The Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity has received a $15 million, three-year investment from the Colton Foundation to advance collaborative autoimmune disease research across its partner institutions.
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New Funding Strengthens Cross-Institutional Collaboration and Advances Autoimmune Disease Research Across Leading Academic Medical Institutions
[PHILADELPHIA, PA, June 10, 2026]: The Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity today announced a new $15 million, three-year investment from the Colton Foundation to strengthen scientific leadership, expand faculty expertise, and advance collaborative research to accelerate breakthroughs in autoimmune disease across its partner institutions at New York University, Tel Aviv University, and Yale University.
As the Consortium’s lead institution, the University of Pennsylvania will continue to guide strategy and foster collaboration across sites, building on its long standing investment in autoimmune research.
Why This Matters Now
Autoimmune diseases affect millions worldwide and remain among the most complex conditions to diagnose, treat, and prevent. While advances in immunology have deepened our understanding of disease mechanisms, many conditions still lack effective therapies.
At the same time, converging progress across academia, clinical research, and biopharma has created an ecosystem with transformative opportunities—one where coordinated investment and collaboration can translate discovery into meaningful advances for patients.
A Strategic Investment in High-Impact Science
This investment strengthens the Consortium’s ability to operate as an integrated, high-performing research network—supporting work that no single institution could accomplish alone. This new investment supports three core pillars:
“This investment reflects a deliberate, integrated strategy to accelerate autoimmune research across Colton institutions. By simultaneously strengthening faculty recruitment, enabling large-scale collaborative science, and reinforcing the leadership and infrastructure that support our work, we are further accelerates our autoimmunity efforts through an agile and high impact research network,” said E. John Wherry, PhD, Director of the Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity. “Together, these efforts position the Colton Consortium to rapidly move fundamental discoveries from key biological insights to impact for patients.”
Building on a Proven Model
The Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity has rapidly evolved into an integrated, cross-institutional research network focused on accelerating progress in understanding and treating autoimmune disease. The effort began with the establishment of the inaugural Colton Center for Autoimmunity at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in 2014, followed by Yale University (2019) and the University of Pennsylvania (2021). In late 2022, the initiative was formally unified as the Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity with the expansion to includeTel Aviv University, creating a coordinated four-institution network with the University of Pennsylvania as the coordinating Center for the Consortium.Together, these efforts reflect a sustained philanthropic commitment of approximately $120 million across leading academic medical institutions.
From its inception, the Consortium was designed as an integrated scientific ecosystem—bringing together investigators, infrastructure, and funding mechanisms focused on key priorities for autoimmune research. This structure has enabled a coordinated activity supporting both scientific depth and cross-institutional scale.
The Colton Consortium model has supported a large number of pilot studies including over 40 active pilot projects, over 500 publications, a growing portfolio of intellectual property, and partnerships with the private sector and additional federal funding mechanisms. Collectively, these outcomes reflect the emergence of a durable, integrated scientific infrastructure capable of accelerating discovery and advancing it toward translational and clinical impact.
As the Consortium enters its next phase with this new $15 million investment, Colton investigators are well positioned to capitalized on a strong foundation and lead new advances in autoimmune research.
“The strength of the Colton Consortium lies in its unique structure and collaborative culture that lets our institutions operate as a unified research network. This $15 million investment serves as both validation for our model and a springboard for our next phase of strategic growth. We're building something special, and this gift lets us grow it with vision and purpose,” said Leonardo Guercio, PhD, Director of Strategy and Business Development for the Colton Consortium.
Institutional Perspectives
Leaders from partner institutions emphasized the importance of this investment in advancing both local and collaborative research efforts.
“The Consortium is designed so that four academic institutions work together and leverage the intellectual resources of all four to advance our understanding and treatment of autoimmune diseases that are common and increasing in incidence. With this gift, we can foster the development of the Consortium and do more together. The plan is for the Consortium to be sustained. This is not limited to the duration of the gift; it’s beyond that.” Joseph Craft, MD, Director of the Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Yale
“Support from the Colton Consortium is catalytic for the NYU Colton Center because it allows us to move bold, early-stage ideas rapidly toward mechanistic discovery, translational validation, and ultimately patient impact in the autoimmune space. Just as importantly, this funding strengthens the Consortium’s broader mission by connecting complementary expertise across institutions, accelerating collaborative science in autoimmunity, and creating a pipeline of discoveries with the potential to redefine how we diagnose, prevent, and treat immune-mediated disease.” Jose Scher, MD, Director of the Judy & Stewart Colton Center for Autoimmunity at NYU Langone Health
“This generous donation enables Tel Aviv University, together with its clinical partners in hospitals and healthcare organizations across Israel, to establish collaborative partnerships with Colton institutions in the United States. Together, we will lead innovative research initiatives aimed at advancing the understanding and treatment of autoimmune diseases. The approved projects will include not only clinical and biological research, but also data-driven studies and studies designed to build the engineering and computational infrastructure necessary for improved diagnosis and treatment.” Uri Nevo, PhD, Director of the Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Tel Aviv University
About the Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity
The Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity is a global, multi-institutional research partnership uniting leading academic medical centers—including the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, Yale University, and Tel AvivUniversity—in a coordinated effort to transform the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of autoimmune diseases. Through sustained philanthropic investment and a highly integrated collaborative model, the Consortium advances high-impact science that spans discovery research, translational studies, and clinical application, with the shared goal of improving outcomes for patients worldwide. The Consortium is made possible through the generosity of the Colton Foundation, led by Judy and Stewart Colton. Learn more at the coltonconsortium.org.
Media Contact:
Sara A. Baier
Associate Director of External Relations, Colton Consortium
sara.baier@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
267-625-1311
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The Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity has received a $15 million, three-year investment from the Colton Foundation to advance collaborative autoimmune disease research across its partner institutions.
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