‘Hutch’ Raises $2.2M at Holiday Gala

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center raised more than $2.2 million in donations for its research programs at its annual Hutch Holiday Gala on Saturday night at the Seattle Sheraton. More than half of the money, $1.2 million, was directed toward immunotherapy research, in which scientists try to “teach” the immune system to fight cancer cells like a virus. The money will be used to expand immunotherapy clinical trials in the late stages of disease, said Hutchinson Center President Lee Hartwell, in a statement.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.