On Saturday, April 12, 2025, an intrepid team of scientific luminaries led by biotech journalist and mountaineer Luke Timmerman embarked upon the trip of a lifetime—a hike to Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal. Over the course of ten days, they covered more than forty miles of rugged, uneven terrain, bonded over card games and cups of tea, struggled through bouts of altitude sickness, and encouraged each other every day to keep going. On the afternoon of April 23, all seventeen members of the team successfully reached Everest Base Camp (elev. 17,400 feet), following a sunrise summit of Kala Pattar (elev. 18,500 feet).

"This was far more than just an adventure,” reflected Rosie Rodriguez, PhD, a senior executive at Relation Therapeutics. “It was a purpose-driven journey, one that pushed us physically, mentally, and emotionally, all in service of raising funds for cancer research.”

Together, the team exceeded their fundraising goal, raising close to $800,000 to support Damon Runyon’s brave and bold cancer researchers.

“I am so proud and grateful for everybody’s contributions,” wrote Andrew Warren, a Senior Director at Curie.Bio. “This will fund multiple postdoc fellows doing research that forms the foundation for our industry.”

One such Fellow was among the climbers—Tamar “Tata” Kavlashvili, PhD, a Damon Runyon-Timmerman Traverse Fellow studying mitochondrial DNA mutations at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

“I’ve met some incredible people so far,” she told Luke in a video posted halfway through the journey. “Their careers are really inspiring.”

On behalf of all our Damon Runyon scientists, we are grateful to everyone who contributed to this extraordinary team, and we congratulate them on a successful expedition.

Read more about the trip on the Timmerman Report.

To learn more about the climbers and support their continued fundraising, visit the Timmerman Traverse 2025 team page.