By HFT Staff

The Bezos family has committed $710.5 million over the next decade to accelerate Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center’s multifaceted approach to scientific discovery. The gift supports the organization’s efforts to accelerate the pace and breadth of medical breakthroughs in cancer and infectious disease by tapping the full potential of today’s science.  

The center plans to further develop systems that stimulate the ability of discoveries in one area of science to advance others, both internally and via global collaborations with new and established partners. 

To enable that vision, the gift will support the following key priorities over the next 10 years: 

• Research facilities ($225 million). This funding will go toward the construction of a new, 390,000-square-foot research building on the Seattle campus that will house the Stuart and Molly Sloan Precision Oncology Institute. The building will provide space for researchers, their teams and new technologies and equipment.  
• Recruitment ($300 million). This gift will enable the center to recruit about 36 new researchers from a variety of scientific areas, including early- and mid-career researchers and senior scientists. The funding includes resources for lab space, equipment, and technology for its collaborative research environment. 
• Clinical research infrastructure ($149.5 million). Expansion of institution-wide clinical research capabilities will allow for more collaborations between bench scientists and clinicians, more clinical trials to be available to more patients, and increased study enrollment of individuals from diverse backgrounds.  
• Expanding immunotherapy research ($36 million). Funding for the Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center will expand immune-based strategies for treating cancer and our understanding of underlying biological mechanisms for how immunotherapy works.