Happening tomorrow! Jonathan Miner, MD, PhD of @pennmedicine.bsky.social will be speaking on "Proteolysis-targeting Chimeras for the Treatment of Autoimmune Diseases" in the next installment of the Colton Consortium Virtual Speaker Series.

Institute for Immunology and Immune Health (I3H)@i3h-upenn.bsky.social · 2w ago

Tune in next Tuesday! Jonathan Miner, MD, PhD (@pennmedicine.bsky.social) is the next speaker in the @coltonconsortium.bsky.social Virtual Speaker Series. Free and open to the #autoimmunity and #immunology research communities. 🗓️ Oct. 20, 11 a.m. ET Register: https://bit.ly/3WpB3np

🥼 Our next guest is Dr. John Wherry (@ejohnwherry.bsky.social) from @pennmedicine.bsky.social! His lab investigates the fundamental biology of #TCell exhaustion in chronic infections and cancer. His latest work: https://bit.ly/3TxEF64

Tune in next Tuesday! Jonathan Miner, MD, PhD (@pennmedicine.bsky.social) is the next speaker in the @coltonconsortium.bsky.social Virtual Speaker Series. Free and open to the #autoimmunity and #immunology research communities. 🗓️ Oct. 20, 11 a.m. ET Register: https://bit.ly/3WpB3np

A decade of follow-up data from the Abramson Cancer Center: a single dose of CAR T-cell therapy kept about a third of aggressive lymphoma patients, and nearly half w/slower-growing lymphoma, cancer-free. Results from Marco Ruella, Stephen Schuster and colleagues in NEJM: https://bit.ly/4rcEhpV

The Remarkable Success Of CAR T For Lymphoma 10 Years Later

Ten-year results show a single CAR T infusion can keep many patients with aggressive and slow-growing B-cell lymphomas cancer-free, pointing toward true long-term cures.

forbes.com

Looking back at this past summer's story on cancer interception at Penn Medicine: A new $5M initiative from the Basser Cancer Interception Institute aims to stop cancer before it starts, building on Penn's mRNA and immunology strengths. https://bit.ly/456wJdX

New frontiers in nipping cancer in the bud

The science of cancer interception is advancing at Penn Medicine with a new platform to develop cancer vaccines piling scientific strength upon strength.

pennmedicine.org

From a recent @jamadermatology.com research letter: Victoria Werth (Penn) and colleagues find classic dermatomyositis has a stronger-than-known link to POTS — affected patients were younger and all female. Cutaneous lupus showed no such association. https://bit.ly/4hsQUtt

Uncommon Autonomic Tachycardia Syndrome Linked to Classic Dermatomyositis

Classic DM in about 90% of patients with concurrent POTS, but autoimmune mechanisms unclear

medpagetoday.com

Nearly a decade after the first CAR T-cell therapy, researchers are tackling its biggest limitations — resistance, slow manufacturing, solid tumors. Penn's Carl June on where the science is headed next: https://bit.ly/4dDcIAe

Driving CAR T-cell Therapy in New Directions

Carl June offered insights on the ongoing challenges facing CAR T-cell therapy and new strategies to overcome these limitations.

bit.ly

Recent developments in cancer research — a new pancreatic cancer drug and a melanoma vaccine. Penn Medicine's Dr. Robert Vonderheide breaks down what it means for patients on @pbsnews.org: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/groundbreaking-treatments-and-vaccines-offer-hope-in-fight-against-cancer

Groundbreaking treatments and vaccines offer hope in fight against cancer

There have been several promising developments lately in cancer research and treatment, including a new drug approved by the FDA this week for advanced pancreatic cancer. William Brangham reports.

pbs.org

Big news: Our building has a new name! 3600 Civic Center Blvd — home to Institute for Immunology & Immune Health and @penncoltoncenter.bsky.social — is now the Middleman Center, thanks to a gift from Stanley C. Middleman that will accelerate breakthroughs at Penn Medicine. https://bit.ly/4AcQ8sb

Transformational gift from Stanley C. Middleman creates new engine to accelerate breakthroughs at Penn Medicine | Penn Today

The gift creates the Middleman Fund and renames 3600 Civic Center Boulevard as the Middleman Center at Penn Medicine.

bit.ly

How do you treat a disease with no working gene therapy? Jonathan Miner, MD, PhD, and colleagues built a small-molecule "degrader" that flags malformed TREX1 proteins for the cell's own disposal system. A $10M Clayco Foundation gift will fund safety trials for RVCL, a rare, fatal disease.

Novel medicine for rare disease prompts $10M gift for trials

The Clayco Foundation award will go toward safety trials of a new small molecule drug aimed at treating RVCL, a rare, fatal disease with no cure.

pennmedicine.org

Honored to have Dr. Susan Kaech, EVP of Immunology at the @alleninstitute.org, as our keynote speaker. Internationally recognized for uncovering how T cells form lasting memory — and how tumors exploit metabolism to disable them. Her work is driving new therapies for cancer and infectious disease.

