From the Chair
Welcome to the Penn Medicine Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine!
I am honored to lead this historic department as its 19th chair. Our first chair in Pathology was elected in 1877 and the William Pepper Lab, the precursor to our current laboratory operations, was founded in 1895. Since then, previous Chairs have included the pathology luminaries such as Simon Flexner, Peter Nowell, Leonard Jarett. Our department has an impressive history of innovation and excellence and continues to embody those principles today. Whether you are a student, clinician, researcher, patient, or simply a curious-minded individual, I hope that you find the information shared here helpful and educational.
We are a part of Penn Medicine, an integrated organization that includes the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania Health System which enables us to be at the forefront of clinical, educational, and investigatory practices within our field. This spans from recent breakthroughs like CAR-T therapy, to discovering the Philadelphia Chromosome, to the first use of microscopic diagnosis of rabies in 1900.
The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine strives to create an equitable and supportive environment for all its members. Every year we train amazingly talented individuals through our medical school, graduate studies, post-doctoral, residency, and fellowship courses and programs. Our trainees work directly with leaders in the field, getting hands on experience in their chosen area of study. Our goal is to educate and inspire the next generation of leaders in pathology and laboratory medicine.
Our educational programs are supported and informed by the industry-leading clinical practices across the University of Pennsylvania Health System’s hospitals. We strive to provide the best, most up-to-date, precision diagnostics to our clinical partners to help them quickly reach an accurate diagnosis, contributing meaningfully to millions of patients’ positive health outcomes every year.
Not only are our clinical practices at the forefront of the industry, but also our research leads in areas such as neurodegeneration, cancer and immunobiology, and diagnostic innovation. In pursuit of this continuous progress, we are proud to have recently received the Blue Ridge designation for being the number 1 NIH funded Pathology and Laboratory Medicine department in the nation in 2024.
Whether you are just learning of the specialization or are a tenured researcher in the field I hope that you feel encouraged to explore more about Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Penn. To those of you considering joining our department, be it as a trainee, staff member, or faculty member, we hope the information here helps solidify for you the reasons why our organization could be the right fit for you. Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our department; I am grateful for the opportunity to lead our department and exited to see what new discoveries the future brings for us.
Best,
George J. Netto
Simon Flexner Professor and Chair
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
