Latest news with #PICI
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Parker Institute Showcases Breakthroughs in Immunotherapy at ASCO 2025 as CEO Dr. Karen Knudsen Receives Prestigious Honor
Glioblastoma survival extends to 14.6 months; dual-target CAR T shrinks tumors in 85% of patients—milestone results among 50+ presentations across the PICI Network CHICAGO, May 29, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As the global oncology community gathers for the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (May 30–June 3), the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) is demonstrating how bold science, accelerated through collaborative networks, can drive meaningful progress where patients need it most. At a pivotal moment when scientific breakthroughs in immunotherapy are arriving alongside heightened pressure for faster, smarter impact, PICI's integrated model shows how to compress timelines from discovery to patient care. PICI's presence spans more than 50 presentations including 16 oral sessions, 30+ poster sessions, 10 e-papers and a featured clinical science symposium. This volume reflects not only the strength of the PICI network but also a unique ability to support promising work early and help carry it across the finish line, from foundational discoveries to practice-changing trials. Glioblastoma Breakthroughs: New Hope for Cancer's Most Formidable Challenge After decades of limited progress in glioblastoma, where median survival has hovered around one year, multiple PICI-supported teams are reporting clinical responses that suggest the field may be turning a corner. These advances demonstrate how collaboration, persistence and innovation can converge on even the most intractable problems: Stanford Medicine researchers achieved median overall survival of 14.6 months in recurrent glioblastoma patients using B7H3 CAR T cells delivered directly to the brain via dual Ommaya reservoirs. The Phase 1 study established a recommended Phase 2 dose and demonstrated manageable inflammation using IL-1 blockade, offering a tangible advance in a cancer where meaningful clinical progress has long remained elusive. (Crystal Mackall, MD, Director of the PICI Center at Stanford; Michelle Monje, MD, PhD — Abstract #2018) University of Pennsylvania investigators reported tumor shrinkage in 85% of evaluable patients using bivalent CAR T-cell therapy targeting EGFR and IL13Rα2 in recurrent glioblastoma. Delivered into the cerebroventricular space without lymphodepletion, the engineered T cells persisted in cerebrospinal fluid and blood for up to one year, marking an encouraging step toward sustained response and long-term disease management. (Carl June, MD, Director of the PICI Center at Penn; Donald O'Rourke, MD — Abstract #102) UCSF and Memorial Sloan Kettering researchers identified more than 700 glioma-specific, splice-derived neoantigens using the SNIPP antigen discovery platform. These targets elicited CD8+ T-cell responses in vitro and many were conserved across tumors, opening the door to scalable, potentially off-the-shelf TCR-based therapies. (Hideho Okada, MD, PhD, UCSF — Abstract #2519) Leadership Recognition: PICI CEO Receives ASCO's Highest Honor Dr. Karen Knudsen, PICI's CEO, will receive the Allen S. Lichter Visionary Leader Award during ASCO's opening session, recognizing a career spent building bridges from bench to patient and helping reshape how academic institutions, nonprofits and companies move from insight to implementation. Saturday, May 31, 9:45 AM–12:00 PM CDT, Room N - Hall B1 Dr. Knudsen will also join Endpoints News for a live discussion on research acceleration, regulatory pace and how PICI's model aligns research, policy and investment with the realities facing patients today. Wednesday, June 4, 10:35 AM CDT, Endpoints Stage Network-Wide Impact: Where Discovery Meets Delivery PICI-supported science appears across the ASCO agenda, tackling critical questions in high-burden cancers through studies connected by a framework that enables speed, coordination and clinical relevance. These presentations reflect a hallmark of the PICI approach: compressing the distance between new insight and patient impact, often turning early-stage ideas into clinical action within just a few years. Melanoma Advances DREAMseq Final Results: Optimal treatment sequencing in BRAF-mutant metastatic melanoma (Jedd Wolchok, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell; Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, UCLA — Abstract #9506) Quadruple Immunotherapy: IL-6 blockade combined with checkpoint inhibitors in advanced melanoma (F. Stephen Hodi, MD, Dana-Farber — Abstract #9510) Neoadjuvant Strategy: Pembrolizumab