News Releases

Brian Strom, MD, MPH, George S. Pepper Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and Director of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, has been additionally appointed to the newly created positions of Vice Dean for Institutional Affairs in the School of Medicine and Senior Advisor to the Provost for Global Health Initiatives.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that new national regulations greatly limiting work hours for physicians-in-training did not lead to increased patient deaths. Analyzing over 8 million patient hospitalizations in the Medicare system and over 300,000 hospitalizations in the United States Veterans Affairs (VA) System, the Penn investigators found that duty hour regulations for medical residents in the VA System significantly improved patient mortality; yet these regulations were not associated with either significant worsening or improvement in mortality for Medicare patients. They report their findings in two studies in the September 5th issue of JAMA.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that a commonly prescribed diabetes drug kills tumor cells that lack a key regulatory gene called p53. Results from current studies in mice may result in new therapies for a subset of human cancers that tend to be aggressive and resistant to existing treatments. Additionally, the findings open up a new avenue for targeting cancers whose hallmark is the absence of this regulatory gene. The Penn team reported their findings last month in Cancer Research.

A family affected by multiple myeloma will visit the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania as part of its cross-country jaunt to raise awareness of this form of cancer. Myeloma, also called multiple myeloma, affects the production of red cells, white cells, and stem cells and is the second most common of the blood cancers affecting an estimated 75,000 people worldwide.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that proteins known to promote cell death are also necessary for the maturation and proliferation of immune cells. Activation of T-cell receptors on the surface of lymphocytes by foreign antigens initiate a calcium-mediated signaling pathway that ends in cell differentiation and growth. The Penn scientists discovered that in the cells that lack the pro-death proteins Bax and Bak, calcium signaling is disrupted and energy production is reduced. Restoration of Bax corrects the signaling problems, increases energy production, and stimulates cell division.

The 153 members of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's entering class of 2007, hailing from 31 states and 54 colleges from around the county, will be presented with the traditional 'white coat' and recite the Hippocratic Oath to mark the official beginning of their medical careers.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that a group of liver enzymes called proprotein convertases (PCs) may be the key to raising levels of good cholesterol (HDL-C). The pathway by which these proteins are able to achieve an increase in HDL cholesterol involves another enzyme that normally degrades HDL-C, and was also discovered at Penn. The newly recognized relationship between these enzymes and cholesterol represents another target for ultimately controlling good cholesterol. The study appears in the current issue of Cell Metabolism.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine recently identified how a regulatory protein called Bcl-3 helps to control the body's inflammation response to infection by interfering a critical biochemical process called ubiquitination. While previous studies suggested Bcl-3 plays a role in immunity, this is the first report that Bcl-3 regulates inflammation by blocking ubiquitination. Their findings, published in Science, open new avenues of exploration for developing therapies to treat infectious or inflammatory diseases, such as sepsis, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Good Shepherd Penn Partners (GSPP), a joint venture of Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, has named Michael J. Soisson as Executive Director.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center have begun ACT III - a Phase II/III Randomized Study - to investigate the addition of CDX-110 vaccine to standard care maintenance chemotherapy in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive form of primary brain tumor.