Haverford College is among a small group of select institutions participating in groundbreaking medical research, thanks to a grant made possible by the national tobacco settlement.

The University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Regenerative Medicine, in collaboration with Haverford, Thomas Jefferson University, Lincoln University, Fox Chase Cancer Center, and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, will receive $3.9 million from Pennsylvania's share of the tobacco settlement. These funds will be applied towards research into regenerative therapies for restoring the function of islet cells, which produce insulin and are not found in diabetics.

This project will include training and community outreach programs in regenerative medicine for Philadelphia minority students and faculty at Haverford, Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. Penn's Institute will also work with Haverford and Lincoln to fund fellowships, research programs, and the creation of new courses in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine.

“All of us at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Penn are thrilled by the chance to work collaboratively with faculty and students at Haverford, Penn and Lincoln to encourage learning and research in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine,” says Jon Epstein, professor and chair in Penn's department of cell and developmental biology and scientific director of the Penn Cardiovascular Institute.“We hope that this project will be one of several approaches for strengthening the already strong bonds between our institutions. This is an exploding area of biology and medicine that will be at the forefront for generations to come, and we are eager to help to prepare tomorrow's leaders to fully capitalize on new knowledge with the help of these state funds and through collaborative educational programs.”

Haverford is already connected to the University of Pennsylvania through president Stephen G. Emerson, who was formerly Francis C. Wood Professor in Medicine, Pathology and Pediatrics, chief of the division of hematology/oncology and associate director for clinical/translational research at Penn. Emerson's own research interests focus on bone marrow stem cell biology, particularly as applied to bone marrow stem cell transplantation, and he is the organizer of Penn's Institute for Stem Cell Biology. Recently, Emerson introduced an undergraduate course in stem cell biology at Haverford.