selected researchers to evaluate the technology as they harness it to advance their early-stage research projects. Finally, we make that technology and the protocols and procedures we’ve developed available to researchers across Fred Hutch to accelerate their science.
Our team members troubleshoot and test everything from sample preparation to novel uses of new technologies. Two technicians shift efforts across experiments and platforms with expertise at each step. A dedicated bioinformatics analyst processes and explores quality metrics and the biolgoical insights of the data. We also work closely with Staff Scientist, Daniel Jones, who utilizes our data to develop new tools and spatial analysis methods that have been implemented across Fred Hutch.
Since 2020, we have run 17 Integrated Research Center pilots with 13 different investigators for both single-cell and spatial projects. The lab also benchmarked the performance of multiple single-cell and spatial platforms, including early-access collaborations, that reveal emerging technology options for future research. Our work has generated data for numberous grants and publications.
Scientific Director
Dr. Evan Newell
Dr. Newell became the scientific director of the Fred Hutch Innovation Lab (FHIL) in January of 2022. He is an immunologist who develops and employs new technologies for accurately identifying specific biological signatures of human health and disease, including cancer and infectious diseases. He and his team work with blood and tissue samples, using mass cytometry and other single-cell analysis methods to better understand how the specificities of immune T cells influence their roles in clinically-productive responses against pathogens or cancers.
Research Lab Manager
Anna Elz
Anna Elz, MSc, the Research Laboratory Manager, set up the lab in 2020 and continues to stay hands-on while managing the team and its research goals. Her passion for implementing new technology began in the field of conservation genetics and she brought those skills to start this unique lab and propel immuno-therapeutic research.
Lab Staff
Annalyssa Long
Research Technician III
Indianna University, BA
Cati Cowick
Research Technician II
MSc, BSc Mississippi State University
Dr. Daniel Jones
Senior Staff Scientist
PhD. University of Washington
Publication List and Contributions
Tony Chour, Nikhita Poole, Hugh R. MacMillan, Katelyn Burleigh, David R. Glass, Emily C. Liang, Ryan Basom, Bobbie-Jo M. Webb-Robertson, Kelly Stratton, Derrik Gratz, Annalyssa N. Long, Anna E. Elz, Jennifer J. Huang, Alexandre V. Hirayama, Stanley R. Riddell, Jordan Gauthier, Heather H. Gustafson, Evan W. Newell, Sylvain Simon. (2026). Coordinated expansion of CD163⁺ monocytes and immature CD177⁺ neutrophils marks severe neurotoxicity after CD19 CAR T cell therapy. Preprint. DOI: 10.64898/2026.07.07.737099
Jin-Hee Kim, Annalyssa Long, Yumo Xie, Sophia R. Noehl-Tedorius, Anna E. Elz, Ming Yu.(2026). Protocol optimization to process mouse colon samples for single-nuclei RNA sequencing using FLEX library preparation. STAR Protocols. DOI: 10.1016/j.xpro.2026.104581
Nicholas E. Bingham, Julie R. Boiko, Daniel C. Jones, Daniel Wong, Tiffany Khong, Sridurga Mithraprabhu, Kathleen S. Ensbey, Anna Elz, Evan W. Newell, Andrew Spencer, Geoffrey R. Hill. (2026). Spatial transcriptomics identifies a suppressive, T-cell excluded tumour microenvironment in extramedullary multiple myeloma. Blood Adv. DOI: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2026020500
Andrew J. Snyder, Sarah M. Garrison, Mitchell G. Kluesner, William Sam Nutt, Carolyn Shasha, Tam Ho, Sydney A. Marsh, Miles Linde, Lauren Meyer, Amelia R. Wilhelm, Sergio Ortiz-Espinosa, Victor Zepeda, Emma Bingham, Haleema Malik, Sam R. Mak, Ekram Gad, Shruti S. Bhise, Everett Fan, Megha Sarvothama, Xiao Wang, Shobha Potluri, Annalyssa Long, Anna Elz, Cyrus M. Ghajar, Scott N. Furlan, Evan W. Newell, Shivani Srivastava. (2026). Modulating AP-1 enables CAR-T cells to establish an intratumoral PD-1+Tcf1+ stem-like reservoir and overcomes resistance to PD-1 axis blockade. Sci Immunology. DOI: 10.1126/sciimmunol.adw7685
Anna E. Elz, Derrik Gratz, Annalyssa Long, David Sowerby, Azi Hadadianpour, Evan W. Newell. (2026). Evaluating the practical aspects and performance of commercial single-cell RNA sequencing technologies. NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics. https://doi.org/10.1093/nargab/lqaf215
Julie Boiko, Daniel Jones, Anna Elz, Annalyssa Long, David Sowerby, Rachael Adams, Kelli MacDonald, Bruce Blazar, Cynthia Timmers, Michael Pratta, Peter Ordentlich, Vedran Radojcic, A. Marcie Hall, Scott Furlan, Stephanie Lee, Evan Newell, Geoff Hill. (2025). CSF-1R+ macrophages orchestrate human skin chronic graft-versus-host disease. Blood. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2025-588
