News Releases

Jason Karlawish, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and colleagues presented findings at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) from a survey of American Academy of Neurology (AAN) members that assessed how neurologists are diagnosing and treating patients with mild cognitive symptoms. Results show that neurologists regularly see and treat people with MCI, despite the fact that the medications they are prescribing are not FDA-approved for this particular diagnostic category.

The Alzheimer's Association recognized four scientists for their extraordinary achievements in advancing Alzheimer's research at its 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna, Austria. The 2009 Khalid Iqbal Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Virginia M.-Y. Lee, Ph.D., M.B.A., director of Penn's Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research. Dr. Lee's research focus includes determining the genesis and roles of various normal and abnormal brain proteins (amyloid, tau, etc.) thought to be the keys to the cause and progression of numerous brain diseases, including Alzheimer's.

Mehret Mandefro, MD, MSc, has been appointed as a 2009-2010 White House Fellow. She is a Senior Fellow at Penn's Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar. As a public health trained physician, her primary research interests are the connections between human rights and health, HIV prevention program development, and translation efforts targeting marginalized communities. Mandefro also works as an anthropologist who uses film as a medium of ethnography.

A film with roots at Penn Medicine, Alzheimer's Disease: Facing the Facts, won a 2009 Emmy for Documentary Program at the 32nd Boston/New England Emmy Award Ceremony of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The one-hour documentary examines the personal and societal impact of Alzheimer's disease, powerfully juxtaposing vignettes of families devastated by Alzheimer's with medical experts on a quest to understand, treat and prevent the disease.

Invitation to Cover: On June 27, 2009, a local father and the CC Riders will cycle from the March of Dimes home office In White Plains, NY, to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in honor of twin daughters born premature.

Understanding the molecular signals that guide early cells in the embryo to develop into different organs provides insight into ways that tissues regenerate and how stem cells can be used for new therapies. With regenerated cells, researchers hope to one day fill the acute shortage in pancreatic and liver tissue available for transplantation in cases of type I diabetes and acute liver failure.

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine scientists have been awarded $6.7 million from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to investigate the role of molecular motors in cell biology. The researchers will continue their studies of cytoskeletal motors that function in cellular processes of medical importance, including those implicated in neurological disorders and diabetes. Cytoskeletal motors are nano-scale molecular machines that drive the movements of components within cells.

In a study comparing two strains of mice, one susceptible to developing cancer and the other not, researchers found that a high-fat diet predisposed the cancer-susceptible strain to liver cancer, and that by switching to a low-fat diet early in the experiment, the same high-risk mice avoided the malignancy. The switched mice were lean rather than obese and had healthy livers at the end of the study.

Researchers have determined the structure of C3 convertase and of the C3b fragment in complex with factor H. These new structures, both involving a central component of an enzyme important to the complement system of the immune response, reveal how this system fights invading microbes while avoiding problems of the body attacking itself.

A special public health seminar, being held at Pennsylvania Hospital on June 23, 2009, invites women to discover the latest research, diagnostic and treatment strategies to help them better negotiate two of the most serious personal challenges they face throughout their lives: heart and breast health.