[Updated: 2:15 pm Pacific, 12/8/09 with larger fundraising numbers from this year’s gala.] The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the Seattle-based nonprofit, said it raised $8.85 million at its annual Hutch Holiday Gala on Saturday night. Most of the money, $7.95 million, was directed toward research to boost people’s immune systems to fight cancer cells. The effort was sparked by the parents of Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, who agreed to pledge $10 million last month to the immunotherapy effort. The center raised $2.2 million at last year’s fundraiser.
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.
View all posts by Luke Timmerman
