Fred Hutch Basic Sciences Division

Current Biology Seminar presented by Dr. Ring, Fred Hutch. Dr. Ring’s seminar is hosted by the Division of Basic Sciences. Aaron Ring, PhD Associate Professor Translational Science and Therapeutics Division Fred Hutch Title: "Decoding the autoantibody reactome " 12:00pm on Tuesday, October 14, 2025 Pelton Auditorium, Weintraub Building, Fred Hutch

"Decoding the autoantibody reactome."

We’re excited to have @aaronmring.bsky.social joining us from the Translational Science and Therapeutics Division to share his latest research at today’s Current Biology Seminar! For all our @FredHutch.org colleagues, don’t miss a great talk at noon!

Friday Afternoon Seminars (FAS), this Friday 10/10 at 4pm in Pelton. Pravrutha Raman, Malik Lab Beyond histone mimicry: evolution of EZHIP, an inhibitor of the Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 in mammals Christian Loyo, Salama Lab Adaptive benefits of mobile genetic elements in bacteria

Friday Afternoon Seminars are back!
Kicking things off are @pravrutharaman.bsky.social from the @harmitmalik.bsky.social Lab and @christianloyo.bsky.social from Human Biology’s Salama Lab. Can’t wait to see everyone today at 4:00 pm in Pelton for two great talks!

Eric Holland, MD, PhD Senior Vice President and Director Human Biology Division Fred Hutch Title: "Big data visualization and mouse models of cancer" 12:00pm on Tuesday, October 7, 2025 Pelton Auditorium, Weintraub Building, Fred Hutch

For this Current Biology Seminar series, we’re hosting local luminaries from the pacific northwest. For the first talk of the series, we’re excited to have Dr. Eric Holland speaking today at noon in Pelton. For all our @FredHutch.org colleagues, don’t miss a great talk!

Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award Annual award to honor the bold, creative, pioneering spirit embodied by Hal Weintraub. The Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award recognizes outstanding achievements during graduate studies in the...

The Weintraub Award is seeking nominations for 2026! The award recognizes the outstanding achievements of grad students in biology and was established to honor the bold, creative, pioneering spirit embodied by Dr. Hal Weintraub. www.fredhutch.org/en/research/...

Congrats to Rina Hirano, postdoc in the Tsukiyama Lab, for receiving the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science's Overseas Research Fellowship in support of excellent young Japanese scientists working abroad! The fellowship helps further her research on how cells go in and out of quiescence.

It's National Research Administrator Day! On behalf of everyone in the division, we thank our research administrators for their vital role in advancing Basic Sciences. From managing labs and funding to resolving problems big and small, our division's success is thanks to their many contributions.

Oh, the microbes you’ll meet! A Fred Hutch Cancer Center study shows maternal antibodies in breastmilk help newborn mice develop immune tolerance, offering insights into human immunity and potential therapies for infant food aller...

Fred Hutch immunologist Dr. Meghan Koch discovers a biological mechanism sprung in the first week of life that trains a mouse pup’s immune system to tolerate harmless gut bugs and new foods — insights that could lead to potential therapies for food allergies in newborns and infants.

Fred Hutch is 50 This year, Fred Hutch Cancer Center turned the big 5-0 and celebrated all year long with stories highlighting the people and moments that have truly defined the organization. From groundbreaking scien...

This year, Fred Hutch Cancer Center turned the big 5-0 and celebrated all year long with stories highlighting the people and moments that have truly defined the organization. 👉 https://bit.ly/4nengsC #FH50

The 2025 Basic Sciences retreat continues today with talks from division faculty. Can’t wait to meet the first-year postbacs and @mcbseattle.bsky.social students. Excited for another great day of science!

The 2025 Basic Sciences retreat kicks off today at 2:00 p.m. with the main poster session in the Behnke Suites in Arnold Building. Can’t wait to hear about all the latest research happening in the division!

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center Fred Hutch is dedicated to the elimination of cancer and related diseases as causes of human suffering and death.

My awesome Drosophila colleague Akhila Rajan at Fred Hutch (Seattle) is recruiting both a staff scientist and a postdoc to study fat–brain communication, innate immunity, mitochondrial signaling, and brain senescence. Great team, great environment. Apply here: careers-fhcrc.icims.com/jobs/30062/j...

Changkun Hu, PhD, is our featured fellow! Dr. Hu uses in vitro reconstitution and TIRF microscopy (😍😍) to investigate the kinetochore, a protein complex that's required for the proper segregation of chromosomes.
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Molecular exaptation by the integrin αI domain An ancient protein domain insertion seamlessly preserved conformational signaling while providing a novel surface for adaptation.

So excited to see the first part of my thesis work with @harmitmalik.bsky.social and @melodygcampbell.bsky.social in print! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... We have a bit of evolution and a whole lotta structure to figure out how new protein domains work

Determinants of human versus mosquito cell entry by the Chikungunya virus envelope proteins Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infects both humans and mosquitoes during its transmission cycle. How the virus’s envelope proteins mediate entry in cells from such different species is unclear. MXRA8 is a ...

