Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) is one of six founding medical centers — all leading players in the cancer immunotherapy field — that will join forces in an unprecedented new venture called the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. Entrepreneur and philanthropist Sean Parker will announce a $250 million grant to launch the initiative at a press event today in Los Angeles hosted by Yahoo! News anchor Katie Couric. The funding marks the largest single contribution ever made to the field of immunotherapy.
The Parker Institute at MSK will be directed by Jedd Wolchok, MD, PhD, Chief of the Melanoma Service and an expert on melanoma and the immunotherapy approach known as checkpoint blockade therapy, and co-directed by Marcel van den Brink, MD, PhD, Head of the Division of Hematologic Oncology and a specialist in stem cell transplantation.
Stanford Medicine; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of California, San Francisco; the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; and the University of Pennsylvania round out this network of top research scientists and cancer centers singularly focused on unlocking the power of the immune system to win the fight against cancer.
For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Rebecca Williams at [email protected].
