G-Rex Grant Tour Seattle - Supporting Emily Whitehead Foundation

G-Rex® Grant Tour

Supporting the Emily Whitehead Foundation

SEATTLE

Location

Apella by Alexandria
1150 Eastlake Ave
Seattle, WA 98109

Date

Thursday, June 25, 2026
10:00AM – 7:00PM

Event Agenda

Check Sessions & Speakers

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G-Rex Grant Tour Seattle

Hear from leaders bringing hope to patients through advanced cell & gene therapies

Mr. Brad Watts, Global Patient Advocate, Speaker, and Board Member; CAR-T recipient and patient advocate for the Emily Whitehead Foundation, survivor of Follicular Lymphoma and DLBCL Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

Meet Mr. Brad Watts

Brad Watts is a Global Patient Advocate & Speaker, Board Member, and CAR-T recipient who advocates for patients and the advancement of regenerative medicine and cell and gene therapies. At age 29, he was diagnosed with FL and DLBCL Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and between 2017 and 2021 underwent multiple treatments including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, an autologous stem cell transplant, immunotherapy, CAR-T Therapy, and surgical excision of malignant nodes. He serves as a Patient Advocate for organizations including the Emily Whitehead Foundation, driven by a passion for improving patient access and shaping innovation through lived experience.
Betsy and Beaudin Larrabee, mother and son patient advocates — Beaudin is a childhood cancer survivor and CAR-T trial participant at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Meet Ms. Betsy & Beau Larrabee

Betsy and Beaudin Larrabee are a mother–son speaking and advocacy duo focused on childhood cancer survivorship, clinical innovation, and life after treatment.Beaudin was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) at age six following recurrent fevers and hospitalizations. His initial course of treatment proceeded as expected, with a strong early response. Despite this, Beaudin later experienced a CNS-only relapse, shifting his care from established protocols into the uncertain terrain of trial medicine. While preparing to begin relapse therapy, his family connected with the Emily Whitehead Foundation, which supported access to emerging treatment options and clinical trials.Through that pathway, Beaudin enrolled in a CAR T-cell clinical trial at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, receiving his first infusion in March 2021. When CAR T persistence declined, he went on to participate in a humanized CAR T-cell (huCART) trial, receiving a second infusion in August 2021. Although the cells eventually faded, Beaudin’s leukemia did not recur. His family entered a period of watchful waiting, and today Beaudin is a teenager celebrating more than four years cancer-free.Now on the far side of treatment, Betsy and Beaudin speak together about survivorship, clinical decision-making, and the lived experience behind emerging cancer therapies—offering clarity, perspective, and humanity to conversations about medicine, uncertainty, and what comes after survival.

Meet Dr. Sarah Warren

Sarah Warren, PhD, is a Senior Director in Corporate Development at Gilead Science where she leads Search & Evaluation for the Kite cell therapy pipeline. Prior to joining Kite in 2022, she built and led the Translational Sciences team at NanoString Technologies. She got her start in industry and is a founder and Director of Research at Oncofactor Corp, developing therapeutics targeting novel immune checkpoints. Dr. Warren received her PhD in immunology from the University of Washington in Seattle. She has served as a director-at-large for the Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer and is a mentor for the Creative Destruction Labs to provide advice to startup companies in computational health.
Dr. Aude Chapuis, oncologist and TCR gene therapy researcher developing T cell therapies for solid tumors, leukemias, and Merkel cell carcinoma

Meet Dr. Aude Chapuis

Dr. Aude Chapuis is head of a laboratory focusing on the development a translational pipeline designed to improve T cell receptor (TCR) gene therapy. This spans target identification, generation of high-affinity TCRs, armoring with Signal 2 and 3, clinical trial development and execution, and sophisticated high dimensional immune-monitoring to maximize the information that can be derived from each treated patient. A non-exhaustive list of diseases being targeted by the lab include virally-driven tumors (targeting Merkel-cell polyoma virus antigens in Merkel cell carcinoma), solid tumors (targeting shared mutations, cancer-testis antigens or over-expressed proteins such as Wilms’ tumor antigen 1 [WT1]), and leukemias (targeting two epitopes of WT1 in acute myeloid leukemia). The lab is embedded within a highly collaborative network to implement these translational strategies including investigators in basic science, oncology disease-specific clinicians, and cancer immunology labs. Additionally, Dr Chapuis is an oncologist and attends in the Bone marrow transplant and Immunotherapy services.
Dr. Andras Heczey, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington and Scientific Director of Translational Research – Cell, Gene and Protein Therapeutics at Seattle Children's Research Institute