Finn MacLean, Rachael M. Zemek, Adino Tesfahun Tsegaye, Jessica B. Graham, Jessica L. Swarts, Sarah C. Vick, Nicole B. Potchen, Irene Cruz Talavera, Lakshmi Warrier, Julien Dubrulle, Lena K. Schroeder, Anna Elz, David Sowerby, Ayumi Saito, Katherine K. Thomas, Matthias Mack, Joshua T. Schiffer, R Scott McClelland, Keith R. Jerome, Bhavna H. Chohan, Kenneth Ngure, Nelly Rwamba Mugo, Evan W. Newell, Jairam R. Lingappa, Jennifer M. Lund, Kinga Study Team. (2025). Genital herpes shedding episodes associate with altered spatial organization and activation of mucosal immune cell. JCI Insight. DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.197491
Jason A. Carter, Lindsay K. Dickerson, Andreas Stephanou, Sheela R. Damle, Kristin E. Goodsell, Sara K. Daniel, Kevin M. Sullivan, Bo Shui, Xiuyun Jiang, Heidi L. Kenerson, Renske J. E. van den Bijgaart, Alaa R. Farghli, Yongjun Liu, Emily Beirne, Kevin P Labadie, Jack Cernak, Sardar Shahmir B. Chauhan, Jose Mario Bello Pineda, Annalyssa N. Long, Anna E. Elz, Evan W. Newell, Teresa S. Kim, Kimberly J. Riehle, Raymond S. Yeung, Shreeram Akilesh, Ian N. Crispe, Kevin C. Barry, Praveen Sethupathy, Venu G. Pillarisetty. (2026). Overcoming CXCR4-Mediated T-Cell Exclusion Potentiates Antitumor Cytotoxicity in Fibrolamellar Carcinoma. Gastroenterology. DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2025.10.006
Daniel C. Jones, Anna E. Elz, Azadeh Hadadianpour, Heeju Ryu, David R. Glass, Evan, W. Newell (2025) Cell simulation as cell segmentation. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41592-025-02697-0
Cecilia C.S. Yeung, Daniel C. Jones, David W. Woolston, Brandon Seaton, Elizabeth Lawless Donato, Minggang Lin, Coral Backman, Vivian Oehler, Kristin Robinson, Kristen Shimp, Rima Kulikauskas, Annalyssa N. Long, David Sowerby, Anna E. Elz, Kimberly S. Smythe, Evan W. Newell. (2025). Spatial proteomics and transcriptomics characterization of tissue and multiple cancer types including decalcified marrow. Cancer Biomarkers. DOI: 10.1177/18758592241308757
Taopeng Wang, Michael J. Roach, Kate Harvey, Javier Escudero Morlanes, Beata Kiedik, Ghamdan Al-Eryani, Alissa Greenwald, Nikolaos Kalavros, Felipe Segato Dezem, Yuling Ma, Yered H. Pita-Juarez, Kellie Wise, Cyril Degletagne, Anna Elz, Azi Hadadianpour, Jack Johanneson, Fiona Pakiam, Heeju Ryu, Evan W. Newell, Laurie Tonon, Andrew Kohlway, Tingsheng Drennon, Jawad Abousoud, Ryan Stott, Paul Lund, Jens Durruthy, Andres F. Vallejo, Wenyan Li, Robert Salomon, Dominik Kaczorowski, Joanna Warren, Lisa M. Butler, Sandra O’Toole, Jasmine Plummer, Ioannis S. Vlachos, Joakim Lundeberg, Alexander Swarbrick & Luciano G. Martelotto. (2024). snPATHO-seq, a versatile FFPE single-nucleus RNA sequencing method to unlock pathology archives. Communications Biology. DOI: 10.1038/s42003-024-07043-2
Qing Yang, Anna E. Elz, Maryline Panis, Ting Liu, Benjamin E. Nilsson-Payant, Daniel Blanco-Melo. (2023). Modulation of Influenza A virus NS1 expression reveals prioritization of host response antagonism at single-cell resolution. Front Microbiol. 14:1267078. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1267078
Dr. Phil Bradley
Dr. Bradley is a computational biologist who studies the 3-D structures of proteins, develops software to predict how a protein works by interacting with specific RNA and DNA sequences, and is designing proteins that might be used to make therapies work even better.
Dr. Lillian Cohn
Dr. Cohn is an immunologist who uses advanced techniques to study latent HIV infections, aiming to find ways to stop the expansion and reactivation of latently infected cells, and thereby effectively cure HIV disease.
Dr. Marion Dorer
Dr. Dorer is responsible for operations at Fred Hutch with a strong emphasis on laboratories and scientific programs. She oversees several teams that support science and clinical operations, including Shared Resources, the Institutional Review Office, Clinical labs, Enterprise Project Management and several scientific programs.
Dr. Scott Furlan
Dr. Furlan studies the biology of blood stem cell transplantation and cellular immunotherapy, employing a method called single-cell genomics to reveal how critical immune cells respond during these treatments and how the therapies might be further improved.
Dr. Lawrence Fong
Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Fong researches the mechanisms of response and resistance to cancer immunotherapies in both preclinical models and in cancer patients. A physician-scientist, his work helped lead to approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of sipuleucel-T, an immunotherapy for prostate cancer.
Dr. Geoffrey Hill
Dr. Hill is a physician-scientist who specializes in blood stem cell transplantation. He is one of the top authorities on the transplant complication known as graft-vs.-host disease, or GVHD.
Dr. Gordon Roble
Dr. Roble is the Associate Vice President of Fred Hutch’s Shared Resources, directing more than a dozen core facilities. These cores help drive advances by integrating dedicated experts and sophisticated technologies across the entire research pipeline, from basic science to clinical trials.
