News Releases

David A. Asch, MD, MBA, the Robert D. Eilers Professor of Medicine and Health Care Management and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Wharton School, was presented with the Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

Among eligible Medicare beneficiaries, increased use of carotid arterial stenting (CAS) procedures to treat carotid stenosis - the narrowing of the carotid artery - is associated with higher rates of mortality and adverse clinical outcomes, including heart attack and stroke, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Arthur H. Rubenstein, MBBCh, Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System, and Dean, School of Medicine, has received the Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The award was presented on Saturday, Nov. 7, during the association's annual meeting in Boston.

In addition to building muscle, weightlifting is also a prescription for self-esteem among breast cancer survivors, according to new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research.

Penn Medicine will lead a new clinical trial at 12 sites across the nation to test whether testosterone therapy can favorably affect certain conditions affecting older men. Low serum testosterone may contribute to a number of problems affecting older men, including decreased ability to walk, loss of muscle mass and strength, decreased vitality, decreased sexual function, impaired cognition, cardiovascular disease and anemia. While testosterone normally decreases with age, in some men, low levels of testosterone may contribute to these debilitating conditions. The Testosterone Trial will involve 800 men age 65 and older with low testosterone levels.

While studying how the heart is formed, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine serendipitously found a novel cellular source of atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common type of abnormal heart beat. Jonathan Epstein, MD, William Wikoff Smith Professor, and Chair, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, and Vickas Patel, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, have identified a population of cells in the atria of the heart and pulmonary veins of humans and mice that appear to be the seat of AF. The finding may lead to a more precise way to treat AF, with reduced side effects. Their findings appear online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Proteins called HSPs (heat shock proteins) allow cells to survive stress-induced damage. Scientists have long studied how HSPs work in order to harness their therapeutic potential. Penn Medicine researchers, in collaboration with Fox Chase Cancer Center, have now identified a small molecule that inhibits the heat shock protein HSP70. They also showed that the HSP inhibitor could stop tumor formation and significantly extend survival of mice. They describe their findings in this month's issue of Molecular Cell.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are now testing a non-invasive treatment - transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) - to target overactive areas in the brain responsible for tinnitus.

Enrolling in a weight loss program with a family member or friend appears to enhance weight loss among African Americans, but only if the involved partner attends sessions frequently or also loses weight, according to a report in the October 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Born with a retinal disease that made him legally blind, and would eventually leave him totally sightless, the nine-year-old boy used to sit in the back of the classroom, relying on the large print on an electronic screen and assisted by teacher aides. Now, after a single injection of genes that produce light-sensitive pigments in the back of his eye, he sits in front with classmates and participates in class without extra help. In the playground, he joins his classmates in playing his first game of softball. His treatment represents the next step toward medical science's goal of using gene therapy to cure disease.