{"entity":{"id":"parker-institute","kind":"institution","name":"Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy","aka":["PICI"],"tldr":"Sean Parker's 2016 institute that runs cancer immunotherapy research as one network across a dozen leading cancer centres, sharing data, samples and intellectual property.","summary":"The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy was founded in 2016 with a founding grant from Sean Parker. It describes itself as an active research institute rather than a grant maker: its mission is to develop breakthrough immune therapies to turn all cancers into curable diseases faster, and its model removes barriers between institutions so that ideas move into real-world treatments. Its network page lists seven primary research institutions, Weill Cornell Medicine, Stanford Medicine, the Gladstone Institutes, UCLA, UCSF, the University of Pennsylvania and Dana-Farber, and six member collaborators added since launch: Memorial Sloan Kettering, MD Anderson, the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai, Washington University School of Medicine, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and City of Hope. Sean Parker is founder and chairman, Jeffrey Bluestone was the founding chief executive and Karen Knudsen is chief executive today. PICI funds investigators, coordinates multi-centre trials of CAR-T and checkpoint combinations, and has spun out companies to carry results forward: its own news pages describe ArsenalBio as a company it launched, list Tmunity Therapeutics as a partner and record a collaboration with Immunai to build one of the largest single-cell datasets in cancer. No trial in OnCo yet names PICI as sponsor, so the trials list stays empty until one does.","asOf":"2026-09-10","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Institute_for_Cancer_Immunotherapy","links":[{"label":"About PICI","url":"https://www.parkerici.org/about/"},{"label":"PICI network: research institutions","url":"https://www.parkerici.org/network/research-institutions/"},{"label":"PICI leadership and board","url":"https://www.parkerici.org/about/leadership-staff/"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":["immunotherapy","car-t","checkpoint-inhibitor"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":["arsenal-bio","tmunity-therapeutics","immunai"],"institutions":["stanford","ucsf","penn-abramson","dana-farber","mskcc","md-anderson","ucla-jonsson","mount-sinai","wustl-siteman","fred-hutch","city-of-hope"],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":["carl-june","james-allison","sean-parker","jeffrey-bluestone","karen-knudsen","padmanee-sharma","jedd-wolchok"],"bottlenecks":["b-ip-collaboration","b-immunotherapy-response","b-funding-allocation"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"city":"San Francisco","country":"US","lat":37.767,"lng":-122.391,"institutionType":"research-institute","website":"https://www.parkerici.org","programs":["Network research across member cancer centres","CAR-T and cell therapy engineering","Checkpoint combination trials","Shared data and intellectual property model"]},"route":"/institutions/parker-institute/","neighbours":{"section":[{"id":"immunotherapy","kind":"section","name":"Immunotherapy","route":"/fronts/immunotherapy/"}],"technology":[{"id":"car-t","kind":"technology","name":"CAR-T cell therapy","route":"/technologies/car-t/"},{"id":"checkpoint-inhibitor","kind":"technology","name":"Immune checkpoint inhibitors","route":"/technologies/checkpoint-inhibitor/"}],"company":[{"id":"arsenal-bio","kind":"company","name":"Arsenal Biosciences","route":"/companies/arsenal-bio/"},{"id":"immunai","kind":"company","name":"Immunai","route":"/companies/immunai/"},{"id":"tmunity-therapeutics","kind":"company","name":"Tmunity Therapeutics","route":"/companies/tmunity-therapeutics/"}],"institution":[{"id":"penn-abramson","kind":"institution","name":"Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania","route":"/institutions/penn-abramson/"},{"id":"city-of-hope","kind":"institution","name":"City of Hope","route":"/institutions/city-of-hope/"},{"id":"dana-farber","kind":"institution","name":"Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/dana-farber/"},{"id":"fred-hutch","kind":"institution","name":"Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/fred-hutch/"},{"id":"md-anderson","kind":"institution","name":"MD Anderson Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/md-anderson/"},{"id":"mskcc","kind":"institution","name":"Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/mskcc/"},{"id":"wustl-siteman","kind":"institution","name":"Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University","route":"/institutions/wustl-siteman/"},{"id":"stanford","kind":"institution","name":"Stanford Health Care / Stanford Cancer Institute","route":"/institutions/stanford/"},{"id":"mount-sinai","kind":"institution","name":"The Mount Sinai Hospital / Tisch Cancer Institute","route":"/institutions/mount-sinai/"},{"id":"ucla-jonsson","kind":"institution","name":"UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/ucla-jonsson/"},{"id":"ucsf","kind":"institution","name":"UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/ucsf/"}],"person":[{"id":"carl-june","kind":"person","name":"Carl H. June","route":"/people/carl-june/"},{"id":"james-allison","kind":"person","name":"James P. Allison","route":"/people/james-allison/"},{"id":"jedd-wolchok","kind":"person","name":"Jedd D. Wolchok","route":"/people/jedd-wolchok/"},{"id":"jeffrey-bluestone","kind":"person","name":"Jeffrey A. Bluestone","route":"/people/jeffrey-bluestone/"},{"id":"karen-knudsen","kind":"person","name":"Karen E. Knudsen","route":"/people/karen-knudsen/"},{"id":"padmanee-sharma","kind":"person","name":"Padmanee Sharma","route":"/people/padmanee-sharma/"},{"id":"sean-parker","kind":"person","name":"Sean Parker","route":"/people/sean-parker/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-funding-allocation","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Funding follows fashion, not burden","route":"/bottlenecks/b-funding-allocation/"},{"id":"b-immunotherapy-response","kind":"bottleneck","name":"No one can predict who responds to immunotherapy","route":"/bottlenecks/b-immunotherapy-response/"},{"id":"b-ip-collaboration","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Secrecy and intellectual property block collaboration","route":"/bottlenecks/b-ip-collaboration/"}]}}