in clinical stage IIB/C melanoma (Alexander Huang, MD, University of Pennsylvania — Abstract #9502) Prostate Cancer Innovation COMRADE Trial: Olaparib plus radium-223 in castration-resistant prostate cancer with bone metastases (Eliezer Van Allen, MD, Dana-Farber — Abstract #5007) C3NIRA Trial: Triplet chemo-immunotherapy induction followed by PARP inhibitor maintenance (Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, MD Anderson — Abstract #5008) Breast and Lung Cancer Precision Strategies NeoSTAR Trial: Response-guided neoadjuvant sacituzumab govitecan plus pembrolizumab in early triple-negative breast cancer (Elizabeth Mittendorf, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber — Abstract #511) ADRIATIC Correlatives: Genomic analysis of long-term responders in limited-stage small cell lung cancer (David Barbie, MD, Dana-Farber — Abstract #8014) Translational Platforms INCIPIENT Trial: CARv3-TEAM-E immunological correlates in recurrent glioblastoma (Marcela Maus, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital — Abstract #2008) BRCA1/2 DNA Vaccines: Plasmid-based immunotherapy platform with and without IL-12 (Robert Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, University of Pennsylvania — Abstract #10505) About the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) accelerates breakthrough immune therapies from discovery to patient impact through a collaborative network of the nation's top cancer centers. Founded in 2016 through the vision of Sean Parker, PICI unites leading institutions in a translational engine built for speed, coordination and clinical relevance. Unlike traditional research models, PICI goes beyond discovery by actively advancing promising innovations through clinical testing, company formation, incubation and commercialization. PICI supports high-risk, high-reward science with shared goals, data and infrastructure, helping compress timelines from laboratory discovery to patient access. The institute has supported more than 1,000 investigators across its network and created a portfolio of 17 biotech ventures with over $4 billion in raised capital. By integrating scientific excellence with entrepreneurial execution, PICI is reimagining how cures are made and accelerating their path to the people who need them most. Learn more at Follow #PICIatASCO for updates throughout the meeting. View source version on Contacts Media Contact: Eric McKeebyHead of Communications & MarketingParker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy(646) 522-4605emckeeby@
Business Wire
3 days ago
- Health
- Business Wire
Parker Institute Showcases Breakthroughs in Immunotherapy at ASCO 2025 as CEO Dr. Karen Knudsen Receives Prestigious Honor
CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As the global oncology community gathers for the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (May 30–June 3), the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) is demonstrating how bold science, accelerated through collaborative networks, can drive meaningful progress where patients need it most. At a pivotal moment when scientific breakthroughs in immunotherapy are arriving alongside heightened pressure for faster, smarter impact, PICI's integrated model shows how to compress timelines from discovery to patient care. PICI's presence spans more than 50 presentations including 16 oral sessions, 30+ poster sessions, 10 e-papers and a featured clinical science symposium. This volume reflects not only the strength of the PICI network but also a unique ability to support promising work early and help carry it across the finish line, from foundational discoveries to practice-changing trials. Glioblastoma Breakthroughs: New Hope for Cancer's Most Formidable Challenge After decades of limited progress in glioblastoma, where median survival has hovered around one year, multiple PICI-supported teams are reporting clinical responses that suggest the field may be turning a corner. These advances demonstrate how collaboration, persistence and innovation can converge on even the most intractable problems: Stanford Medicine researchers achieved median overall survival of 14.6 months in recurrent glioblastoma patients using B7H3 CAR T cells delivered directly to the brain via dual Ommaya reservoirs. The Phase 1 study established a recommended Phase 2 dose and demonstrated manageable inflammation using IL-1 blockade, offering a tangible advance in a cancer where meaningful clinical progress has long remained elusive. (Crystal Mackall, MD, Director of the PICI Center at Stanford; Michelle Monje, MD, PhD — Abstract #2018) University of Pennsylvania investigators reported tumor shrinkage in 85% of evaluable patients using