It is with great sadness that we learned this week that Dr. Mac Cheever died of complications from what was a planned cardiac surgery earlier this year.
 
Mac’s achievements over 40 years at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center were well known and admired across the immunology community. Hence, we were thrilled, several years ago, when Mac accepted our invitation to join Alloplex’s Scientific Advisory Board and critique the emerging data on our differentiated anti-tumor cellular therapy.
 
Mac’s willingness to spend precious limited time with a start-up company and apply his rigorous scientific acumen was both incredibly generous and quite typical of his collaborative nature. He was a great sounding board and provided a safe place to bring up preliminary ideas. His intellectual curiosity, coupled with extreme scepticism, pushed us to generate the type of data that could sway both scientists and physicians who had been hardened by seeing many promising approaches fail to achieve their full potential.
 
He leaves behind a legacy to which many of us can only aspire. He is survived by a loving family and admiring colleagues — overall, a life very well lived.