Amid the ongoing push from University City institutions to get more Philadelphians into STEM careers, University City Science Center’s STEM education program for teens is the recipient of nearly $4 million from the US Department of Education, the org announced this week.

First came decades of research, full of setbacks. Then lab work slowly resumed, culminating in the first drug approval in 2017, followed by two more.

Now more than 40 companies in the Philadelphia region are working in cell and gene therapy, producing a stream of new jobs and even a run on lab space.

Gene therapy, a technology to replace defective genes that cause incurable diseases with new ones, is having its moment in medicine. And Philadelphia, birthplace of many firsts in health care, has been the cradle of this one as well.