From a global pandemic, we learned that it took more than our decades of investment in basic and translational science to keep the health of millions safe and our labs operating at the leading edge of medicine. During those earliest days, leaders across Penn Medicine turned to the resources generously provided by its community of donors: annual unrestricted and newly created COVID-19 funds, as well as the Dean’s Innovation Fund (DIF).
It was because of Penn Medicine’s ability to put these gifts to immediate use that the next immune revolution is now underway. And the tremendous donor support behind these efforts—especially through support for the DIF—began promoting a culture shift among Penn Medicine’s scientists, bringing to the fore the notion that the larger world is interested and invested in their work.
“The sense of possibility—of being able to say to our best people, go for it—is difficult to quantify, but enormously valuable,” says J. Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, dean of the Perelman School of Medicine.
A Critical Pivot
When the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic in March 2020, the world turned to scientists to better understand the virus’ impact on patients, how to treat it, and how vaccines might prevent it – and Penn Medicine’s philanthropic first responders immediately stepped up to help. In a tremendous outpouring of support, more than 400 donors came together to enable the development of critical infrastructure and processes and drive rapid scientific progress, laying the foundation for Penn’s experts to fight the pandemic. By July 2021, we had raised $14.8 million from 550 donors to support COVID-19 research efforts. Our philanthropic partners have helped us answer critical early questions—and pose even better ones—and continue to drive us forward as we study the nature of the immune response to COVID-19 and deliver findings that impact the broader community.
E. John Wherry, PhD, the Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President’s Distinguished Professor, continues building on foundational gifts from generous donors, as well as his breakthrough findings related to distinct immune responses to the virus and the role of prior COVID-19 infection on a person’s immune response to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. In Spring 2020, Scott Hensley, PhD, made key findings that added important evidence to our understanding of the immune response to COVID-19 and what might prevent or fight off infection. This work, paired with Dr. Hensley’s expertise in the field of flu research, will help Penn Medicine play a leadership role in preparing for future pandemics.
Catalyzing Discovery
Sydney M. Shaffer, MD, PhD
Gifts to the Dean’s Innovation Fund provide flexible resources that enable investment in the most promising high-risk, high-reward projects in Penn Medicine’s research portfolio, and many COVID-19 projects were supported by the DIF in the early days of the pandemic. The DIF enables researchers to rapidly explore new areas of investigation, setting in motion brilliant ideas that have the potential to improve human health.
Recognizing the importance of the discovery science phase of research, forward-looking Wharton alum Joel M. Greenblatt, W’79, WG’80, made a gift to establish the DIF in 2016, providing unrestricted early-stage funding to be directed to young investigators. When Jed Hart, W’89, entered the picture as the second donor to the Fund, Penn Medicine built on this momentum by creating Penn’s Council for Discovery Science. With active and deeply dedicated members who have to date pledged more than $9.4 million to support the DIF, the Council for Discovery Science demonstrates the sustainability of this donor-powered funding model.
“The Dean’s Innovation Fund was extremely powerful in accelerating our work and letting us be as bold as we could be in our scientific explorations. Being bold is what is needed—and not always easy to do through conventional funding mechanisms,” said Ben Black, PhD. The DIF has enabled Black to explore using artificial chromosomes to engineer the human genome, a concept with immense potential for new therapies.
Daniel Rader, MD
Also supported by DIF funding, Sarah Tishkoff, PhD, the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Genetics and Biology, and Daniel Rader, MD, the Seymour Gray Professor of Molecular Medicine, have enrolled 700 people to date in a study that could provide insights into the susceptibility to COVID-19 in different global populations. Norbert Pardi, PhD, and Hao Shen, PhD, are using mRNA technology to explore a new vaccine for influenza virus. Sydney M. Shaffer, MD, PhD, analyzed autopsy tissue using RNA FISH, an extremely powerful technique for studying RNA viruses that allowed her team to visualize active infection at a cellular level to determine which cells and tissues showed signs of COVID-19 infection and progression, providing key insights in the earliest days of the pandemic.
Donor support for the DIF has accelerated a range of innovative research projects that have generated $243 million in subsequent investment. More than 50 percent of DIF awards have supported early and mid-career faculty at key inflection points in their careers.
From FY18–FY22, investigator accomplishments included:
- 1 first-in-human clinical trial
- 11 patent applications
- 2 pending FDA approvals
- 56 academic papers published
- 5 start-up companies
These are all remarkable successes that would not be possible without our philanthropic partners.
The ripple effects from this donor support have gone even further in concept and impact, spurring on the creation the Penn Center for Genome Integrity (PCGI) and the Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response (CEIRR), as well as continued discovery within the Penn Center for Research on Coronavirus and Other Emerging Pathogens, the Institute for Immunology & Immune Health (I3H), and other Penn-led initiatives.
To learn more about supporting the Dean’s Innovation Fund, please contact Sarah Gilmour at 215-573-9803 or sarahra@upenn.edu.