Research Highlights
For more news highlights about basic science research at PennMedicine, see the PennMedicine Benchmarks e-newsletter.
- Five Penn Professors Named AAAS Fellows
30 Nov 2012
Five faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. - Penn Study Finds Residents Believe Vacant Land Threatens Community, Physical and Mental Health
30 Nov 2012
A new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania uses in-depth interviews with local residents to examine perspectives on how vacant land affects community, physical, and mental health. - Penn Team Identifies Molecular Root of "Exhausted" T Cells in Chronic Viral Infection
29 Nov 2012
A new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, suggests a novel therapeutical approach that might be used to shift the balance of power in chronic infections. The study appears in the November 30 issue of Science. - Penn Scientist Named First Director of New Center for Orphan Disease Research and Therapy
28 Nov 2012
H. Lee Sweeney, Ph.D., the William Maul Measey Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, has been named the inaugural director of Penn’s Center for Orphan Disease Research and Therapy. - Penn-Temple Team Discovers What Keeps a Cell's Energy Source Going
26 Nov 2012
In a new paper out this week in Nature Cell Biology, the same Penn-Temple team describe a new protein and its function. Like MICU1, this new protein, MCUR1, interacts physically with MCU, the uniporter calcium ion channel within the mitochondria. - Penn Medicine Physician Awarded 2012 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Recipient by American Association for Women Radiologists
26 Nov 2012
Parvati Ramchandani, MD, section chief, Genitourinary (GU) Radiology, Professor of Radiology and Surgery, was selected by the American Association for Women Radiologists (AAWR) as the 2012 recipient of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award for outstanding contributions to the field of radiology. - Pathway Identified in Human Lymphoma Points Way to New Blood Cancer Treatments
21 Nov 2012
Research shows for the first time that the UPR is active in patients with human lymphomas and mice genetically bred to develop lymphomas. - Yeast Protein Breaks up Amyloid Fibrils and Disordered Protein Clumps In Different Ways
16 Nov 2012
Heat Shock Protein Hsp104 could be developed to eliminate toxic clumps linked with neurodegenerative diseases. - Parkinson's Disease Protein Causes Disease Spread and Neuron Death in Healthy Animals
15 Nov 2012
After several years of incremental study, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania have been able to piece together important steps in how Parkinson's disease (PD) spreads from cell to cell and leads to nerve cell death. - Penn Medicine Receives NIH Grant to Help Residents of Local Communities Move Forward After Asbestos Exposure
15 Nov 2012
To help empower residents to shape the future of their communities, and explain the potential consequences associated with asbestos exposure, researchers at the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET), Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, have been awarded a $1.2 million grant to develop an educational program using the communities' history of asbestos products manufacturing and resulting asbestos exposure. - Penn Study Decodes Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Stem Cell Reprogramming
15 Nov 2012
Now, thanks to some careful detective work by a team of scientists led by Kenneth Zaret, PhD, at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, researchers can better understand just how iPS cells form – and why the Yamanaka process is so inefficient, an important step to work out for regenerative medicine. - Invitation to Cover: Penn Medicine Launches Combat to Care Campaign to Help Our Nation's Veterans
14 Nov 2012
In recognition of Veteran’s Day this November, Penn Medicine proudly sponsors Joining Forces – a national initiative to heighten awareness about the health needs of our nation’s veterans, service members and families, and elevate the role that medical schools, nursing schools and teaching hospitals play in serving their community. - Targeting Downstream Proteins in Cancer-Causing Pathway Shows Promise in Cell, Animal Model, Penn Study Finds
13 Nov 2012
Using Myc-active neuroblastoma cancer cells, a team led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator M. Celeste Simon, Ph.D., scientific director for the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute (AFCRI), identified the proteins PUMA, NOXA, and TRB3 as executors of the glutamine-starved cells. - NIH Awards Penn Scientists $10 million Over Five Years for Innovative Research on Single Cells
13 Nov 2012
James Eberwine, PhD, Elmer Holmes Bobst Professor of Pharmacology in the Perelman School of Medicine, and Junhyong Kim, PhD, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor of Biology in the School of Arts and Sciences, will be studying the role of how messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules vary in their function in individual cells with a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). - Invitation to Cover: Health Policy After the 2012 Election
9 Nov 2012
U.S. Representative Allyson Y. Schwartz, a leading health care reform expert and Pennsylvania’s only female congressional representative, will speak about these and other issues on Friday at the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. - Chronically Critically Ill: Penn Physicians Discuss Patients' Regrets About Medical Decisions
8 Nov 2012
In a new Perspective essay appearing in the November 8th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, two physicians from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, discuss unique challenges faced by patients and their families in decisions to undergo major medical and surgical procedures. - Fat-derived Stem Cells Hold Potential for Regenerative Medicine
8 Nov 2012
PHILADELPHIA — As researchers work on reconfiguring cells to take on new regenerative properties, a new review from Penn Medicine plastic surgeons sheds additional light on the potential power of adipose-derived stem cells - or adult stem cells harvested from fatty tissue - in reconstructive and regenerative medicine. - Penn Medicine Contest Maps 1,400 Lifesaving AEDs Via Crowdsourcing Contest Fueled by Smart Phones
4 Nov 2012
A crowdsourcing contest that sent hundreds of Philadelphians to locate and catalog the locations of AEDs throughout the nation's fifth largest city led to the identification of more than 1,400 automated external defibrillators in public places, according to a study from researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be presented today at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2012. - Penn Medicine Expert to Receive American Heart Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in Cardiac Resuscitation Science
4 Nov 2012
Lance Becker, MD, a professor of Emergency Medicine and director of the Center for Resuscitation Science at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, will receive the American Heart Association's 2012 Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cardiac Resuscitation Science during the organization's annual Scientific Sessions. - Penn Medicine's Daniel J. Rader, MD, Receives American Heart Association's Clinical Research Prize
4 Nov 2012
Daniel J. Rader, MD, professor of Medicine and chief, Division of Translational Medicine and Human Genetics, at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been awarded the American Heart Association's (AHA) Clinical Research Prize for developing new methods to identify factors regulating the metabolism of fat particles in the bloodstream and testing their impact on the development of atherosclerosis. - Penn Medicine Announces New Advanced Care Hospital Pavilion and Trauma Center at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center
2 Nov 2012
Penn Medicine announced today plans to begin the second part of an expansion project that will transform and modernize the advanced care services provided at the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC) campus. - New Medication Shows Promise as Lipid-Lowering Therapy for Rare Cholesterol Disorder, Penn Study Finds
2 Nov 2012
An international effort led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has resulted in positive phase 3 clinical trial results for a new medicine to treat patients suffering from a rare and deadly cholesterol disorder. - Softening Arteries, Protecting the Heart: Penn Study Shows Underlying Connection Between "Good" Cholesterol and Collagen in Heart Health
1 Nov 2012
Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Wistar Institute, and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have discovered that the protein apolipoprotein E (apoE) plays a major role in maintaining arterial softness by suppressing production of the extracellular matrix, a network of connective tissue in the body. - Penn Researchers Find Error Reporting Improves Perceptions of Safety and May Reduce Incidents
31 Oct 2012
Documenting adverse events improves perceptions of safety and may decrease incidents in multi-site clinical practices, according to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.