Member Perspective: Tom Piombino, PE

Guest Commentator: Tom J. Piombino, PE, Vice President, Biotechnology and Cell and Gene Therapy Process Architect, IPS – Integrated Project Services, LLC

How has Greater Philadelphia innovated and impacted the cell and gene therapy sector?

In the last 16 months, while our country has been reawakened to systemic social injustice and has grappled with the global pandemic, I have had the privilege to work on an initiative with Cheyney University, a historically Black college founded in Philadelphia, to combine our thriving local ecosystem of cell and gene therapy with science-based higher education. The initiative, entitled the thinkUbator, looks to improve the future of an underrepresented youth whose inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness has been continuously challenged since those words of freedom were first constitutionally declared, for all, in Philadelphia in 1787.

Philadelphia is often referred to as the birthplace of freedom, an idea and innovation that when governmentally realized, has changed the modern world. 200 some odd years later, another self-evident truth would emerge as Philadelphia has taken another foundational role in history as a birthplace for cell and gene therapies. As a technologist working with companies specializing in cell and gene therapy around the world, I am fortunate to have been born, to live, and to work in a place like Philadelphia that leads with such a rich history of innovation, a resilient history that has been consistently written, and sometimes rewritten, by groups of individuals willing to discover, to self-correct, and to ultimately put their soul into bringing change to those who need it.

As you drive down Market Street in University City, one can’t help but take notice of the large number of cell therapy and gene therapy companies that have been drawn to Philadelphia and that continue to emerge from local institutions deeply rooted in scientific discovery like the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson. A workforce of thousands has developed in University City to meet disease where it is; a workforce being constantly reinforced by best-in-class academic and health care systems that have rallied around the idea and reality that if we work hard enough; if we persevere; if we put our hearts into it; if we make it personal, we can cure people of all race, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, and culture.

The global financial community often ranks cities and geographies by how much financial investment is made by private equity in that location. You’ll find Philadelphia somewhere in these rankings for increasing investment in Cell and Gene Therapy companies, but I wouldn’t stop looking there. Philadelphians are preparing the local infrastructure to support its history and growth in therapeutics. Some of the first urban based structures to be designed and constructed to vertically integrate scientific research with clinical and commercial manufacturing are in progress. People will soon live, work, and be treated within close proximity so that nothing can stand in the way of scientific good. Doing this does come at a cost, but then again, what in history worth achieving hasn’t. Philadelphia is a city born on a principle of loving one’s community and as we emerge from this pandemic, it is with love that we will continue to make scientific history for every city around the world. For scientific heart, we rank No. 1; let history dictate what else matters.