BioPharma, Diagnostics

Sean Parker, neoantigens and the Cancer Research Institute

Old and new research worlds collided on Thursday through the partnership of the decades-old Cancer Research Institute (CRI) and The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, created by tech billionaire Sean Parker in April 2016.

 

speaks at the press conference launch of The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, an unprecedented collaboration between the country's leading immunologists and cancer centers, at Milk Studios on April 13, 2016 in Hollywood, California.

Jeff Bluestone, CEO and President of The Parker Institute (L) and Sean Parker, President of The Parker Foundation speak at the press conference launch of The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.

Old and new research worlds collided on Thursday with a new partnership between the Cancer Research Institute (CRI), founded in 1953, and The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, created by Sean Parker of Napster and Facebook fame in April 2016.

The collaboration’s stated aim is to advance research into neoantigens, which can arise when tumor cells rapidly divide. Neoantigens don’t naturally occur in the human genome (neo/new) but they do trigger an immune response (antigen). When present, patient-specific neoantigens could help distinguish cancer cells from their healthy counterparts, creating a powerful target for personalized immunotherapy drugs and vaccines.

In the collaboration news release, Adam Kolom, Parker Institute VP of business development and strategic partnerships and director of CRI’s Clinical Accelerator program said the field had great potential.

“The Cancer Research Institute and the Parker Institute share a belief that the immune system is a platform technology that can be harnessed to turn all cancers into a curable disease,” said Kolom. “We believe that by bringing together the top laboratories in the world that are developing neoantigen prediction software, we will be able to unlock the promise of this next generation of personalized cancer immunotherapies sooner.”

Parker, who turns 37 on Saturday, rose to prominence as founder of the early file-sharing platform Napster. He went on to play an influential role in the development of Facebook, part of a tech trajectory that has amassed him an estimated net worth of $2.4 billion.

By 2016, Parker was one of a number of tech billionaires turning their attention to science. With a $250 million donation from The Parker Foundation, he launched The Parker Research Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, uniting some of the top cancer and immunology centers in the U.S., including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Stanford Medicine, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, San Francisco, the University of Pennsylvania and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Combined, the Parker Institute comprises six centers, more than 40 industry and nonprofit partners, more than 63 labs and more than 300 leading researchers. While many research institutes operate as a series of labs, headed by principal investigators with independent access to funds, The Parker Institute pools and shares all resources.

The model does share some overlaps with Parker’s Napster file-sharing platform, but this time it’s scientific knowledge, not music being shared. Its new initiative with the Cancer Research Institute also draws on informatics.

With their combined networks, the institutes’ aim to advance the mathematical algorithms used to analyze tumor DNA and RNA sequences.

Participating research groups will receive genetic sequences from both normal and cancerous tissues. Each laboratory will then use its own algorithms to predict what neoantigens might be present on that individual’s tumor cells. The results will be validated and tested to see if the neoantigen can stimulate a T-cell response, with feedback loops in place for shared learning.

“This project embodies the spirit of collaboration and partnership between academia, industry and nonprofits that the Parker Institute strives to foster,” said Jeffrey Bluestone, president and CEO of the Parker Institute. “It is a great example of how we are breaking down traditional barriers to conduct groundbreaking, multidisciplinary science to get cancer treatments to patients faster.”

Photo: Jonathan Leibson, Getty Images

Shares0
Shares0