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Seattle Children’s Research Institute Creating ‘On-ramp to Biotech’ for Early Career Scientists

June 14, 2022  |  Research Comments Off on Seattle Children’s Research Institute Creating ‘On-ramp to Biotech’ for Early Career Scientists

Drs. Alison Williams and Eric Nealy are helping to build a program at Seattle Children’s Research Institute for early career scientists who have historically been excluded from or underrepresented in biotech.

Seattle Children’s Research Institute today announced the Invent at Seattle Children’s Postdoctoral Scholars Program, a $45 million investment in training early career scientists historically underrepresented in biotech in the development of therapeutics for childhood conditions. Seattle Children’s has pledged to raise an additional $10 million for the program.

“We want to create an on-ramp to the biotech sector for people who have traditionally not had that opportunity,” said Dr. Jim Olson, program director. Read full post »

Five Years After Her Brain Tumor Surgery, Liesel Is Graduating From Harvard

May 10, 2021  |  General, Neurosciences, Patient Stories, Research Post Comment
Liesel Von Imhof at Harvard

Liesel Von Imhof will graduate from Harvard with a degree in stem cell biology in May 2021, five years after Seattle Children’s neurosurgeons removed her brain tumor.

As a high school freshman, Liesel Von Imhof had a dream of attending college at Harvard. She packed her schedule with challenging classes and participated in varsity sports such as cross-country running and cross-country skiing. She had occasional, debilitating headaches that sometimes caused her to miss school, but she blamed them on stress, dehydration or low blood sugar.

In July 2016, just before her senior year of high school, Liesel’s dream of Harvard was almost derailed when doctors found the reason for her headaches: a Ping-Pong ball-sized tumor in the middle of her brain.

At the urging of her doctors, Liesel, then age 17, and her parents traveled from their home in Anchorage, Alaska, to Seattle Children’s.

Thanks to the care she received here, the support of her family and friends, and her own determination, Liesel is graduating from Harvard this month with a degree in stem cell biology — her first step toward a career in medicine.

Read full post »

Cancer Research at Seattle Children’s Contributes to FDA Approval of CAR T-Cell Immunotherapy Treatment for Adults with Relapsed or Refractory Large B-Cell Lymphoma

February 8, 2021  |  Cancer and Blood Disorders, Patient Care, Research Post Comment

The Therapeutics Cell Manufacturing facility at Building Cure translates laboratory discoveries into real-world treatments.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Feb. 5 approved Bristol Myers Squibb’s Breyanzi, a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy used to treat adults with certain types of large B-cell lymphoma who have not responded to or who have relapsed after standard treatments.

The approval was supported by research at Seattle Children’s, including the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product, patient product manufacturing for Juno Therapeutics’ TRANSCEND trial, and data from the Pediatric Leukemia Adoptive Therapy (PLAT-02) clinical trial. In the PLAT-02 clinical trial, 93% of patients with relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia achieved initial remission, and about 50% were still in remission one year after therapy. Read full post »