Sarah McWhirter, PhD

Sarah McWhirter, PhD, is the Director of Scientific Programs at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI). Sarah brings a strong foundation in immunology discovery research and experience developing novel therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases. At PICI, Sarah works alongside the President of Research and Chief Scientific Officer to develop and drive PICI’s scientific strategy and oversees the operational execution of key research initiatives to accelerate development of breakthrough therapies.

Before joining PICI, Sarah served as Vice President, Head of Biology at Lycia Therapeutics where she helped shape Lycia’s R&D strategy and led a multidisciplinary biology team advancing novel extracellular targeted protein degraders (LYTACs) for autoimmune and allergic diseases. Prior to Lycia, Sarah held roles of increasing responsibility at Aduro Biotech, most recently serving as Executive Director, Head of Research and Translational Medicine overseeing research and translational programs in cancer and kidney disease. Sarah led the pre-clinical research program at Aduro that resulted in a first-in-human cancer immunotherapy targeting STING and was the primary Aduro R&D lead for a multiyear strategic partnership with Novartis focused on discovery and clinical development of next generation STING-targeting therapies. She also oversaw early discovery research of cGAS/STING pathway inhibitors for autoimmune diseases which led to a research collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly.

Sarah has contributed to numerous peer-reviewed publications and has made foundational discoveries in innate immune signaling research. She earned her PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley and a BA in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UC Santa Cruz. She was a Cancer Research Institute postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.