\u201cThese are the days of miracle and wonder\u201d \u2014 Paul Simon\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sen. Dave McCormick<\/a> (R-Pa.) and National Institutes of Health <\/a>(NIH) Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya toured the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine at Penn Medicine <\/a>at the University of Pennsylvania<\/a>, highlighting some of the major medical breakthroughs from Penn scientists\u2019 research.<\/p>\n \u201cPennsylvania is one of the leading states for life sciences,\u201d said McCormick, at a press conference following the March 31 tour. \u201cIt\u2019s a big NIH recipient of about $2.2 billion a year. \u201cThis creates 21,000 direct jobs, almost 100,000 indirect jobs, in terms of the commercialization of the technology.\u201d<\/p>\n Penn Medicine is where \u201cdiscoveries that change people\u2019s lives and increase longevity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s also critical, this area of life sciences, where we\u2019re in a competition, really, with China for leadership,\u201d said McCormick.<\/p>\n There are \u201chuge national security implications. This is a driver of innovation, and job growth and opportunity in our great commonwealth for our young people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In southeastern Pennsylvania, healthcare, education, and the pharmaceutical industry \u2014 the so-called \u201ceds and meds\u201d \u2014 comprise a sizable piece of the economic pie.<\/p>\n Most residents work in educational services, followed by healthcare and social assistance, according to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission<\/a>. These areas account for 64.5 percent of the region\u2019s basic jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n McCormick and Bhattacharya also toured research facilities in Pittsburgh on Monday. There, they visited a vision center that is \u201cbringing people back from blindness with AI.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe pace of change is enormous,\u201d said McCormick. \u201cIt\u2019s going to change the future of America, the future of humanity. And Pennsylvania is uniquely positioned to play this enormous leadership role.\u201d<\/p>\n Bhattacharya said Pennsylvania-based research will have nationwide impacts, including helping stroke victims regain their ability to walk and restoring vision to some patients.<\/p>\n \u201cHere we met patients given a second lease on life from deadly cancer,\u201d said Bhattacharya. \u201cTo me, that\u2019s what the NIH is all about: taking the investment of the American taxpayers, putting it in places like Penn, like UPMC,<\/a> and turning that into better lives and health.\u201d<\/p>\n Broad + Liberty asked them what the most surprising research they\u2019d seen at Penn Medicine was.<\/p>\n \u201cThe CAR-T labs,\u201d said McCormick. \u201cIt\u2019s remarkable. It\u2019s essentially an invention that was brought about here to be able to take cancer cells, take them out of the body, and essentially make them fighters.\u201d<\/p>\n Those cells are then returned to the patient\u2019s body and begin to fight cancer, \u201cprimarily blood cancers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTo bring people back from the brink of death, and we are at the point now where it\u2019s hitting the hockey stick of scalability,\u201d said McCormick. He noted that Penn researcher Dr. Carl Jung<\/a> worked on this \u201cbreakthrough discovery that is literally changing our ability to deal with cancer\u201d for 20 years. It may also treat other cancers and other diseases, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou invest in one area, and all of a sudden you get an advance in another area,\u201d said Bhattacharya. \u201cThe CAR-T advance originated in an investment in treating HIV research in reprogramming immune cells.\u201d<\/p>\n