In search of the best ideas with the biggest impact, The Giorgi Family Foundation has committed $4.5 million in support of two Penn initiatives that align with their focus on scientific research and creative expression. These gifts exemplify how donors can find multiple ways to support their passions at Penn.
“The Giorgi Family Foundation is proud to support areas of interest that we share with Penn Medicine and the Penn Museum,” says Peter Giorgi, C’86, L’90, and The Giorgi Family Foundation Director. “By making an impact in science and the human experience in the arts, we hope to honor my family’s legacy and create new possibilities in very different areas.”
Penn Medicine will receive a $3 million gift from The Giorgi Family Foundation, which will allow for new equipment and funding for scientists conducting immune profiling research at the Abramson Cancer Center. “We are in the midst of Penn Medicine’s ImmunoRevolution, working every day to transform the way we think about Immune Health® and use the immune system to fight cancer and other diseases,” says E. John Wherry, Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President’s Distinguished Professor and the Director of the Penn Medicine Institute for Immunology. “This generous support will bring us closer to better understanding and predicting, better treating and hopefully preventing cancer, and making sophisticated immune profiling part of routine clinical care.”
Researchers hope to learn what a patient’s immune system is communicating as it reacts to a disease and use that knowledge to improve patient care with the eventual goal of beating cancer. Thanks to The Giorgi Family Foundation gift, the gap between the laboratory and the clinic will narrow as the pace of discoveries accelerates.
The Penn Museum is also receiving a generous donation through The Giorgi Family Foundation through a $1.5 million gift that will bring a new Eastern Mediterranean Gallery to fruition. “The region that today includes Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian Territories, and Cyprus is one of the great crossroads in history,” says Lauren Ristvet, Ph.D., Lead Gallery Curator and Dyson Associate Curator, Near East Section. “The Penn Museum’s collections from this region are among the best in the world.”
This new exhibition will offer hands-on experiences from the Biblical through Byzantine era, along with multimodal learning styles to visitors of different ages. The Gallery will showcase objects that are from Penn’s own excavations across the region in the early 20th century and explore innovations in religion and the alphabet that still impact us today.
An investment in current and future projects at Penn Medicine and the Penn Museum can revolutionize health, incubate innovation, and advance knowledge across disciplines. Learn more about opportunities for impact at Penn.
