News Releases

A $50 million gift from philanthropists Jerome and Anne Fisher will support a new eight-story biomedical-research center at the University of Pennsylvania dedicated to the growing field of translational medicine, which emphasizes an accelerated pace for converting laboratory discoveries into medical therapies.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine will be presenting at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISCCR) as well as participating in a Workshop and an Evening Public Symposium on Stem Cell Biology. The meeting will be held from June 11-14, 2008 in Philadelphia, PA. The Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the School of Medicine Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, and the ISSCR are hosting the free Workshop and Evening Public Symposium on June 10, just prior to the scientific meeting.

Zhe Lu, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Physiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, was selected to be a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator last week. HHMI honors and supports some of the nation's most creative biomedical scientists by giving them the opportunity to tackle their most ambitious and risky research projects.

An alternative method for obstetric care, known as Active Management of Risk in Pregnancy at Term (AMOR-IPAT), has led to lower neonatal intensive care unit admission rates, higher uncomplicated vaginal birth rates, and a lower mean Adverse Outcome Index score, according to a new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and published in this month's issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered that the effect of a protein deficiency, which is the basis of the neuromuscular disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), is not restricted to motor nerve cells, suggesting that SMA is a more general disorder.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have shown how Argos, a fruit fly protein, acts as a "decoy" receptor, binding growth factors that promote the progression of cancer. Knowing how Argos neutralizes tumor growth may lead to new drug designs for inhibiting cancer.

Alice Chen-Plotkin, MD, NRSA Post-Doctorate Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, has received a Career Award for Medical Scientists from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Recently, she also received the 2008 Clinician-Scientist Development Fellowship award from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Foundation and The ALS Association.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine have shown that one of the main chemical culprits in lung cancer, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), can lead to mutations in critical genes by a process of oxidative stress.

Brian L. Strom, M.D., M.P.H., Vice Dean for Institutional Affairs, School of Medicine, and Senior Advisor to the Provost for Global Health, is the 2008 recipient of the John Phillips Memorial Award for Outstanding Work in Clinical Medicine. This award is given by the American College of Physicians (ACP) and is one of the highest awards in field of internal medicine.