Veterinary Medicine

When Zoey the cockapoo developed a fear of the dark, her owner, Adam Weitz, sought a veterinary ophthalmologist. The grim news was that Zoey had progressive retinal atrophy (PRA), a category of genetic, blindness-causing diseases that have no cure. Zoey would be totally blind in two years, he was told.

The School of Dental Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, and School of Veterinary Medicine marked the start of the semester with white coat ceremonies for their students.

Two dozen Penn Vet students unveiled the original research they conducted as funded participants in the National Institutes of Health(NIH)/Boehringer Ingelheim Summer Research Program at the annual Veterinary Scholars Symposium in Spokane, Washington in August.

A team of experts at Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine stabilized and diagnosed a tricky disease through teamwork and quick action.

A new Penn Vet study aims to shed light on honeybees’ foraging habits, with an eye toward aiding their survival.

In a new study led by Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, researchers have found that mitochondrial dysfunction in the blood-brain barrier may lead to neuropsychiatric disease in some patients with 22qDS. The researchers also demonstrate that a class of FDA-approved cholesterol drugs could potentially be repurposed to treat this dysfunction.

The efficient delivery of synthetic mRNA to the retina has been a barrier to mRNA-based treatments for vision loss. A new study from Penn Vet has found that coating mRNA-lipid complexes (lipoplexes) with polyethylene glycol (PEG)-lipid derivatives can enhance their stability and penetration into retinal tissue.

Penn Vet researchers have identified metabolic stress as an obstacle to cell transplants, highlighting a critical window for cell-based retinal repair.

A new study by a team of vision scientists from the Division of Experimental Retinal Therapies at Penn Vet, led by William A. Beltran, have worked to demonstrate that a novel surgical tool used previously in gene and cell therapy clinical trials can place therapies directly beneath the retina using a minimally invasive approach.

Thomas Parsons, Marie A. Moore Endowed Chair and director of Penn Vet’s Swine Teaching and Research Center, has pioneered a more efficient, humane way to feed mother pigs. Daniel Foy is the co-founder and CEO of the tech firm AgriGates, a Philadelphia firm that is turning technology into a next-generation tool for raising and managing livestock. The two are among the first recipients of Pennsylvania’s new Agricultural Innovation Grants, among 88 innovators from 45 counties that put forth cutting-edge solutions and technologies to move Pennsylvania agriculture into the future.