Health/Life Sciences

Study unveils impact of high drug costs: Cancer chemotherapy is twice as expensive in the U.S.

A new study from Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found a huge price discrepancy between cancer care in… Read More

Fred Hutch becomes first Seattle organization in Lyft’s ‘Round Up & Donate’ program

Lyft, one of the top ridesharing programs in the U.S., announced Thursday that the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center will… Read More

Biomanufacturing company AbSci raises $12M to scale synthetic biology platform

Vancouver, Wash.,-based biotechnology company AbSci has raised a chunk of new money. The company announced Wednesday that it has just… Read More

Healthcare startup Qliance files for bankruptcy, lists more than 100 creditors — including CEO’s new company

Qliance Medical Management — a Seattle-based healthcare startup that was embroiled in controversy when it suddenly shut its doors last year — has officially… Read More

Portland immunotherapy startup tops $10M in funding as it launches first clinical trial

In 2008, Emmanuel Akporiaye left a tenured position at the University of Arizona to move across the country and launch… Read More

Pre-clinical drug screening startup A-Alpha Bio wins first place at Univ. of Washington Business Plan Competition

Pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of money and time developing new drugs. Now a new startup created by a group of… Read More

Grail raises $300M for cancer detection tools, boosting total investment to $1.5B

News Brief: Grail, a biotech company with early backing from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, says… Read More

Seattle biotech journalist reaches summit of Mount Everest in bid to raise money for cancer research

Seattle biotech journalist Luke Timmerman reached new heights Tuesday in his efforts to raise awareness for cancer research by successfully… Read More

Microsoft partners with Case Western on quantum computing and Hololens tech that improves MRIs

MRIs are one of the most commonly used diagnostic tools, but the technology behind that imaging has remained largely the… Read More

Telehealth services save patients $100 per doctor’s visit, study finds, but they still have a PR problem

The U.S. has a huge healthcare problem. The country spends more per capita on healthcare than any other country in… Read More

How a robotic system that grows human organoids can help save real live humans

Good news, everybody: Robots can now create human mini-organs from stem cells. What could possibly go wrong? The method may… Read More

Ventec Life Systems raises $13M to scale one-of-a-kind portable life support device into new markets

Ventec Life Systems, the Seattle-area creator of a unique portable life support device, has raised another $13 million to… Read More

Nohla Therapeutics raises $45M, gets new HQ as it moves novel leukemia treatment closer to market

Seattle startup Nohla Therapeutics has raised another huge funding round as it moves its novel leukemia treatment closer to being… Read More

Tech vets launch MultiScale Health, aiming to ‘liberate’ healthcare data with real-time platform

Data is transforming every industry under the sun. Mountains of data let companies sell toothpaste, manage international logistics and support… Read More

Univ. of Washington spinout takes on $5.2B hospital scheduling problem with AI analytics

Hospitals have to solve a thousand logistical challenges every day, but perhaps none are more difficult than operating room schedules.… Read More

Microsoft partners with Fred Hutch to tackle chemotherapy side effects using new AI tech

For many cancer patients, living with the brutal side effects of chemotherapy is a daily struggle. More than half of… Read More

Podcast

Health Tech Podcast: Using precision medicine to kill cancer — with artificial intelligence

In December of 2012, Su-In Lee was working at the University of Washington in Seattle. One day, she got the… Read More

Study finds AI algorithm can diagnose blindness-causing disease more accurately than doctors

Artificial intelligence is only getting more powerful. Today, we’re able to build computer programs that can master complex strategy games… Read More

Startup and researchers get $3.1M grant to bring personalized, cancer-fighting tech to patients

Every patient’s cancer is unique and every patient responds to cancer drugs differently. But right now, all patients with the… Read More

TLDR: Facebook F8 Conference Highlights, 98point6 virtual clinic, OfferUp now ships across the continental U.S.

[Editor’s Note: TLDR is GeekWire’s daily news rundown, hosted by Starla Sampaco. Watch today’s update above, subscribe to GeekWire on YouTube for every… Read More

The chatbot will see you now: 98point6 launches virtual clinic app, aims to solve ‘primary care crisis’ with AI (and real doctors)

Imagine you have a minor health problem — say, an earache. Then imagine you open an app, message a doctor… Read More

Gates Foundation launches $12M Grand Challenge for universal flu vaccine, as Bill Gates urges world to prepare for war on pandemics

One hundred years ago, an aggressive flu virus killed 675,000 Americans in just 3 weeks. The virus, known as Spanish… Read More