Timmerman Traverse for Damon Runyon Hits $1M Goal, Striving Toward Kilimanjaro

The Timmerman Traverse for Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has done it again.

We have exceeded our team goal of raising $1 million for brilliant young cancer researchers around the US. We currently stand at $1,094,672.

This team isn’t done. The latest group of 22 biotech executives and investors have one month left before traveling to Tanzania, banding together in common cause, and climbing Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa at 19,341 feet / 5,895 meters.

This Timmerman Traverse campaign, like all others, has required sweat and sacrifice. The biotech industry has experienced several lean years. It took creativity and relentless drive to overcome obstacles.

We persisted because it’s important to uplift the next generation of outstanding cancer researchers.

Timmerman Traverse has now raised $3.1 million over four campaigns for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation since fall 2023. Every dollar raised – 100 percent – goes directly into multi-year grants for the young scientists fortunate and talented enough to win a Damon Runyon award. There are currently five young scientists at institutions around the US supported by the Timmerman Traverse, with three more to be named in 2026.

One of these scientists will join the Kilimanjaro team in February. Antonio LaPorte, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, grew up in the Chicago area and got his PhD in chemistry at the University of Illinois. He’s a Timmerman Traverse-Damon Runyon Fellow who now has secure resources to pursue his dreams because of the biotech community’s support.

Not every young scientist has been so fortunate during a tumultuous year. Damon Runyon has heard from many scientists this year about how appreciative they are for philanthropic support.

“I’m absolutely thrilled and, at the same time, not at all surprised that this group of outstanding leaders reached this fundraising benchmark so soon. The Timmerman Traverse for Damon Runyon has been an incredible force multiplier in cancer research,” said Yung Lie, president and CEO of Damon Runyon. “We’re so grateful to everyone who has participated in or donated to one of our expeditions, past and present. We are excited to include a current Damon Runyon-Timmerman Traverse Fellow on the Kilimanjaro 2026 team to share with the group just how critical this funding is right now in this uncertain scientific climate.”

Thanks to the following sponsors for their generous support:

$25,000

 

 

 

 

$10,000

Browne Consulting

Cooley

Ryan Turner Specialty

Wolf Greenfield

 

Thanks to the peripatetic participants in this 2026 Timmerman Traverse of Kilimanjaro for Damon Runyon.

• Meg Alexander, president and CEO, Ovid Therapeutics
• Eric Fischer, professor, Department of Cancer Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; professor, Harvard Medical School
• Antonio LaPorte, Timmerman Traverse-Damon Runyon Fellow, postdoctoral researcher, Harvard University
• Kim Kamdar, managing partner, Medical Excellence Capital
• Michael Langer, co-founder and managing partner, T.Rx Capital
• Hong I. Wan, co-founder and CEO, Tallac Therapeutics
• Linda Bain, venture partner, Atlas Venture
• Ben Scruggs, partner, Hatteras Venture Partners
• John Cassidy, general partner, Kindred Capital
• Brad Watts, VP, business development, Conner Strong; CAR-T cell therapy recipient living in remission. Patient advocate, Emily Whitehead Foundation
• Lauren Mifflin, principal, company creation, Frazier Life Sciences
• Colleen O’Connor, EVP, market lead, East Coast and UK, BioMed Realty
• Heather Turner, CEO, LB Pharma; former CEO, Carmot Therapeutics
• Michael Gutbrod, principal, Sante Ventures
• Catherine Sabatos-Peyton, CEO, Larkspur Biosciences
• Theresa Tribble, entrepreneur; board member, Maxim Biomedical
• Sarah Warren, senior director, cell therapy search and evaluation, Gilead Sciences/Kite Pharma
• Sarah Spencer, principal, EcoR1 Capital
• Bharathi Sundaresh, associate, Flagship Pioneering
• Andrea Johnston, founder and CEO, Fuel for Female Founders
• Chris Gibson, co-founder and board chair, Recursion

If you or your company would like to sponsor this team, there’s still time to get recognized on the banner we will carry to the top of Kilimanjaro and on team gear we will wear with pride. Contact Elyse Hoffmann, elyse.hoffmann@damonrunyon.org.

For me, this was the 14^th consecutive successful season as team leader of the Timmerman Traverse. All of the campaigns for cancer research, fighting poverty and sickle cell disease (14 of 14, 100 percent) have exceeded the fundraising goals since my personal 2018 summit of Mt. Everest for Fred Hutch. These teams of biotech executives and investors – in up years and down years — have raised a combined $15.3 million to alleviate suffering from cancer, poverty, and sickle cell disease.  

I look forward to seeing many readers in San Francisco next week at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference. Planning is underway for the next Timmerman Traverse for Damon Runyon in summer 2026. It will be a pair of hikes in the Evolution Range of California’s High Sierras. It’s a spectacular section of one of the great mountain ranges in North America.

Interested in how you or your company can get involved? Let’s talk. luke@timmermanreport.com.