Geek of the Week: Elizabeth Lawlor brings her lab — and hope for a cancer cure — to Seattle Children’s

(Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Lawlor) A native of Vancouver, B.C., Dr. Elizabeth Lawlor is thrilled to be back in the Pacific Northwest. And she’s equally excited about joining the research community in Seattle, as Lawlor and her lab have moved to Seattle Children’s Research Institute and the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research. Lawlor,...

14h

NASA touts lunar landing tech, and Blue Origin says there’ll be a flight test ‘soon’

Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spaceship makes a precision landing in May 2019. (Blue Origin Photo) Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong famously had to dodge a boulder-strewn crater just seconds before the first moon landing in 1969 — but for future lunar touchdowns, NASA expects robotic eyes to see such missions to safe landings. And Amazon...

14h

Justice Dept. indicts six in scheme to bribe Amazon employees and gain marketplace advantage

(GeekWire File Photo) A grand jury in the Western District of Washington has indicted six people in a multi-million dollar scheme to bribe Amazon employees and contractors to gain an unfair advantage on the Amazon marketplace, the U.S. Justice Department announced on Friday. The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to pay over $100,00...

14h

No, Microsoft is not ‘still involved’ in TikTok discussions, despite President Trump’s statement

President Donald. Trump during a briefing this week at the White House. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour) Microsoft is not back in the running to acquire TikTok, a source familiar with the situation said Friday morning, refuting a statement made by President Trump to reporters on Thursday evening. “Well, we’re making a decision. We spoke...

16h

Athira Pharma raises $204M in IPO, reaching ‘big milestone’ in fight against Alzheimer’s and other diseases

Athira Pharma CEO Leen Kawas accepts the award for CEO of the Year at the 2019 GeekWire Awards. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) More than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, and the number is projected to rise to nearly 14 million by 2050. The disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the U.S. And the economic impact is massive, with...

16h

How Bill Gates Sr., late father of the Microsoft co-founder, helped Howard Schultz buy Starbucks

Howard Schultz. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) For all the remembrances tied to the passing of Bill Gates Sr., who died Monday at age 94, perhaps no story is more surprising or entertaining than one told over the years by Howard Schultz, former chairman and CEO of Starbucks. There was a time when Starbucks didn’t have more than 30,000 locations around...

18h

Internal documents say U.S. Postal Service made $1.6B profit from Amazon in FY2019

United States Postal Service Long-Life Vehicles in Waltham, Mass. Photo by Sam LaRussa, via Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0. The U.S. Postal Service generated $1.6 billion in profit from Amazon in its 2019 fiscal year, on $3.9 billion in revenue from its business with the e-commerce giant, according to a Washington Post report Thursday, citing internal...

1d

Athira Pharma prices IPO at $17/share, will raise $204M in third Washington state IPO of 2020

The Athira team. (Athira Photo) Athira Pharma will raise at least $204 million as the Seattle biotech startup becomes a public company on Friday. Athira priced its IPO on Thursday evening at $17 per share, which came in at the high end of its range. The company is selling 12 million shares. Founded in 2011, Athira is in late-stage development for...

1d

Testing Amazon Kitchen: Here’s our hot take on the tech giant’s first hot food bar at Amazon Go Grocery

Amazon does deliveries, cloud computing, voice technology, and e-readers pretty damn well. The company’s hot food game, though, could use a little work. That’s my verdict after taste testing a 3-cheese melt, a fajita burrito, chicken fingers, and “Italian Wedding Soup” from Amazon’s newest grocery store. If you’re looking for a quick 7-Eleven-style...

1d

Accolade adds mental health support through Ginger partnership, citing growing crisis

Health benefits technology company Accolade says it will provide access to mental health support, including on-demand virtual therapy, in partnership with mental health service Ginger. The partnership, announced Thursday morning, will include proactive outreach to participating Accolade members deemed at risk of mental health challenges, based on data...

1d