$10M awarded to advance cell and genome technologies

Washington Research Foundation (WRF) has pledged $10 million over five years in support of a new program led by UW Medicine’s Brotman Baty Institute (BBI) and the Allen Institute. 

The program, SeaBridge, will advance cell and genome reprogramming technologies developed at the Seattle Hub for Synthetic Biology (Seattle Hub) to help address a wide range of diseases. The grant is among the largest in WRF's 44-year history.

Seattle Hub is a collaboration among BBI, the Allen Institute and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). Jay Shendure, BBI scientific director, leads Seattle Hub. He also holds faculty positions at the University of Washington School of Medicine and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. 

Building on core technologies developed at BBI, Seattle Hub opened in January 2024 to generate foundational datasets, models and molecular infrastructure to re-engineer cells to record their own histories and reprogram disease states into healthy functions. The Allen Institute and the CZI each committed $35 million in 2023 to establish Seattle Hub.

The purpose of the SeaBridge grant is to train a new generation of scientists, leverage the region's expertise in cell therapy, and launch startups to drive clinical applications that will improve health through advanced treatment options for diseases that include cancers, as well as neurological and immune disorders.

The SeaBridge program will recruit and train 40 postdoctoral fellows to further advance Seattle Hub’s technologies, which include the DNA Typewriter and ENGRAM created in Shendure's UW Medicine lab. In addition to Shendure, the SeaBridge program will also be led by Seattle Hub Co-Director Marion Pepper, chair of the UW School of Medicine Department of Immunology, and Jesse Gray, Seattle Hub Senior Director, Strategy and Platform, at the Allen Institute. 

“This generous WRF grant enables Seattle Hub to establish a new postdoctoral fellowship training program, a program that will move Seattle forward as the epicenter of synthetic biology,” said Pepper. 

The fellowship program will be administrated by BBI. Fellows will carry out their work at UW Medicine and other academic research institutions in the state. 

The hope is that researchers will advance several technologies to the point where new companies can be created locally to commercialize novel therapeutics, diagnostics or other cell-based technologies that address a variety of clinical conditions and diseases.  

“Our vision is these new companies will bridge Seattle’s rich synthetic biology ecosystem and our enterprising fellows to create companies armed with new clinical interventions to improve patients’ lives,” said Gray.

Seattle Hub received a $105,000 planning grant from WRF last year to develop a detailed plan for the SeaBridge program.

WRF made the $10 million award through its new BioInnovation Grant program, president and CEO Tom Daniel said, which the foundation launched in response to a key goal of its 2023 strategic plan: increasing support for big, emergent opportunities to advance Washington state's life sciences ecosystem and improve lives. 

“This is beyond exciting,” Daniel said. “Large-scale grant partnerships can really help to accelerate critical life science initiatives in our region. SeaBridge is a great example of this.”

Additional support for the SeaBridge program includes commitments from BBI, CZI, the Allen Institute, UW Medicine and the fellows' host institutions.

Meher Antia, director of grant programs at WRF, said, "WRF is delighted to support the SeaBridge program through our first BioInnovation Grant. SeaBridge fulfils many of the goals of the BioInnovation Grant program in translating a novel and exciting platform technology into concrete applications in a way that builds on the region’s strengths. The matching funds from CZI, BBI, UW Medicine and the Allen Institute make this a genuine partnership between WRF, the research institutions and other funders, which is also a key feature of the BioInnovation Grants.” 
 

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