bivalent CAR T-cell therapy targeting EGFR and IL13Rα2 in recurrent glioblastoma. Delivered into the cerebroventricular space without lymphodepletion, the engineered T cells persisted in cerebrospinal fluid and blood for up to one year, marking an encouraging step toward sustained response and long-term disease management. (Carl June, MD, Director of the PICI Center at Penn; Donald O'Rourke, MD — Abstract #102) UCSF and Memorial Sloan Kettering researchers identified more than 700 glioma-specific, splice-derived neoantigens using the SNIPP antigen discovery platform. These targets elicited CD8+ T-cell responses in vitro and many were conserved across tumors, opening the door to scalable, potentially off-the-shelf TCR-based therapies. (Hideho Okada, MD, PhD, UCSF — Abstract #2519) Leadership Recognition: PICI CEO Receives ASCO's Highest Honor Dr. Karen Knudsen, PICI's CEO, will receive the Allen S. Lichter Visionary Leader Award during ASCO's opening session, recognizing a career spent building bridges from bench to patient and helping reshape how academic institutions, nonprofits and companies move from insight to implementation. Saturday, May 31, 9:45 AM–12:00 PM CDT, Room N - Hall B1 Dr. Knudsen will also join Endpoints News for a live discussion on research acceleration, regulatory pace and how PICI's model aligns research, policy and investment with the realities facing patients today. Wednesday, June 4, 10:35 AM CDT, Endpoints Stage Network-Wide Impact: Where Discovery Meets Delivery PICI-supported science appears across the ASCO agenda, tackling critical questions in high-burden cancers through studies connected by a framework that enables speed, coordination and clinical relevance. These presentations reflect a hallmark of the PICI approach: compressing the distance between new insight and patient impact, often turning early-stage ideas into clinical action within just a few years. Melanoma Advances DREAMseq Final Results: Optimal treatment sequencing in BRAF-mutant metastatic melanoma (Jedd Wolchok, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell; Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, UCLA — Abstract #9506) Quadruple Immunotherapy: IL-6 blockade combined with checkpoint inhibitors in advanced melanoma (F. Stephen Hodi, MD, Dana-Farber — Abstract #9510) Neoadjuvant Strategy: Pembrolizumab in clinical stage IIB/C melanoma (Alexander Huang, MD, University of Pennsylvania — Abstract #9502) Prostate Cancer Innovation COMRADE Trial: Olaparib plus radium-223 in castration-resistant prostate cancer with bone metastases (Eliezer Van Allen, MD, Dana-Farber — Abstract #5007) C3NIRA Trial: Triplet chemo-immunotherapy induction followed by PARP inhibitor maintenance (Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, MD Anderson — Abstract #5008) Breast and Lung Cancer Precision Strategies NeoSTAR Trial: Response-guided neoadjuvant sacituzumab govitecan plus pembrolizumab in early triple-negative breast cancer (Elizabeth Mittendorf, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber — Abstract #511) ADRIATIC Correlatives: Genomic analysis of long-term responders in limited-stage small cell lung cancer (David Barbie, MD, Dana-Farber — Abstract #8014) Translational Platforms INCIPIENT Trial: CARv3-TEAM-E immunological correlates in recurrent glioblastoma (Marcela Maus, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital — Abstract #2008) BRCA1/2 DNA Vaccines: Plasmid-based immunotherapy platform with and without IL-12 (Robert Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, University of Pennsylvania — Abstract #10505) About the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI) accelerates breakthrough immune therapies from discovery to patient impact through a collaborative network of the nation's top cancer centers. Founded in 2016 through the vision of Sean Parker, PICI unites leading institutions in a translational engine built for speed, coordination and clinical relevance. Unlike traditional research models, PICI goes beyond discovery by actively advancing promising innovations through clinical testing, company formation, incubation and commercialization. PICI supports high-risk, high-reward science with shared goals, data and infrastructure, helping compress timelines from laboratory discovery to patient access. The institute has supported more than 1,000 investigators across its network and created a portfolio of 17 biotech ventures with over $4 billion in raised capital. By integrating scientific excellence with entrepreneurial execution, PICI is reimagining how cures are made and accelerating their path to the people who need them most. Learn more at Follow #PICIatASCO for updates throughout the meeting.
