Our history includes six decades of driven exploration and groundbreaking contributions to improving human health. Pacific Northwest Research Institute (PNRI) maintains our founder’s original vision: investigators fearlessly pursuing innovative scientific discoveries.
PNRI’s team of world-class scientists shares an enthusiasm for examining problems from different angles and weaving together multiple disciplines in pursuit of elusive answers. We approach complex scientific challenges collaboratively, driving toward real-world solutions for improving human health.
A New Model for Research
William Hutchinson, MD understood the importance of free, unfettered research as an essential step in understanding and improving patient care and human health. He envisioned an independent facility where practicing physicians and surgeons would enjoy complete freedom to pursue their research. It would be a place where inquiring minds would be welcomed, helped, and encouraged in the pursuit to find answers “to all of mankind’s unsolved infirmities.”
Dr. Hutchinson founded Pacific Northwest Research Foundation (PNRF) in 1956 with a focus on basic and clinical research. It was first located in a building generously provided by the Swedish Hospital on their campus. Over the decades, our researchers explored a wide range of illnesses, including heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. As progress in cancer research accelerated, a new division spun off from the Institute in 1967, which eventually became the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
In 1988, the PNRF moved into the state-of-the art, 45,000 sq. ft. facility that it occupies today in the First Hill Neighborhood, and nine years later, officially changed its name to Pacific Northwest Research Institute.
Six Decades of Experience
Today, after six decades of groundbreaking research, we are rooted in our mission to discover new solutions in the fight against disease. By exploring the human body’s innate ability to remain healthy in the face of genetic and environmental risk, we are redefining a basic question about the role of human genetics.
“We provide physicians and scientists with a problem to solve and an inquiring mind a place to work.”
William Hutchinson, MD
Founder of Pacific Northwest Research Institute