moral and strategic compass,” says president and
CEO David Holmberg. “We believe they deserve a
remarkable health experience, freeing them to be
their best.”
Located in Pittsburgh, UPMC is a world-
renowned academic medical center. Perform-
ing more than 20,000 transplants in its 50-year
history, UPMC has pioneered organ transplanta-
tion and treatments that minimize the need for
antirejection medications, which can have serious
side effects, including increased susceptibility to
cancer and infections. “A lot of what’s happened
in transplants happened here,” says Dr. Abhinav
Humar, chief of transplantation at UPMC and a
leading expert in immune transplantation at the
UPMC Immune Transplant and Therapy Center.
Humar specializes in living-donor liver trans-
plants. “The procedure involves a lot of technical
detail,” he says. “In the U.S., there are only about
400 cases per year—we do 70 of them.” Research
has long been part of UPMC’s mission. For the
past year, Humar and his team have been con-
ducting a trial using donor-derived cells in
conjunction with organ transplantation to create
immunity in patients and reduce the need for
antirejection meds.
Geisinger, established in central Pennsylva-
nia in 1915 and still headquartered there, of-
fers medical care, health insurance, education,
and research. Its MyCode® Community Health
Initiative analyzes enrollees’ DNA, often leading
to life-saving results. The Geisinger Fresh Food
Farmacy™ provides fresh food and dietary coach-
ing to patients with chronic conditions who are
also food insecure. “The program has dramatically
reduced the burden of Type 2 diabetes and related
medical complications, optimizing prescription
use and ultimately lowering the cost of total care,”
says president and CEO Jaewon Ryu, MD.
The organization also aims to address the
shortage of physicians in rural communities and
the burden of debt borne by many Geisinger Com-
monwealth School of Medicine students, with a
scholarship program providing full tuition support
to those who commit to working for Geisinger after
graduation. “We want to make it easier for them to
choose Geisinger as a place to
grow their careers,” Ryu says.
Life sciences, with special-
ized concentrations in drugs
and pharmaceuticals, as well as
research, testing, and medical
labs, is another major driver of
Pennsylvania’s economy. Last
year Business Facilities ranked
the state fourth in bioscience
research and development, and
in 2017, it received the fourth-
highest amount of bioscience
funding from the National Insti-
tutes of Health. Pennsylvania is
also notable for its many hospi-
tals and other health facilities,
SPONSORED CONTENT
EXPERTS AT UPMC ARE
EXPLORING IMMUNE
TRANSPLANT IN
COMBINATION WITH
ORGAN TRANSPLANT.
Last year Business Facilities ranked the state fourth in
bioscience R&D, and in 2017, it received the fourth-highest amount
of bioscience funding from the National Institutes of Health.
PENNSYLVANIA
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