Forbes
31-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
As Trump Cuts Cancer Research Funding, Billionaire Sean Parker Wants To Scale It Up
Entrepreneur Sean Parker AFP via Getty Images Of all the cuts the Trump Administration has made, its attacks on medical research are some of the most baffling, threatening the ability for American scientists to keep developing new medicines to treat everything from cancer to Parkinson's. For billionaire Sean Parker, who told Forbes he's been heavily involved in lobbying to boost federal spending on medical research, that means philanthropies and the private sector will have to step in to fill some of the gap. 'We've seen this incredible, historic, unprecedented retreat from public funding,' Parker, 45, told Forbes. 'Which is really the engine that fuels the single most productive biotech innovation economy in the world.' In this environment, he also sees a bigger role for the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI), a philanthropic organization he founded nearly a decade ago with a $250 million grant that funds cancer research. It also invests in biotech companies turning that research into drugs. Parker poured in another $125 million in 2024, and said he's committed more funds towards the next round of grant funding, though he didn't disclose the amount. To date, PICI has spent over $300 million on nearly 500 academic projects that have resulted in the publication of over 4,000 papers and over 300 patents, largely focused on cancer immunotherapies — drugs that assist the body's own immune system to fight cancers. Seventeen biotech companies have spun up based on this research, collectively raising over $4 billion in venture capital (which includes funds that PICI has invested). PICI has conducted six clinical trials to test cancer treatments, including one that improved survival in pancreatic cancer patients, and its portfolio companies have 50 in various stages. 'In a world where [public] funding is being reduced, we are likely to see the more ambitious, interesting projects going unfunded because a simple, easy to understand project tends to be less risky,' he said. That's where PICI can step in. PICI's new CEO Karen Knudsen PICI As part of its effort, PICI announced that it's appointing former American Cancer Society CEO Karen Knudsen as its new chief executive in order to 'take the organization to the next level' and scale up its operations, Parker said. Knudsen, a cancer researcher who has a PhD in molecular biology, previously founded the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center's prostate cancer program and led its cancer care programs as enterprise director. During her three-year tenure leading the American Cancer Society, the organization more than doubled the research grants it awarded. As CEO of PICI, she will oversee the institute's partnerships with multiple universities and cancer centers, including Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, UCLA and others, as well as PICI's investments in biotech companies. As federal research funding is cut back, 'the level of risk tolerance shrinks,' Knudsen told Forbes. That leaves more ambitious projects in the lurch. But PICI has a flexible model, which was part of the appeal for Knudsen. The organization is able to quickly react to changes impacting the research landscape. For example, if the organization determined that a technology is 'absolutely critical and going to be the most game changing for cancer patients and it's not moving forward in another way,' PICI will shift more resources towards it, she said. InnovationRx is your weekly digest of healthcare news. To get it in your inbox every Wednesday, subscribe here. Among the startups PICI has backed so far are Arsenal Bio, which most recently raised a $325 million series C round that valued the company at $1.85 billion, according to Pitchbook. It is currently testing its cell therapies against kidney cancer and ovarian cancer on humans, and plans to begin trials for prostate cancer later this year. Another is Georgiamune, which has already begun clinical trials for a treatment targeting advanced metastatic cancers after it launched with a $75 million series A in August 2023. The work with startups is particularly important right now, Parker said, because biotech investments are declining as venture investors deal 'with a public equities market where there's very little interest in biotech.' The investments that do happen are largely for companies that are already in later stages with products well along the development path. While both Parker and Knudsen are adamant that their organization can't replace public funding, they think they can move science forward by backing bolder projects as governments and markets become more risk-averse. 'These are precisely the intensive market conditions which we're designed to weather or help others weather,' Parker said. 'It gives me a lot of motivation to continue doing what we're doing and double down on it.'
