We Are Medicine

Endowed Professorships at Penn Medicine

Endowed professorships are essential to attract and hold faculty members of proven distinction and to encourage their most promising younger colleagues. The chairs have the virtue of permanence. The income from the invested principal protects the quality of the faculty in times of budgetary and economic uncertainty. Chairs also immortalize the names given them by their donors.

The men and women named to endowed chairs produce and inspire great scholarship and form the core of a superb faculty. Talent is indispensable to the vitality of the academic enterprise. Competition from peer institutions and industry pose a real threat to the School of Medicine’s growth and vigor. Strong support for faculty through professorships is essential to replenish scholarly ranks and to ensure the continuity of teaching and research.

A gift of $3 million can be used to establish an endowed professorship at Penn Medicine. To learn more about this and other ways to support Penn's outstanding medical faculty, contact Allyson Randolph at arandolp@upenn.edu or 215-898-1034.

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Some Achievements by Penn Medicine Endowed Professors

Co-invented the rotavirus vaccine.

Identified cardiovascular risk mechanisms in a class of drugs that included Vioxx and Celebrex.

Developed antibody approaches to fighting cancer, which has led the way in targeted cancer treatment, including the breast cancer drug Herceptin.

Discovered the hormone that triggers type 2 diabetes.

Developed a novel gene therapy treatment that permanently blocks the age-related loss of muscle size and strength in mice.

Provided new evidence that genes may affect response to different smoking cessation medications.

Co-discovered the Philadelphia Chromosome—the first evidence that abnormal chromosomes can cause cancer.

Co-pioneered the study of islet cell transplantation as a method of treating insulin-dependent diabetes.

Identified a pharmacologic approach to raising HDL cholesterol.

Discovered that paclitaxel (Paxceed), a potent anticancer drug, increases function of nerve cells in a mouse model of neurodegeneration.