Yale School of Medicine Gifted $2.5 Million to Advance Autoimmune Research and Strengthen Global Consortium

Yale School of Medicine (YSM) has received a $2.5 million gift from the Colton Foundation to advance the work of the Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Yale and the Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity. The consortium is a global partnership among the four Colton Centers at Yale, the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), New York University (NYU), and Tel Aviv University (TAU).

“We are grateful to the Colton Foundation for their vision and philanthropic support,” says Nancy J. Brown, MD, the Jean and David W. Wallace Dean of Yale School of Medicine. “This gift enables Yale School of Medicine to recruit faculty focused on autoimmunity and translational immunology, foster multi-institution collaboration with physicians and scientists across the Colton Consortium, and advance research toward novel treatments and cures.”

Autoimmune diseases—including type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, Graves’ disease, and celiac disease—vary widely in symptoms and severity yet share a common driver: an immune system that mistakenly attacks the body’s own tissues, producing inflammation and damage. More than 80 autoimmune diseases have been identified, affecting an estimated 23.5 million people in the United States; prevalence continues to rise.

Founded in 2020, the mission of the Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Yale is to identify and nurture research leading to cures—supporting early-stage, high-potential ideas and studies needed to move discoveries toward new diagnostics and treatments. The center is directed by Joseph Craft, MD, Paul B. Beeson Professor of Medicine (Rheumatology) and professor of immunobiology, whose career has been devoted to understanding and treating autoimmune diseases, particularly SLE. To date, the Colton Center has received more than 300 research proposals, including 62 this year alone.

“This gift allows us to do more at the Colton Center,” says Craft. “We’ve accomplished a great deal because of the Coltons’ generosity with the initial gift. With this additional support, we can foster the development of the consortium and do more together. The plan is for the consortium to be sustained. This is not limited to the duration of the gift; it’s beyond that.”

Craft first met philanthropists Judy and Stewart Colton seven years ago through his work at NYU. He served on an advisory committee for the Colton Center at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, which the couple founded in 2014.

That relationship soon evolved into a bold opportunity for YSM. As the Coltons looked beyond a single-center model, Craft says, “They decided to expand the footprint of the Colton Centers beyond NYU. In 2019, they asked me if Yale would be willing to host a Colton Center, and they would fund it.”

The Coltons’ approach to philanthropy has not been limited to supporting strong science within a single institution. Craft describes their broader move—the creation of a consortium spanning four centers at Yale, Penn, NYU, and TAU—as unprecedented in the autoimmunity field.

“They decided to expand the Colton Centers and form a consortium of autoimmunity centers under the Colton umbrella,” says Craft. “So, there were subsequent centers named at the University of Pennsylvania in 2021 and Tel Aviv University in 2022.”

Craft describes the Colton Consortium for Autoimmunity model as unique. “As a scientific community, we need to continue to collaborate. However, it’s hard for academicians to work across institutions,” he adds, citing differences in culture, regulation, and funding mechanisms. “We’re able to do it, but in essence, Stewart and Judy forced us to do it.”

That pressure is intentional—and productive. “The consortium is designed so that four academic institutions work together and leverage the intellectual resources of all four to advance our understanding and treatment of autoimmune diseases that are common and increasing in incidence,” says Craft. “It’s an international collaboration with first-rate investigators, scientists, and physicians in the U.S. and at Tel Aviv.”

The new gift will be allocated across three key areas, each designed to expand impact at YSM while strengthening the consortium.

A Director’s Fund for innovative ideas in autoimmunity

A portion of the gift will support a Director’s Fund focused on innovation. “The Director’s Fund is for innovative ideas in autoimmunity,” Craft explains, noting that the specifics will be shaped by the center’s leadership as opportunities emerge.

For Craft, the Director’s Fund aligns with a lifelong scientific and clinical focus. He joined the YSM faculty in 1985, served as chief of rheumatology for 28 years, and has spent four decades studying autoimmunity, with particular attention to SLE, “a very common autoimmune disease in young women.” While progress has been substantial, he says, “more needs to be done,” and the center will devote resources accordingly—especially where Yale’s strengths can connect with parallel expertise at the other Colton Centers.

Faculty recruitment to strengthen human autoimmunity and translational immunology

The gift will also support recruitment of additional faculty focused on autoimmune disease, especially research grounded in human autoimmunity and human translational immunology.

“This allows us to recruit additional faculty, someone who can advance the field in human autoimmunity,” says Craft. While animal and model systems remain essential, he emphasizes the importance of strengthening the workforce that can bridge mechanisms to human disease. The recruitment is intentionally not constrained by departmental boundaries: “It’s not meant to be a person who’s necessarily in a particular department; rather, we want the best person wherever they fit.”

Beyond scientific excellence, Craft highlights a second criterion that mirrors the consortium’s ethos: the ability to collaborate broadly—within YSM and beyond—to move the field forward.

Collaborative research to power the four-center consortium, plus a monogenic disease priority

“The third area is explicitly designed to deepen multi-institution work through a consortium initiative with three parts,” Craft explains.

First, the centers will co-fund multi-institutional projects that include investigators from all four institutions and focus squarely on autoimmunity—an intentional structure designed to foster collaboration.

Second, the consortium will launch an extramural request for applications, enabling investigators at YSM, Penn, NYU, or TAU to apply in partnership with collaborators outside the four-center network—expanding the consortium’s footprint and bringing in “new ideas, new resources,” according to Craft.

Third, the consortium will prioritize a program focused on monogenic autoimmune diseases. At YSM, this effort is led by Carrie Lucas, PhD, associate professor of immunobiology.

“Collaboration becomes real not when people merely share ideas, but when institutions jointly invest in them,” Craft says.

Craft shares why philanthropic support is essential. “Philanthropy allows us to do something we wouldn’t otherwise do,” he says. “In research, that ‘something’ is often the high-risk work that cannot yet promise predictable results—but is necessary for true breakthroughs.”