A transformational commitment by Stuart Sloan and his wife Molly Sloan of $78M to establish the Stuart and Molly Sloan Precision Oncology Institute at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center aims to help researchers fulfill the early promise of a data-driven approach. The largest single gift in Fred Hutch’s 47-year history will go toward the recruitment of an institute director and scientific programs that will aim to spark innovative new discoveries, and a new building to house the laboratory space and enable technologies critical to those discoveries.
“The Sloans’ generous gift will help Fred Hutch establish one of the world’s premier precision oncology centers that will bring together our very best basic science, data science, disease-oriented translational science, science of cancer prevention and understanding of the immune system,” said Dr. Thomas J. Lynch, president and director of Fred Hutch and holder of the Raisbeck Endowed Chair. “This gift is going to allow us to build a program that will drive innovation at Fred Hutch for the next 20 to 30 years.”
The donation grew out of Stuart Sloan’s longstanding relationship with Fred Hutch. In 2013, Sloan was the founding sponsor for the fundraising event Obliteride, which he cycles in every year. His commitment was inspired by Fred Hutch as the birthplace of bone marrow transplantation, a Nobel Prize-winning advance that has been used to treat 1.5 million people with blood cancer and other diseases, and the center’s history as one of the earliest established National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers.
The Sloans were further motivated by the recent merger between Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance to form Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, uniting comprehensive care and advanced research to provide the latest treatment options and accelerate discoveries that prevent, treat and defeat cancer and infectious diseases worldwide. Fred Hutch is an independent, nonprofit organization that also serves as UW Medicine’s cancer program.