In new study led by Xiaohui Ju, we define how mutations to Chikungunya virus envelope proteins affect entry in human vs mosquito cells.

Sheds light on functional constraints & enables us to make loss-of-tropism mutants, which could be of use for vaccines.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

YouTube video by Double-stranded Podcast Low overlap of transcription factor DNA binding and regulatory targets

Drs. Steve Hahn and Lakshmi Mahendrawada sit down with the Double-stranded Podcast. Check out a great conversation and learn about their recent @nature.com paper that’s rewriting our understanding of transcription factors: youtu.be/lXgdvmveA_k?...

Preparing to say goodbye to two outstanding scientists from the lab: Ching-Ho Chang (‪@ching-hochang.bsky.social‬) and Yu-Ying Phoebe Hsieh (‪@hsiehyp.bsky.social‬) who are both leaving the lab at the end of the month to start their own independent labs at the prestigious Academia Sinica in Taipei

Spike mutations that affect the function and antigenicity of recent KP.3.1.1-like SARS-CoV-2 variants SARS-CoV-2 is under strong evolutionary selection to acquire mutations in its spike protein that reduce neutralization by human polyclonal antibodies. Here we use pseudovirus-based deep mutational sca...

In new study led by @bdadonaite.bsky.social, we measure how spike mutations affect function & antigenicity of spike of KP.3.1.1 strain of SARS-CoV-2.

Sheds light on how key neutralizing epitopes are changing & importance of RBD up/down motion.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our lab has an opening for a research technician to contribute to our efforts to understand RSV evolution & its impact on antibody countermeasures (see journals.asm.org/doi/full/10....). The tech will also help w lab management.

If interested, apply here: careers-fhcrc.icims.com/jobs/29940/job

Wanted to flag this interesting study led by our collaborators
@kinglabipd.bsky.social suggesting that at least in some contexts, the immunogenicity of H5 influenza vaccines can be improved by mutations that stabilize the HA protein.

RSV F evolution escapes some monoclonal antibodies but does not strongly erode neutralization by human polyclonal sera | Journal of Virology We describe an efficient approach to measure how antibodies inhibit infection by historical and recent human strains of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). This approach is useful for understanding how...

Final version of this paper is published in Journal of Virology: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

If you are interested in implementing RSV pseudovirus neutralization assays, the plasmids are now available in AddGene (www.addgene.org/browse/artic...) and we are happy to share the 293T-TIM1 cells.

Virologist and HIV expert Dr. Michael Emerman retires During his 36-year career at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, Michael Emerman, PhD, made fundamental discoveries about HIV, the retrovirus that causes AIDS. He co-founded the field of paleovirology and consi...

During his 36-year career at Fred Hutch, @memerman.bsky.social made fundamental discoveries about HIV, co-founded the field of paleovirology and mentored generations of scientists. bit.ly/4nMqOmr @hutchbasicsci.bsky.social

"Signals, forces and cells: Force sensing in epithelial tissues"

We’re excited to have Dr. Jennifer Zallen joining us from @mskcancercenter.bsky.social for a special guest seminar. For all our @FredHutch.bsky.social colleagues, don’t miss a great talk today at noon!

Staff, faculty, providers and furry friends 🐶 came out to celebrate Fred Hutch's 50th Anniversary at the South Lake Union campus.
#fredhutch #fh50 #cancer #cancerresearch #cancertreatment #seattle

Scenes from the 51st @seattlepride.bsky.social!
#fredhutch

Zhiguo Zhang, PhD Institute for Cancer Genetics Professor of Epigenomics and Molecular Biology Department of Pediatrics Department of Genetics and Development Columbia University Irving Medical Center Title: “A Tale of Two Strands: Mechanistic Insights into Chromatin Replication Through Strand-Specific Sequencing” 12:00pm on Thursday, June 26, 2025 Pelton Auditorium, Weintraub Building, Fred Hutch

For all our @FredHutch.bsky.social colleagues, don’t miss a special talk today at noon hosted by the Fred Hutch Chromatin Club. We’re excited to have Dr. Zhiguo Zhang joining us from @columbiamed.bsky.social to share his latest discoveries on chromatin replication.

Grateful to the lab for celebrating 25 years and to @hutchbasicsci.bsky.social for being such a great place to do science!

Fred Hutch joins the nation in commemorating Juneteenth National Independence Day, a time to honor the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States. We celebrate the resilience and strength of those early Americans who never gave up hope during uncertain times.

Biggins Lab 25th anniversary celebration

Biggins Lab 25th anniversary celebration

Celebrating 25 years of curiosity, kinetochores, and cutting-edge science! Congratulations to the @suebiggins.bsky.social Lab @fredhutch.bsky.social on their 25th anniversary. Cheers to all the amazing colleagues that have made it such a wonderful place to do research over its past and present!

Congratulations to these exceptional early-career scientists!

Happy to present a single cell atlas of ALL glia, in BOTH sexes of an animal (in vivo validated!)! Fab work by postdoc @glia-maria.bsky.social, team, & collaboration with @manusetty.bsky.social . Find insights into glia, new analytics and ML models, and browse our companion website (wormglia.org)