Meet Dr. Andras Heczey

Andras Heczey MD is a physician scientist and Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, University of Washington. He is the Scientific Director of Translational Research - Cell, Gene and Protein Therapeutics at the Seattle Children's Research Institute (SCRI). He is a member of the multidisciplinary Solid Tumor team of Seattle Children's, the Ben Towne Cancer Center of SCRI, and the Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center of the Fred Hutch Cancer Center. He has over 15 years’ experience in developing first-in-human / first-in-child cell and gene therapeutics in the preclinical and clinical setting. His lab focuses on developing novel treatments for children and adults with solid tumors using state-of-the-art synthetic immunology tools to redirect the immune system and eliminate cancer.”
Dr. Colin Thalhofer, PhD, Director of R&D at AgonOx, Inc., leading the development of AGX-148 autologous cell therapy for patients with metastatic solid tumors

Meet Dr. Colin Thalhofer

Colin Thalhofer, PhD, is Director of R&D at AgonOx, Inc. and an immunologist whose work spans basic immune biology, translational oncology, and cancer immunotherapy development. He began his scientific training at the Earle A. Chiles Research Institute and earned his PhD in the Immunology Graduate Program at the University of Iowa, where he investigated the molecular and cellular interactions between the protozoan parasite Leishmania and the mammalian immune system. Since joining AgonOx, Inc. in 2013, Dr. Thalhofer has focused on cancer immunotherapy target discovery and therapeutic development, with particular emphasis on characterizing the tumor microenvironment to identify and validate clinically actionable targets. His work integrates mechanistic insight with translational strategy, supporting both the biological rationale and clinical advancement of emerging immunotherapies. He has played a key role in the development of AGX-148, an autologous cell therapy enriched for tumor-reactive T cells, and in advancing its ongoing Phase 1 clinical evaluation in patients with metastatic solid tumors.
Mr. Rich Getto, Senior Vice President of Portfolio Strategy & Product Delivery at BrainChild Bio, formerly SVP at Umoja Biopharma and early Juno Therapeutics employee who developed the NEX-T platform

Meet Mr. Rich Getto

Rich Getto has spent his 25-year biotech career working to deliver CMC efficiencies that translate to increased patient access to therapies. He is currently the Senior Vice President of Portfolio Strategy & Product Delivery at BrainChild Bio where he leads the Program Management, CMC Development, and Patient Operations teams. Prior to joining BrainChild Bio, Rich was the Senior Vice President of Program Management and Portfolio Strategy of Umoja Biopharma and built multiple functions as the company grew toward delivering in vivo CAR T to the clinic. Rich joined the world of CAR T therapy as an early employee of Juno Therapeutics, serving multiple roles at the company for 6 years, including leading the evaluation and development of advanced analytical and manufacturing technologies with the goal of significantly driving down the costs of manufacturing autologous CAR T products culminating in the development of the NEX-TTM platform. In the pre-cell therapy portion of his career, he was the Global Network Leader of Amgen’s tech transfer process where he oversaw more than 100 tech transfers across Amgen’s internal and external manufacturing network while decreasing transfer timelines and costs and simultaneously increasing success rates. Rich holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Montana State University, an MS in Biotechnology from the Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg, and an MBA from the Northern Institute of Technology in Hamburg, Germany. He served 3 years as a board member of Strawberry Theatre Workshop and is currently an advisory board member of Holy Mountain Brewing Company.
Dr. Joell Solan

Meet Dr. Joell Solan

Joell L. Solan, PhD, is the Director of Research and Development at Immusoft, a biotech company in Seattle. She leads scientific efforts in engineering B cells to treat rare genetic diseases. Her team advanced the first-in-human clinical trial using modified B cells for Mucopolysaccharidosis type I (MPS I). Before Immusoft, Dr. Solan conducted advanced biomedical research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and the University of Washington. She specializes in cell signaling regulation and protein biochemistry. Her work bridges laboratory discoveries with clinical-stage therapies, making her a key figure in the cell and gene therapy field.
Dr. Meher Antia

