PHILADELPHIA – A special event will be held Monday, May 10 to honor a new, $25 million gift from Madlyn and Leonard Abramson, celebrate five decades of progress in cancer research and treatment at Penn Medicine, and highlight the promise of future work to conquer the disease.To illustrate the tremendous achievements that are turning cancer patients into survivors every day, the event will include presentations from the physicians who treat cancer using the latest targeted drug therapies, precision radiation technology and minimally invasive surgical techniques. The new gift brings the Abramson family’s total philanthropic support of Penn Medicine – which previously led to the naming of the Abramson Cancer Center and the establishment of the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute – to more than $140 million. They are the largest donors to Penn Medicine.
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University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Rainey Auditorium
3260 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104 |
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Monday, May 10, 2010
5:30 PM to 6:45 PM |
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Interviews available with:
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The new gift will support continued basic science and translational research progress in the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, which is among the nation’s preeminent incubators for drug discovery and development of new ways to diagnose patients and pair them with treatments that will be most effective. In the 12 years since the establishment of the Institute, the Abramson family’s generous gift has led to:
- Recruitment of 20 of the world’s best scientists to Penn Medicine’s faculty.
- Establishment of new research programs in cancer cell metabolism, cancer vaccines, cell-based immunotherapy, and the study of the DNA repair system involved in breast cancer and lymphoma
- Genome-wide studies that have yielded new therapeutic targets for brain and kidney cancers.
- Blood and imaging tests to more easily diagnose cancers including leukemia and the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma.
- Enrollment of hundreds of patients in trials testing therapeutic vaccines for lymphoma, prostate and breast cancers, and new targeted drug therapies for melanoma.
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“The advances in cancer research developed at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center have led to new prevention, diagnosis, and treatment programs that are awe-inspiring,” says Arthur H. Rubenstein, MBBCh, Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and Dean of the School of Medicine. “By fostering the spirit of scientific inquiry, the Abramsons have enabled the most talented minds in the country to engage in the most advanced basic and translational research right here in Philadelphia.”
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.