Last September, anxiety was spreading in one of Portland’s most prominent scientific research operations, with rumors of layoffs on the horizon. Last week, it became official: The Knight Cancer Institute is slashing dozens of jobs.
Fifty-nine people were “impacted by the reductions in force,” according to Oregon Health & Science University’s media office. The cuts will hit multiple realms of the institute but they are concentrated at the Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center, where 30 jobs are being eliminated.
News of the cuts, focused in the center’s CEDAR research operation and another called SMMART, comes less than a year after the institute announced a mighty $2 billion windfall from the Nike fortune of Phil and Penny Knight…