September 10, 2026
Colleen Claggett/PhillyVoice
Penn Medicine has received a $50 million gift to advance research into autoimmune and other diseases from local businessman Stanley C. Middleman.
Penn Medicine has received a $50 million gift to advance research into autoimmune diseases, cancer treatment and infectious diseases.
The donation from businessman Stanley C. Middleman creates the Middleman Fund that will help Penn researchers advance early-stage research and treatment. The health system's building at 3600 Civic Center Blvd., which reopened last year after a $376 million expansion that added an additional seven floors to the tower, will bear the philanthropist's name as the Middleman Center.
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Penn Medicine did not release the amount of the gift in its announcement Thursday. The total amount was reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
"I was born and raised in Philadelphia, and I'm proud to support Penn Medicine and the extraordinary work being done there to advance medicine and improve people's lives," Middleman, vice chair of the Phillies and founder and chief executive officer of Freedom Mortgage, said in a news release. "My hope is that the Middleman Fund will fuel the development of lifesaving therapies and new approaches to treating patients, and that the Middleman Center will bring together the people and ideas to make those breakthroughs possible."
Research teams from the Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Penn, part of a global research effort to advance diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune diseases, are located at the newly named Middleman Center. Biomedical and infectious diseases researchers, as well as experts in health care innovation, also will be housed at the Middleman Center.
"Anchoring the western edge of Penn Medicine's campus, the Middleman Center is uniquely positioned to bring together biomedical researchers, physicians, medical students, patients, and experts from engineering, business, and other areas of the University of Pennsylvania," Penn President J. Larry Jameson said in the release. "This creates an extraordinary environment for discovery — not just sparking ideas but seeing them all the way through to the moments where lives change for the better, as a result of discovery."
Penn Medicine was the pioneer of CAR T cell therapy, immunotherapy treatment that trains a person's immune cells to recognize and destroy cancer. Penn also has been at the forefront of mRNA research for the development of COVID-19 vaccines and also advances in cancer therapies.
The Middleman Fund "will help sustain that progress at the cutting edge of medicine, build on emerging findings, and create new paths for exploration across a broad range of diseases and disciplines," said Kevin B. Mahoney, chief executive officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
Middleman previously has made donations to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Temple's Fox School of Business.
