Center for Cytokine Storm Treatment & Laboratory

Our Vision

The CSTL is working to create a world where all patients with Castleman disease and other cytokine storm disorders live full lives in quality and quantity thanks to effective treatments and biomarkers. We also want to ensure that no patients with cytokine storm disorders suffer when there is a treatment sitting on the pharmacy shelf.

Our Mission

The CSTL’s mission is to conduct groundbreaking translational research on Castleman disease and other cytokine storms to discover novel diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutics, identify optimal treatment approaches, and provide world-class patient care.

We are also pioneering novel approaches to drug repurposing which we are calling computational pharmacophenomics.

Our Impact

The CSTL, in partnership with the CDCN, has helped to define cytokine storm disorders, developed diagnostic criteria and treatment guidelines, identified novel biomarkers, and discovered novel disease mechanisms and treatments for Castleman disease, including several drug repurposing opportunities that have been advanced to patients, including sirolimus, ruxolitinib, and adalimumab. This work has helped thousands of patients around the world and has been profiled in the New York Times, Good Morning America, TODAY, Wall Street Journal, and more outlets.

Our Programs

Under the leadership of the CSTL Director, Dr. David Fajgenbaum, the CSTL is engaged in a number of programs:

• Basic/Translational Research: We perform biospecimen processing, immunology studies on patient samples, omic analyses, and tissue-based studies. This work is funded through an NIH R01 and philanthropic support from organizations such as the CDCN.
• Computational Research: We perform bioinformatic analyses of the data generated by the Basic Science Team. This work is funded through an NIH R01 and philanthropic support from organizations such as the CDCN. We also have an ongoing partnership with the FDA Office of Clinical Pharmacology in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.
• Clinical Research: We collect patient medical records, extract data into the ACCELERATE Castleman disease registry, and perform clinical data analyses. This work is funded through an FDA R01 and philanthropic support.
• Clinical Trials/Drug Repurposing: We enroll patients into open clinical trials (currently no open trials, next trial opening in early 2025), perform clinical trial operations, and lead drug repurposing Projects. This work is funded through an NIH R01 and a grant from Arnold Ventures.

The CSTL is a Program of Excellence of the Penn Orphan Disease Center and a partner of the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network (CDCN) and Every Cure.