NYU Langone Health Receives $15 Million Philanthropic Gift to Expand Autoimmune Disease Research Consortium
Key Insights
Judy and Stewart Colton's $15 million gift will be shared across NYU Langone, Yale University, and Tel Aviv University to advance collaborative autoimmune disease research.
The Colton Consortium enables real-time sharing of ideas, technologies, patient cohorts, and expertise to predict optimal treatments for individual patients.
NYU Langone's Colton Center pursues translational research integrating clinical care, immunology, genetics, microbiome science, and data-driven discovery across multiple immune-mediated diseases.
NYU Langone Health today announced a new philanthropic investment from longtime supporters Judy and Stewart Colton, 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, with a relationship spanning back to the 1980s. Their dedicated support for autoimmune research began in 2014 with a $10 million gift that established the Judith and Stewart Colton Center for Autoimmunity at NYU Langone, followed by an additional $10 million commitment in 2020.
A Collaborative Model for Precision Medicine
Investigators across the Colton Consortium share ideas, technologies, patient cohorts, and expertise in real time to address fundamental questions in autoimmune disease progression and treatment selection. The consortium's research model is designed to answer 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."
Translational Research Driving Drug Development
Under the founding leadership of Steven Abramson, MD, 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 encompasses research into psoriatic arthritis (search), lupus (search), rheumatoid arthritis (search), and other immune-mediated diseases, with findings contributing to a growing body of science that has implications for drug development and precision medicine.
Notably, NYU Langone has established a successful research relationship with biopharmaceutical company argenx as a direct outcome of Colton-funded work, demonstrating the tangible impact of philanthropic investment on therapeutic development.
Sustaining and Growing the Research Network
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. The Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity now operates as a four-institution network that also includes the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, and Tel Aviv University, with the Colton Center at NYU Langone serving as a founding member.
The center brings together clinicians, immunologists, geneticists, data scientists, and engineers to pursue discoveries that can improve outcomes for patients with immune-mediated conditions, reinforcing a multidisciplinary approach to tackling the complexity of autoimmune diseases.