News Releases

The Discovery Labs has signed a foundational lease with the University of Pennsylvania Gene Therapy Program (GTP), which will use Discovery Labs’ suburban campus for a portion of its expanding research operations focused on the development of genetic medicines for rare and orphan diseases, as well as acquired and pandemic infectious diseases, such as COVID-19.

A gene called GAS2 plays a key role in normal hearing, and its absence causes severe hearing loss, according to a study led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Humans have a uniquely high density of sweat glands embedded in their skin—10 times the density of chimpanzees and macaques. Now, researchers at Penn Medicine have discovered how this distinctive, hyper-cooling trait evolved in the human genome.

A team led by scientists at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has illuminated the functions of mysterious structures in cells called “nuclear speckles,” showing that they can work in partnership with a key protein to enhance the activities of specific sets of genes.

“One of the most exciting implications of our study is that the cilium may represent a common therapeutic target since it appears to be involved in a number of complex diseases,” said the study’s lead author, Theodore Drivas, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow and clinical associate in Internal Medicine.

With doctors and researchers around the world searching for effective treatments for COVID-19, many drugs approved to treat other diseases are being used in hopes that they’ll be effective against the virus, a use that’s known as “off-label.”

Six years ago, David C. Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, both a Penn Medicine researcher and patient, tried an experimental treatment based on his laboratory research findings in the hopes of saving his own life.

Now researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania say they know what’s happening at the cellular level of the immune system when these cytokine storms occur, and the answer not only informs future potential Castleman therapies but may also provide new insight into why similar events take place in COVID-19 patients.

It’s known that genetics, or an inherited genome, is a major determinant of one’s risk for autoimmune diseases, like Type 1 diabetes.