The Penn Vasculitis Center: A Leader in Vasculitis

Welcome to the Penn Vasculitis Center

Our mission is to provide comprehensive, high-quality, and compassionate care to patients with vasculitis, provide education and support to our patients, and advance our understanding of vasculitis through research. We are embedded in a top-tier academic institution, the University of Pennsylvania.

Our Research

The Penn Vasculitis Center is at the forefront of cutting-edge clinical and translational research. Penn is the coordinating center for the Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium (VCRC), a group of over 100 academic medical centers worldwide and patient-support organizations dedicated to improving the lives of patients with vasculitis through clinical research.

The Penn Vasculitis Center has either led or participated in almost every major clinical trial in vasculitis conducted and continues to direct innovative studies to advance our knowledge of vasculitis. The success of the Penn Vasculitis Center is a testament to the patients and donors dedicated to progressing the field of vasculitis.

Under the direction of Dr. Peter Merkel, The University of Pennsylvania houses the VCRC Biospecimen Repository. The Repository contains biological specimens collected from patients participating in VCRC studies around the world. Specimens are stored for future research to discover better biomarkers of disease activity, organ damage, and prognosis including risk of disease flare.