Meet Dr. Meher Antia

Dr. Meher Antia is the Director of Grant Programs at Washington Research Foundation (WRF). She is responsible for WRF’s grant-making activities, which support innovation and technology commercialization in life sciences and adjacent technologies at research institutions across Washington state. Meher leads WRF’s assessment of novel technologies for existing grant programs and also leads strategic development and implementation of new funding programs. In addition, she plays an active role in supporting WRF Capital’s startup investment portfolio. Prior to joining WRF, Meher worked in strategic roles in clinical and translational sciences and population health at the University of Washington (UW) and managed a portfolio of early-stage therapeutics and medical device funding programs at the Wellcome Trust in London. She holds undergraduate and master’s degrees in physics and a PhD in bioengineering.
Dr. Michael T. Lotze, Professor of Surgery, Immunology, and Bioengineering and Director of the DAMP Laboratories at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center

Meet Dr. Michael Lotze

Michael T. Lotze, MD, FACS is Professor of Surgery, Immunology, and Bioengineering; Director of the DAMP Laboratories at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center; and Sr. Advisor for the Immune Transplant and Therapy Center within the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Enterprises. His research work includes modern immunotherapy and gene therapy, dendritic cell, T cell, and cytokine therapies, and investigation of the role of mitochondria, metabolism, and unscheduled cell death in cancer.Dr. Lotze has worked in the field of immunology and clinical medicine for over 30 years and has had the opportunity to personally review and advance the work of individuals developing translational research, particularly within cancer. Dr. Lotze is a clinician scientist who has spent the last decade assembling teams to work on the extraordinary problem of pancreatic cancer, renal cancer, and lung cancer.He is a long-time SITC enthusiast, attending his first meeting in Williamsburg, presiding in 1998, and launching both the Primer on Tumor Immunology as well as the SITC Clinical Immuno-Oncology Network to advance the most rigorous and robust clinical protocols in immunotherapy of cancer. Dr. Lotze is the co-inventor of 10 patents in dendritic cell vaccines and antigen discovery, 13 patents in tumor infiltrating lymphocyte therapy (while at Iovance), additional patents at Nurix Therapeutics where he served as Chief Cell Therapy Officer 2020-2023.He is an award-winning NCI-trained scientist (1978-1990), the inaugural Director of Surgical Oncology at Pitt (1990-2000), former Vice President of Research at GlaxoSmithKline (2001), founding director of the UPCI Academy, former Chief Scientific Officer at Lion/Iovance Biotherapeutics, former CCO at Nurix Therapeutics, and innovative educator as a prolific clinician-scientist/tumor immunologist with over 500 publications and several books.

Global Resources, Seattle Innovation.

Join the coalition accelerating patient cures right here in Seattle.
Inspiring Patient & Caregiver Stories

Hear firsthand from CAR-T cell recipients as they share powerful journeys of survival and hope.

Breakthroughs in Solid Tumor Resarch

Join leading experts from Fred Hutch and Seattle Children's as they discuss the next frontier of cell therapy research.

Seattle Start-Up & Business Innovation Forum

Connect with top biotech leaders from Gilead Sciences, AgonOx, and BrainChild Bio driving the future of regional healthcare innovation.

Event Sponsors
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Event Essentials

Prepare for a full day of innovation, networking, and impact.

G-Rex Grant Tour

If you're building the future of cell therapy - this is your place

Interested in Sponsoring?

Are you a provider of tools, technology, or services used in research, development, or manufacturing of cell and gene therapies?
Does your innovation pair nicely with G-Rex?
If yes, please consider sponsoring one, some, or all of the G-Rex Grant Tour events.  Your sponsorship is a tax deductible donation to the Emily Whitehead Foundation.

SPONSORSHIP PROSPECTUS

G-Rex Grant Tour Seattle

G-Rex Grant Tour
JUN 25
Thursday, June 25, 2026 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM GMT-7
Apella by Alexandria Seattle, WA
Registration

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