PHILADELPHIA — (Sept. 17, 2025) — The Wistar Institute announces the opening of its new Center for Advanced Therapeutics (CAT) to harness the power of Wistar science and speed creation of new drugs and therapies for human health. The CAT is led by Paul Lieberman, Ph.D., and capitalizes on a history of groundbreaking Wistar research in cancer, immunology and infectious disease.
“Despite the enormous progress of the last few years in combating cancer and other major diseases, there remains an urgent need for greater innovation, collaboration and public-private partnership to bring the next generation of molecular, personalized therapies to all,” said Dario Altieri, M.D., Wistar president and CEO, director of the Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center and Robert and Penny Fox Distinguished Professor. “This can only come from the type of rigorous, paradigm-shifting and transformational research that Wistar is known for worldwide, and this new Center, under Paul’s leadership, will function as a unique catalyst for multidisciplinary collaboration and freedom to discover, translating new insights of disease mechanisms into promising therapeutics.”
Spearheaded by Lieberman, a leading expert in the field of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) research as well as other viruses that cause cancer, the vision of the Center is to identify new, early-stage biomedical research discoveries and support the genesis and trajectory of innovations as successful potential medicines.
“The goal is to create something new and impactful at Wistar,” said Lieberman, director of the Center for Advanced Therapeutics and Hilary Koprowski, M.D., Endowed Professor. “The Center brings together a multi-disciplinary team of chemists, biologists and development partners to identify new opportunities for therapeutic intervention through an accelerated pipeline of biology to chemistry to clinically relevant technologies that improve patient care and enhance human health. We need all these pieces to bridge the divide in the ’Valley of Death’ that is drug development.”
The Center for Advanced Therapeutics formalizes how Wistar advances drug discovery breakthroughs. The Center will leverage the expertise of top Wistar scientists in biology, chemistry & AI to capitalize on new areas of investigation and expand vital collaborations across public-private sectors, integrating perspectives, expertise and technology to reduce the burden of human disease.
The Center will create opportunities for Wistar investigators to identify innovative starting points and trajectories in the drug discovery process. Five additional principal investigators will be recruited to the new Center over the next two years. Computational chemists and biologists will help to accelerate the design of novel chemical structures and identify key biological targets to more effectively treat cancers and immune disorders.
The CAT will combine top current science, including the Wistar expertise of Joseph Salvino, Ph.D., medicinal chemist focused on discovery and development efforts to validate the “drugability” of small molecule targets; Troy Messick, Ph.D., a structural biologist advancing small molecule programs from preclinical research through clinical trials; Samantha Soldan, Ph.D., who leads preclinical multiple sclerosis research and will spearhead research expansion into autoimmune diseases; and Heather Steinman Ph.D., MBA., Wistar SVP of Business Development, who identifies potential collaborators and synergizes interactions with regional biotech, industry and pharmaceutical organizations.
The Center for Advanced Therapeutics aims to:
• bridge biology and chemistry expertise through recruitment of computational chemists to design chemical structures & use new chemistry innovations to advance Wistar technologies for the next stage of development;
• use artificial intelligence and machine learning to power new approaches for drug discovery and development;
• unite multidisciplinary industry collaborations to turn early-stage discoveries into future medicine; and
• expand the study of early-stage autoimmune diseases, an area that complements Wistar cancer biology and viral disease knowledge.
Wistar received a $30M gift from an anonymous donor – the largest in Institute history – to establish and build the Center for Advanced Therapeutics. The Pew Charitable Trusts awarded a $1 million grant to support Wistar’s appointment of Lieberman as director of the Center for Advanced Therapeutics as well as recruitment of new staff.
The CAT occupies 12,000 square feet of newly renovated space in The Wistar Institute’s signature campus at 3601 Spruce Street. This is the second major Wistar Center to open in 2025. The first was the HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center at Wistar’s Market Street campus, with more than 25,000 square feet dedicated to laboratory and office space and the first expansion beyond the building’s original footprint in Wistar’s 130+year history.
ABOUT THE WISTAR INSTITUTE:
The Wistar Institute is the nation’s first independent nonprofit institution devoted exclusively to foundational biomedical research and training. Since 1972, the Institute has held National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Cancer Center status. Through a culture and commitment to biomedical collaboration and innovation, Wistar science leads to breakthrough early-stage discoveries and life science sector start-ups. Wistar scientists are dedicated to solving some of the world’s most challenging problems in the field of cancer and immunology, advancing human health through early-stage discovery and training the next generation of biomedical researchers. wistar.org
