News Releases

Penn researchers were able to accurately predict the specific genetic mutation that caused brain cancer in a group of patients studied using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

For the past decade, researchers have tried to tweak cells at the gene and nucleus level to reprogram their identity. Now, working on the idea that the signature of a cell is defined by molecules called messenger RNAs, which contain the chemical blueprint for how to make a protein, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, School of Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering have found another way to change one cell type into another.

Gerard Schellenberg, PhD, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has received an $18.3 million five-year grant from the National Institute on Aging, a division of the National Institutes of Health, to lead a genome-wide association (GWA) study to identify genes that may affect risk of Alzheimer's disease.

A collaboration of University of Pennsylvania and University of Wisconsin chemists and anesthesiologists have identified a fluorescent anesthetic compound that will assist researchers in obtaining more precise information about how anesthetics work in the body and will provide a means to more rapidly test new anesthetic compounds in the search for safer and more effective drugs.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that parasites hijack host-cell proteins to ensure their survival and proliferation, suggesting new ways to control the diseases they cause. The study, appearing this week online in Science, was led by Doron Greenbaum, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology in the Penn School of Medicine.

A new federally funded University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study aims to learn whether women at high risk of breast cancer can use exercise to meaningfully reduce their risk of getting the disease.

Over 130 third and fourth graders from the Penn Alexander School, the Samuel Powel Elementary School, and the Sterck/Delaware School for the Deaf will spend a morning on the Penn campus "judging" hands-on science activities developed by students at Penn.

In order to 'have it all' women are expected to 'do it all.' But is it at the cost of their own good health? Today, women have access to the best, most modern medicine there is, but are they accessing it for themselves? The Penn Medicine Department of Communications invites the media to a special seminar to discover the latest research and treatment strategies to help women better negotiate some of the most serious health challenges facing them today: diabetes and kidney disease; cardiovascular disease; thyroid disorders and bone loss; and gynecologic oncology. This informational luncheon and seminar features expert researchers and clinicians from Pennsylvania Hospital, Penn OB/GYN Care, and Penn Health for Women at Pennsylvania Hospital.

Even when their products are implicated in harm to patients, manufacturers of healthcare information technology (HIT) currently enjoy wide contractual and legal protection that renders them virtually "liability-free," writes Ross Koppel, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, in the March 25th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Using design and engineering principles learned from nature, a team of biochemists from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have built - from scratch - a completely new type of protein. This protein can transport oxygen, akin to human neuroglobin, a molecule that carries oxygen in the brain and peripheral nervous system. Some day this approach could be used to make artificial blood for use on the battle field or by emergency-care professionals. Their findings appear in the most recent issue of Nature.