Penn Medicine has announced a $50 million gift from alumnus Stewart Colton (W’62) and his wife, Judy, to expand the reach and capabilities of the Colton Center for Autoimmunity at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

The couple established the center in 2021 with a $10 million gift that helped unite research and patient care programs across the university, including Penn’s Institute for Immunology, as part of an effort to drive research and development of new treatment therapies and facilitate collaboration with Colton-supported autoimmunity research centers at New York University and Yale University. The new funding will support the development of world-class programs to study immune health, vaccinology, virology and viral immunity, SARS-CoV-2 research, and fundamental immunology to stimulate scientific collaboration with multidisciplinary investigators from around the world.

According to the university, more than 23.5 million Americans are affected by autoimmune diseases, in which the body’s immune system attacks healthy cells. These diseases—such as celiac disease, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis—are more common in women than in men and are among the leading causes of death and disability in the United States.

“The Colton Center unites researchers, physicians, entrepreneurs, and more—not just across Penn but around the world—all focused on improving potential treatments and our understanding of autoimmunity,” said Colton Center director E. John Wherry. “By embracing this collaboration, we can accomplish so much more than any one lab or site alone. Together, we make up a tremendous center of gravity for autoimmune research and innovation.”

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