BBI’s Dr. Mark Headley has devoted his career to battling what he calls “an assault from within.” This “assault” is not domestic terrorism, as one might expect, but rather the metastatic spread to the lungs from other parts of the body, causing cancer cells to colonize, develop, and, without successful treatment, potentially lead to premature death. Headley, an assistant professor…
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A single brain is unfathomably complex. So brain researchers, whether they’re looking at datasets built from 300,000 neurons in 81 mice or from MRIs of 1,200 young adults, are now dealing with so much information that they must also come up with new methods to comprehend it. Developing new analysis tools has become as important as using them to understand…
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Expanding Newborn Screening Panels in the Genomic Era

This September marks the 60th anniversary of Newborn Screening (NBS), a landmark achievement that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers one of the ten greatest public health achievements worldwide. Today, newborns in all 50 states are screened within the first few days of life for a panel of 34 rare conditions. Infants born with one of…
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Plenty of high school students plan to make careers out of coding when they graduate from college. And plenty of other students are probably planning careers as cancer-research scientists. But how many are planning on doing both at once? “Coding for Cancer,” a program from the Seattle-based Fred Hutch Cancer Center, aims to let students know that computational research in…
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UW’s Dr. Danny Miller (M.D., Ph.D.) specializes in long-read genome sequencing, unsolved genetic disorders, and clinical genetic testing in his research and clinical practice at Seattle Children’s Hospital. He is the scientific advisor to the upcoming long-read symposium BBI is hosting November 15 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. The primary goal of the symposium is to bring together Seattle-area…
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The impetus for this database was to improve our ability to offer personalized medicine to individuals we are seeing at the UW and Fred Hutch Genetics Clinics. These two genetics clinics see over 5,000 patients annually with rare or undiagnosed conditions. Although most of these individuals will get genetic testing, for many we will only identify a Variant of Uncertain…
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In a Q&A, Dr. Ramesh Rengan outlines the strategy, mission and goals for research and care. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center launched a new Division of Radiation Oncology in July 2023 led by Ramesh Rengan, MD, PhD, Senior Vice President and Professor in the Clinical Research Division. The establishment of the new division is part of an overall strategy to synchronize…
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Twenty years after Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen created the bioscience research center that bears his name, Seattle’s Allen Institute is still pushing out into new frontiers. But this weekend, the nonprofit institute — and its hometown — are taking a little time to celebrate. All this week, the Allen Institute has been highlighting Open Science Week, which touches upon one of the core values that…
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Italian-born neuroscientist Vittorio Gallo first got interested in research through his appreciation of art, which made him wonder how our brains process colors, forms and compositions. That curiosity launched Gallo on a scientific journey that starts a new chapter Monday, when he takes on the role of chief scientific officer at Seattle Children’s, the Seattle-based children’s medical center. Gallo most recently served…
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Washington Research Foundation (WRF) has awarded more than $1.2 million to expand a University of Washington (UW) training program for entrepreneurs, and to partner with Washington State University (WSU) to establish a parallel, collaborative program at that institution later this year. The Postdoctoral Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) supports early-career innovators to improve the likelihood of successfully commercializing their technologies for public benefit. PEP launched…
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