“The goal of Wistar’s Center for Advanced Therapeutics is to identify and support academic champions—scientists conducting foundational research—and surround them with the expertise needed to advance their discoveries toward clinical impact,” said Paul Lieberman, Ph.D., founding director of the Center for Advanced Therapeutics (CAT) at The Wistar Institute. “Ultimately, the Center will build a community of academic, industry, nonprofit, and government partners united by a shared commitment to advancing medical breakthroughs.”
In 2025, The Wistar Institute launched the Center for Advanced Therapeutics (CAT) to bring together the Institute’s deep expertise in biology, chemistry, and artificial intelligence (AI). The Center is designed to spur new foundational discoveries while working closely with public and private sectors to accelerate translation of those discoveries into new treatments and therapies.
Wistar—the nation’s first independent biomedical research institute in the U.S., located in Philadelphia’s University City—has a long and distinguished history of scientific innovation and therapeutic discovery. Its contributions include vaccines for rubella, rabies and rotavirus, and therapeutic IL12 antibodies now used to treat autoimmune disorders. Carrying forward this legacy of biomedical innovation, the Center for Advanced Therapeutics was established with a transformative $30 million philanthropic gift, along with support from private, state and federal funders. The CAT’s central mission is clear: accelerate the translation of foundational research into therapies that meaningfully improve patient outcomes.
The Center’s scientific focus will be the development of new treatments for cancer, chronic viral infections and autoimmune diseases—areas of profound and unmet medical need. Achieving this goal requires more than scientific excellence alone. It demands a coordinated, multi-disciplinary approach and deep collaboration among academia, industry, and government, integrating advanced computational tools and artificial intelligence guided by human creativity and purpose.
The CAT is designed to serve as a connective hub linking basic academic discovery with biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical companies and venture capital expertise. By integrating these sectors early in the process, the Center aims to streamline the path from discovery to development, enabling safe, effective therapeutics to reach patients sooner and at lower cost.
To do so, the CAT brings together a rare concentration of capabilities: fundamental expertise in the basic biology of cancer; viral infection and autoimmune disorders; physics-based computational modeling; lab-based medicinal chemistry; new disease models including patient-derived organoids; patient-focused clinicians; clinical trial specialists; regulatory experts; and market-aware entrepreneurs. Oversight and strategic guidance from leaders across academia, industry and the investment community help ensure that discoveries are aligned with real-world translational potential.
One early example of this collaborative approach is the Philadelphia Drug Discovery Forum (PDDF) hosted by The Wistar Institute. The Forum brings together diverse members from academia, biotechnology, and biopharma to discuss the latest advances in drug design and discovery. Through initiatives like the PDDF, the CAT can generate new technologies, and cultivate the next generation of therapy-focused biomedical researchers and innovators.
Strengthening the local and regional life science workforce is a core component of the CAT’s mission. By fostering talent development and cross-sector collaboration, the Center contributes to a more resilient and dynamic biomedical research ecosystem—one that supports Philadelphia’s continued leadership in life sciences and lays the groundwork for a more modern, forward-looking approach to drug discovery.
As Philadelphia marks 250 years of innovation, The Wistar Institute and the Center for Advanced Therapeutics exemplify how the region’s life science community continues to translate scientific excellence into public benefit. The CAT represents a new model for biomedical research and a blueprint for how Philadelphia can train, employ, and empower future generations to develop life-saving technologies that reduce the burdens of human disease.
