Eight months since it was first opened in January 2023, tenants at One uCity Square have high hopes for its future, writes Ryan Mulligan for The Philadelphia Business Journal.  

The 400,000-square-foot building, which houses Penn Medicine’s Institute for RNA Innovation, has been used to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and scientific breakthroughs.  

Penn professors and scientists Dr. Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó notably developed the mRNA technology that served as the foundation for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines there.  

Next spring, they will be joined by Penn Engineering’s Center for Precision Engineering for Health, where on the 10th floor, Penn’s bioengineering students and researchers will work on ways to deliver drugs to cells.   

Once complete, Penn researchers will take up more than one-fourth of the building at 115,000 square feet.  

“Having students in a building with startups, we want to see these collisions … In five years, we hope startups that come out of here have space in other buildings … we have the opportunity to grow as this community grows,” says Penn Engineering Senior Associate Dean David Meaney. 

With about 93 percent of the building leased, developers will seek to increase opportunities for collaboration. 

Learn more about how One uCity Square will be a catalyst to foster growth and innovation in The Philadelphia Business Journal.

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