It’s time to put the trope of the solitary genius scientist to rest, once and for all. Today and tomorrow, the scientists and medical leaders who are changing the world for the better are made more powerful, and making more possible, through collaboration. And many of the collaborations that exemplify this spirit are happening at Penn Medicine.
A collaboration that quelled a pandemic and earned a Nobel Prize
Let’s start with medicine’s highest prize: The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to a pair of scientists, Katalin Karikó, PhD, and Drew Weissman, MD, PhD. The duo began collaborating at Penn Medicine in the late 1990s, and it was through the combined expertise they both brought to the partnership—Karikó’s in the chemistry of RNA, Weissman’s in the body’s immune response to infectious disease—that they achieved breakthrough discoveries in the early 2000s that made mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 possible decades later. Today, the newly launched Penn Institute for RNA Innovation, directed by Weissman, has collaborations with more than 250 labs across the country and world, with a goal to double that number in the next year. The team assembled there aims to change the world with an astonishing array of new vaccines and therapies for diseases as diverse as Lyme disease, sickle cell anemia, and heart disease.
A collaboration that is leading to new progress for neurodegenerative diseases
Another powerful pair of researchers, Virginia M.-Y. Lee, PhD, MBA, and the late John Q. Trojanowski, MD, PhD, likewise formed the gravitational core for many more scientists at Penn Medicine and worldwide who have begun to change the bleak picture for individuals and families struggling with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and more. Lee and Trojanowski were a married couple in the early stages of separate careers before they chose to combine their complementary expertise to solve a pressing problem. Neurodegeneration was the right one for them, using Lee’s experience in biochemistry and Trojanowski’s skill as both a neuropathologist and a connector with other physicians treating patients. Now, after decades of slow and stalled progress, research and clinical teams tackling Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disease finally appear to be on the cusp of tangible hope to slow and reverse the effects of cognitive decline.
Collaborations to reverse racial inequities in maternal health
Solving the most pressing challenges in medicine may require an even deeper degree of collaboration. Many of most intractable problems are a type that can’t be solved with a flash of insight or a single new type of medication. And they may require multiple solutions working together all at once. This is the case with the distressing racial disparity in maternal health. In Philadelphia, Black women are four times more likely to die of a pregnancy-related cause than white women, and nationally, the United States has the worst outcomes in maternal health of any developed country. Penn Medicine has built a coordinated, multidisciplinary effort over the last several years to reverse that trend. While Elizabeth Howell, MD, MPP, chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology, led the effort along with Sindhu Srinivas, MD, MSCE, the push has been system-wide, involving personnel from every Penn Medicine birthing hospital, and every department that touches the care of a birthing parent from prenatal care through the immediate postpartum period to their ongoing health care after giving birth.
Collaboration is also how it’s possible to do more than any one person, team, or organization can achieve alone. When it comes to maternal health disparities, numerous Penn teams are collaborating with insurers, public health officials, other hospitals, tech companies, and more, to ensure the successful practices that save lives and prevent complications for patients at Penn Medicine, reach expectant and new parents in more places, regardless of where they receive their care.
Collaboration is everywhere at Penn Medicine
Collaboration is an intentional value adopted by Penn Medicine and something that every employee should celebrate—especially this year. For employees of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, each year is an opportunity to recognize, reinforce, and reflect on one of the six Penn Medicine Experience (PMX) standards, and from July 2023 through June 2024, the PMX standard is “collaborative.” PMX represents the care that each patient receives before, during, and after their visit. This care doesn’t have to be a transformational new procedure, or even medically related at all. It doesn’t mean a grand gesture. One small act of kindness can mean so much for a patient, and these acts of care are stronger when shared.
Changing the world isn’t any one person’s job at Penn Medicine. It is everyone’s, working together.