Gift from Judy and Stewart Colton Accelerates the Search for Better Diagnoses, Treatments & Answers for People Living With Autoimmune Diseases
NYU Langone Health today announced a new philanthropic investment from longtime supporters Judy and Stewart Colton as part of a $15 million gift shared across three Colton Consortium institutions: NYU Langone, Yale University, and Tel Aviv University. Each institution receives an allocation with additional funding distributed for competitive research proposals by investigators from the consortium.
The Coltons have been foundational partners in building NYU Langone's autoimmune research program. Their relationship with the institution is generational, and their giving dates to the 1980s. The Coltons began support for autoimmune research in 2014 with a $10 million gift that established the Judith and Stewart Colton Center for Autoimmunity at NYU Langone. They have since increased their commitment, with an additional $10 million to support the NYU Langone’s center in 2020, in addition to other generous support in honor of faculty and leadership.
Investigators across the Colton Consortium share ideas, technologies, patient cohorts, and expertise in real time to ask why some patients progress while others do not, and how to predict the right treatment for the right patient at the right time.
“The Coltons understand both the urgency and the long horizon of biomedical discovery,” said Jose U. Scher, MD, director of the Judith and Stewart Colton Center for Autoimmunity at NYU Langone Health. “Their commitment reflects a deep belief in science, collaboration, and improving the lives of patients with autoimmune disease. Philanthropy like this creates hope with a practical path forward.”
Under the founding leadership of , Dr. Scher, and Associate Directors Jill Buyon, MD. and David B. Beck, MD, PhD, NYU Langone’s Colton Center has pursued a translational research model that integrates clinical care, immunology, genetics, microbiome science, and data-driven discovery. The center’s work includes research into psoriatic arthritis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and other immune-mediated diseases, with findings contributing to a growing body of science that has implications for drug development and precision medicine. NYU Langone has also established a successful research relationship with biopharmaceutical company argenx as a direct outcome of Colton-funded work.
The new investment will support faculty recruitment, collaborative research projects across consortium institutions, and the infrastructure needed to sustain and grow the network's scientific output.
About the Judith and Stewart Colton Center for Autoimmunity at NYU Langone Health
The Judith and Stewart Colton Center for Autoimmunity is dedicated to advancing the understanding and treatment of autoimmune diseases through innovative, translational research. Established in 2014 through the generosity of Judy and Stewart Colton, the center brings together clinicians, immunologists, geneticists, data scientists, and engineers to pursue discoveries that can improve outcomes for patients with immune-mediated conditions. The center is a founding member of the Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity, a four-institution network that also includes the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, and Tel Aviv University.
About NYU Langone Health
NYU Langone Health is a fully integrated health system that consistently achieves the best patient outcomes through a rigorous focus on quality, resulting in some of the lowest mortality rates in the nation. Vizient Inc. has ranked NYU Langone No. 1 out of 118 comprehensive academic medical centers across the nation for four years in a row, and U.S. News & World Report recently ranked four of its clinical specialties No. 1 in the nation. NYU Langone offers a comprehensive range of medical services with one high standard of care across seven inpatient locations, its Perlmutter 鶹Ƶapp Center, and more than 330 outpatient locations in the New York area and Florida. The system also includes two tuition-free medical schools, in Manhattan and on Long Island, and a vast research enterprise.
