Creating Countless Opportunities for Innovation to Thrive

In 2015, Perelman — who passed away in 2019 — made an extraordinarily generous $50 million gift to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The gift is funding pediatric research on a breathtakingly ambitious scale, fueling innovative medical breakthroughs, opening exciting new areas of investigation, and helping CHOP tackle the toughest and most challenging pediatric illnesses.

In recognition of Perelman's extraordinary gift, CHOP established the Raymond G. Perelman Campus, an eight-acre area that serves as a hub of pediatric research and clinical innovation at CHOP, creating countless opportunities for innovation to thrive.

In addition to naming the campus, Mr. Perelman’s gift also established the Raymond G. Perelman Research Fund, which supports a far-reaching scientific landscape. The fund established two tenure-track scholars, an endowed chair in Pediatric Neuro-Ophthalmology, and the Raymond G. Perelman Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics. In 2019, the Center opened a state-of-the-art clinical vector manufacturing facility, where clinical trial products for delivering gene therapies are manufactured.

Vector manufacturing is vital to the work of CHOP researchers such as those in the lab of Stefano Rivella, PhD, a research faculty member in the Division of Hematology. His team is developing genetic therapies for the cure of conditions such as sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. Children with these life-limiting conditions can experience extremely painful episodes or must undergo difficult blood transfusions multiple times a year. The CHOP researchers are developing several gene therapy tools, delivered by vectors, to restore the production of the oxygen carrier protein that is insufficient or dysfunctional in the red cells of patients with these conditions.

Thanks to his generosity and advocacy, CHOP’s Raymond G. Perelman Campus has become the site of astonishing discoveries.

This is just one of the many stories of donor impact that happened during the campaign For Tomorrow’s Breakthroughs.