Jeffrey Bluestone steps down as Parker Institute president to develop cell therapies for autoimmune diseases
Jeffrey Bluestone, the prominent immunologist, has decided to leave his position as president of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, the research effort funded by billionaire Sean Parker, and strike out on his own as CEO of a new company, Sonoma Biotherapeutics.
The departure, which occurred in December, means Bluestone is resigning from an organization that is trying to develop a new model for advancing cancer research and heading to a biotech startup that’s trying to do it in a more familiar way. Sonoma is trying to develop therapies that harness the immune system by treating not cancer but diseases of the immune system like rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and inflammatory bowel disease.
