Kristen Hege, MD, and her husband Gib Biddle are hiking the Pacific Crest Trail to raise funds for early-career women scientists at Penn’s Center for Cellular Immunotherapies (CCI). The couple seeks to raise $500,000 through the Penn Giving Page that Hege created.
Clearly, these two enjoy daunting challenges. The Pacific Crest Trail is 2,658 miles long and reaches its highest elevation at 13,180 feet. Only 14 percent of hikers who undertake it finish the entire trail.
Likewise, curing cancer might be an intimidating goal for some. Hege, however, has just recently retired from a noteworthy career treating cancer patients and leading cancer research and drug development. She frequently worked with Penn Medicine’s Carl June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy and Director of the CCI, and Bruce Levine, MD, the Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy, whom she considers the “true pioneers of the breakthrough field of cellular immunotherapy.”
Hege believes this area of research will soon scale a series of very high pinnacles. She writes, “After 25 years of dedicated and iterative research, the field of cellular immunotherapy is now at the tipping point, with potential applications across a spectrum of serious human diseases, well beyond cancer.”
Based on her career-long observations, Hege believes it is essential to support female scientists. “While women enter medical and scientific fields at equal numbers to men,” she writes, “women are still underrepresented in leadership roles across academia and the biopharma industry. Women need opportunities, financial and emotional support, and mentorship to embark on, persist in, and thrive in science and medicine.”
In some ways, this trek brings Hege full circle. As a first-year medical student, she coped with the recent deaths of both her parents by biking down the Pacific Coast. “The solitude, natural beauty, and physical challenge was a tonic for my soul, allowing me to heal and move beyond the pain and loss as I embarked on my medical education and future profession,” she writes. “Now, as I enter retirement and reflect on my career in science and medicine, it seems fitting to turn around and walk back along the crest of the western mountains from Mexico to Canada and reflect on the progress we have made in cancer immunotherapy research and the great opportunities ahead.”
To date, Hege’s Giving Page has raised nearly $300,000. Major $100,000 gifts came from her former employer Bristol Myers Squibb and Bill Haney, CEO and co-founder of Dragonfly Therapeutics, a developer of immunology therapies. More than 125 additional donors have kicked in so far.
You can learn more and make a donation to Hege’s Giving Page.