Congrats to Dr. Terri Laufer, recipient of the Michael Cancro Distinguished Faculty Mentoring Award! 🏆 An Emeritus Professor of Rheumatology, Dr. Laufer has shaped generations of immunologists through her research on autoimmunity, T cell development, and antigen presentation. A well-deserved honor.

Dr. Ellebrecht presented "PIK3CD as a Niche Checkpoint of Human Skin T Cell Residence." The inventor of the CAAR T cell concept, and a @penncoltoncenter.bsky.social pilot awardee, his lab decodes how T cells commit to long- or short-lived fates to engineer precision cellular #immunotherapies.

Dr. Sara Cherry shared progress from the High-Throughput Center for Autoimmune Therapeutic Discovery (HIT-AI), a Colton Center of Excellence. Working with collaborators, Dr. Fajgenbaum and Dr. Miner, the center combines #AI with high-throughput screening to identify new #autoimmune therapies.

Matis Award IFI Investigator Awardee Dr. Sunny Shin presented: "Innate Immune Defense Against Bacterial #Pathogens." Professor of #Microbiology, Burroughs-Wellcome Fund awardee, and dedicated mentor — studying how pathogens like Legionella and Salmonella evade host immunity. #InnateImmunity #I3H

Roberts Family-Katalin Karikó Fellowship Awardee Dr. Ted Kreider addressed: "Bespoke #mRNA Vaccine Designs for #HIV Prevention and Cure." Penn Measey Scholar + NIAID DP2 New #Innovators awardee, developing mRNA-based approaches to clear latent HIV with Dr. Drew Weissman's lab.

IGG Saul Winegrad Awardee Ashwin Skelly presented: "Induction of Broadly Neutralizing #HIV Antibodies by a Two-Step Mechanism Informs #Vaccine Design." MD-PhD student (Immunology Graduate Group), Fulbright fellow, and first-author in Science & PNAS — with dissertation work from Dr. Hahn's lab.

Time for the I3H Year in Review! With ~230 faculty across @pennmedicine.bsky.social, @childrensphila.bsky.social + partner orgs, our community had an extraordinary year: 💰 $104M+ in #research funding 📄 100+ high-impact publications 🤝 10+ training grants 💡 $100M+ philanthropic support (since 2019)

"We’re thinking of how to find cancers when they’re a single cell—before they really have completed the cancer invasion program—and erase them and reset the clock," says Robert Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, director of the Abramson Cancer Center. https://bit.ly/4sFgmyu

Penn scientist elected president of top cancer research organization

Penn's Robert Vonderheide spoke with the Inquirer about the future of cancer research and what he hopes to accomplish as president of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

inquirer.com

A patient with three rare autoimmune diseases in Germany has been symptom-free for over a year after a single dose of CAR T cell therapy. Avery Posey, PhD addresses risks + new developments for adapting the #immunotherapy as a treatment for autoimmune diseases in The Atlantic: https://bit.ly/4dG3nIY

A Cancer Treatment That Does More Than Scientists Thought

CAR-T cell therapy, originally developed for cancer, is showing ever more promise as a treatment for autoimmune diseases.

bit.ly

The Colton Consortium for #Autoimmunity hosts a monthly virtual seminar for the #autoimmune research community. Join next week (4/21, 11AM ET) for Ruslan Medzhitov, PhD (Yale), who will be addressing how environmental factors shape adaptive immunity. Register to reserve your spot: bit.ly/4mo4yyW

Colton Consortium Virtual Speaker Series ft. Ruslan Medzhitov, PhD

https://events.zoom.us

bit.ly

Today, the 2026 Penn Colton Center for #Autoimmunity Symposium brings together the Penn #autoimmune research community—spanning diverse disease areas and the full continuum of discovery—to share new insights in diagnosing, treating, and preventing autoimmune diseases.

In 2016, Dennis Massimo consented to having a blood sample banked for future research after having his tonsils removed. In 2025, he received a life changing call from Penn Medicine BioBank after his sample was used in a research study: https://bit.ly/4c80lKX

Cancer survivor: Learning I had Lynch syndrome ‘saved my life’

Dennis Massimo was only 42 and symptom-free when he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer related to an inherited condition he didn’t realize he had.

pennmedicine.org

New research on cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE), a chronic autoimmune disease that impacts the skin, may change treatment approaches. Victoria Werth, MD, discussed disease progression and clinical trials of the new therapy Litifilimab. https://bit.ly/3Q6zGH7

Expert Roundtable: Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus

Cutaneous lupus erythematosus is a chronic autoimmune disease with few treatment options and no approved targeted therapies.

bit.ly

Researchers at @pennmedicine.bsky.social show precancerous pancreatic lesions can be eliminated before tumors form—tripling survival in mice. Published in Science, the study offers early evidence for a “cancer interception” approach. https://bit.ly/4tp5yoO

KRAS Inhibitors Intercept Pancreatic Cancer Before It Develops in Mice

Penn Medicine researchers have eliminated precancerous lesions before they become pancreatic cancer, tripling survival in mice.

insideprecisionmedicine.com