The University of Pennsylvania has reached an important milestone in its alliance with Novartis as it unveiled plans for the construction of a first-of-its-kind Center for Advanced Cellular Therapeutics (CACT) on the Penn Medicine campus in Philadelphia on September 11. The CACT will become the epicenter for research using Chimeric Antigen Receptor technology (CAR), which enables a patient’s T cells to be reprogrammed outside of the body so when they are re-infused into the patient, the T cells have the ability to “hunt” and destroy the cancer cells. Clinical trials using this approach have made headlines around the world.

The 30,000-square foot facility for the Penn-Novartis alliance will be led by Carl H. June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor of Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine and director of Translational Research in Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center. Bruce Levine, PhD, the Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, directs Penn’s Clinical Cell and Vaccine Production Facility.

Read the Department of Communications news release.

(Photos courtesy of Penn Medicine Communications)