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Tech entrepreneur Sean Parker is just the latest big name to put up big money to fight cancer.
Parker, who helped found Facebook and Napster, plans to spend $250 million to build teams of researchers who aim to harness the immune system to attack cancer.
So, will all that effort amount to anything?
They say they’re supporting a new model of cancer research and they use a lot of MBA buzzwords to make that point: They talk about smashing silos, crunching data, and emphasizing translational research that moves discoveries from the lab bench to patients, not just curing a bunch of lab mice. Above all, they emphasize the power of collaboration.
At a launch event in Los Angeles, Parker said the idea was to develop a “shared roadmap for the field” so that once the Parker Institute’s partners identify a research priority “we fund it and we go big.”
Some battle-scarred veterans of the country’s previous wars on cancer are holding their applause.
Much of the new funding from private sources springs from a concern that federal agencies fund mostly cautious, incremental research, producing cool findings about basic cancer biology but not many drugs that make a meaningful difference to patients.
Read full, original post: Sean Parker’s put up big bucks for cancer. We’ve got questions
