STTR Innovation Retreat Agenda

8:30 a.m.–9:20 a.m.

Check-in for the day and connect with fellow STTR members and guests!

9:20 a.m.–9:30 a.m.

Eric Holland, MD, PhD
Senior Vice President and Director, Human Biology Division, Fred Hutch
Endowed Chair in Cancer Biology, Fred Hutch

9:30 a.m.–10 a.m.

Hoifung Poon, PhD
General Manager of Health Futures, Microsoft

The confluence of technological advances and social policies has led to rapid digitization of multimodal, longitudinal patient journeys, such as electronic medical records (EMRs), imaging, and multiomics. Our overarching research agenda lies in advancing multimodal generative AI for precision health, where we harness real-world data to pretrain powerful multimodal patient embedding, which can serve as digital twins for patients. This enables us to synthesize multimodal, longitudinal information for millions of cancer patients, and apply the population-scale real-world evidence to advancing precision oncology in deep partnerships with real-world stakeholders such as large health systems and life sciences companies.

10 a.m.–10:10 a.m.

10:10 a.m.–10:30 a.m.

Cyrus Ghajar, PhD
Professor, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutch
Professor, Human Biology Division, Fred Hutch
Member, Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC), Fred Hutch
Peter S. Lefkarites Memorial Endowed Chair, Fred Hutch

Presentation Blurb TBD

10:30 a.m.–10:50 a.m.

Taran Gujral, PhD
Associate Professor, Human Biology Division, Fred Hutch

Presentation Blurb TBD 

10:50 a.m.–11:10 a.m.

Evan Newell, PhD
Professor, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutch
Joint Professor, Herbold Computational Biology Program, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutch
Member, Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center (IIRC), Fred Hutch
Member, Pathogen-Associated Malignancies Integrated Research Center (PAM IRC), Fred Hutch

An overview of the Newell lab’s approaches for analyzing tumor-specific immune responses in the context of various cancers as well as a discussion of recent advances in the use of spatial transcriptomics, high dimensional flow cytometry and TCR sequencing based approaches to facilitate coordinated immune profiling efforts.

11:10 a.m.–11:30 a.m.

MC3 Leadership Team:
Paul Nghiem, MD, PhD, Faculty Founder & Director
Candice Church, PhD, Director of Scientific Research 
Rima Kulikauskas, BS, Director of Specimen Repository
Krista Lachance, MS, Director of People & Programs 

The Merkel Cell Carcinoma Collaborative (MC3) Institute is dedicated to advancing research and improving outcomes for MCC patients through cutting-edge translational research. Based at the University of Washington and Fred Hutch Cancer Center, MC3 fosters collaboration among scientists and clinicians to drive innovation in patient care. This talk will provide an overview of MC3’s mission, key initiatives, and opportunities for engagement in this growing research community. 

11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

12:30 p.m.–12:50 p.m.

Andrew Hsieh, MD
Professor and Associate Director, Human Biology Division, Fred Hutch
Professor, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutch

Multidisciplinary work highlighting the collaborative work by the UW/Fred Hutch Bladder Cancer Group.

12:50 p.m.–1:10 p.m.

Sita Kugel, PhD
Associate Professor, Human Biology Division, Fred Hutch

Presentation Blurb TBD

1:10 p.m.–1:30 p.m.

Shannon Oda, PhD
Principal Investigator, Ben Towne Center, Seattle Children’s Research Institute
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington

The tumor microenvironment presents several obstacles, including inhibitory immune cells, lack of support for antitumor immunity, and tumor heterogeneity. To overcome this issue, we developed T cell engineering strategies that increase antitumor function and catalyze a multicellular antitumor immune response, providing enhanced therapeutic efficacy against hematological and solid tumors.

1:30 p.m.–1:50 p.m.

Jay Sarthy, MD, PhD
Investigator, Ben Towne Center
Assistant Professor, University of Washington School of Medicine

Chemotherapy remains the backbone of modern oncology. We have identified a novel mechanism by which conventional chemotherapeutics including doxorubicin kill cancer cells, by damaging chromatin. Targeting this pathway results in impaired ribosomal biogenesis and cancer cell death in pediatric and adult cancer models while incurring minimal systemic toxicity.

1:50 p.m.–2:10 p.m.

Lawrence Fong, MD
Scientific Director, Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center (IIRC), Fred Hutch
Professor, Translational Science and Therapeutics Division, Fred Hutch
Bezos Family Distinguished Scholar in Immunotherapy, Fred Hutch

Presentation Blurb TBD

2:10 p.m.–2:20 p.m.

2:20 p.m.–2:40 p.m.

Kristy Lastwika, PhD
Assistant Professor, Translational Science and Therapeutics Division, Fred Hutch
Joint Assistant Professor, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutch
Member, Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center (IIRC), Fred Hutch

Presentation Blurb TBD

2:40 p.m.–3:00 p.m.

Sanjay Srivatsan, PhD
Assistant Professor, Basic Sciences Division, Fred Hutch
Assistant Professor, Herbold Computational Biology Program, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutch
Member, Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC), Fred Hutch

Single-cell genomics methods have unveiled the heterogeneity present in seemingly homogenous populations of cells, however, these techniques require meticulous optimization. How exactly does one handle and manipulate the biological contents from a single cell? Here, we introduce and characterize a novel semi-permeable capsule (SPC), capable of isolating single cells and their contents while facilitating biomolecular exchange based on size-selectivity. We use this platform to grow clonal colonies of cells and perform single cell genome sequencing both from amplicons and the whole genome.

3:00 p.m.–3:20 p.m.

Michael Haffner, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Human Biology Division, Fred Hutch
Assistant Professor, Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutch
Member, Translational Data Science Integrated Research Center (TDS IRC), Fred Hutch

Digital pathology is revolutionizing tumor diagnostics by improving accuracy, efficiency, and reproducibility. In this talk, we will explore applications such as AI-powered image analysis and image derived biomarkers in the space of prostate and bladder cancer. These advancements enhance diagnostic precision and prognostication, with significant implications for both research and clinical care.