The immune health future, today

Breaking the code of the immune system could provide a new fundamental way of understanding, treating, and preventing every type of disease. Penn Medicine is investing in key discoveries about immunity and immune system function, and building infrastructure, to make that bold idea a reality.

Erol Akçay, Michael Mann, Zinta Zommers, and Simon Richter seat4ed on stage in front of a crowd.

The crisis of climate-driven extinction

A person in a wheelchair with their hands folded in their lap.

Spiritual coping behaviors may be key to enhanced trauma recovery of Black men who survive firearm injury

Inflammatory bowel disease linked to atopic dermatitis

Something for everyone at Penn’s Friends and Family Day

Conflicts and cultural evolution: All for one and one for all?

Brigitte Weinsteiger appointed interim director of the Penn Libraries

Deans of health schools discuss climate change in their fields

An unsolved mystery: Why are we sleepy when sick?

How to encourage student attendance

EVENTS → NEWS ARCHIVES →

Students discussing their posters at the CURF poster expo.

By the Numbers: Undergraduates share their research

Work by a record 436 students was featured in the Fall Research Expo sponsored by the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.

Louisa Shepard ・September 19, 2023

A group of people cluster around Mira Nair at the Penn Museum with the Sphinx in the background.

Filmmaker Mira Nair’s approach to storytelling

As a Saluja Global Fellow at the Center for the Advanced Study of India, filmmaker Mira Nair gave a lecture at the Penn Museum on art, storytelling, and filmmaking.

Kristina García ・September 19, 2023

Penn undergrad Claire Jun gestures to the sign on the front of the building in Seoul, South Korea where she interned this summer.

Fellowship in South Korea offers language benefits, cultural reconnection

Third-year student Claire Jun used her FLAS fellowship this summer to participate in the study abroad program at Yonsei University and a health-policy internship at the National Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service.

Kristen de Groot ・September 18, 2023

Members of the volleyball team high five after a big play.

Quakers slay NJIT

Boosted by 57 kills, volleyball team beat the Highlanders on Saturday in the Delaware State Tournament.

Greg Johnson ・September 18, 2023

Tyler, Paula, and Claudia posing at bottom of staircase.

Tracking parental leisure time and ‘intensive mothering’

Paula Fomby, a professor of sociology in the School of Arts & Sciences, worked with a team of PURM students over the summer to analyze time-use data of parents from 1965 to 2019.

Brandon Baker ・September 15, 2023

Climate Week 2023 highlights the links between biodiversity and the climate crisis

A parent hugs their Penn student on Move-In day.

Campus & Community

Making a home away from home at Penn

Science & Technology

Nudge Cartography: Building a map to navigate behavioral research

students sit in franklin field during convocation 2023

Campus & Community

At Convocation, students encouraged to take a ‘fisheye’ view

Kicking off the University’s 284th academic year, first-year and transfer students were advised to take a wide view during at least some of their time at Penn, expanding horizons and seeing the borderless nature of knowledge.

Jazmin Ricks and high school students from Paul Robeson High School at Cobbs Creek.

Science & Technology

A hub for water innovation and leadership

As the Water Center marks five years on campus, Penn Today takes a look at its achievements, ongoing projects, and plans for the future.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Green energy transition may leave some workers behind

New research from Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice shows both potential and unequal opportunities in the green jobs market.

Dipti Pitta kneeling next to a Holstein dairy cow.

Science & Technology

Could we breed cows that emit less methane?

In a new study, researchers from the School of Veterinary Medicine identified attributes of low-methane-emitting dairy cows that could be used as targets for selective breeding.

The outside of a building in the UAE in the midday sun.

Campus & Community

China, UAE, and the race to stop climate change

A Penn Global Seminar looked at the driving forces behind China’s climate policy, and took students to the United Arab Emirates to see some of those decarbonization efforts in action.

Science & Technology

A low-cost, eco-friendly COVID test

César de la Fuente and a team of Penn engineers work on creative ways to create faster and cheaper testing for COVID-19. Their latest innovation incorporates speed and cost-effectiveness with eco-friendly materials.

Two masked medical professionals seated on the floor looking burned out.

Health Sciences

Hospital understaffing and poor work conditions associated with burnout

A new study from Penn’s School of Nursing finds that physicians and nurses experienced adverse outcomes during the pandemic and want significant improvements in their work environments and in patient safety.

Two people in a wheat field wearing masks looking at a tablet.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Comparing urban and rural excess mortality during COVID-19

The first-ever county-level study of excess mortality in the United States shows monthly excess deaths spread from large cities to rural counties in the second year of the pandemic.

A medical worker gives a person a Covid vaccine.

Health Sciences

Putting biomedical research advances within reach

Treatments and vaccines are only useful in the hands of the people who need them, and Penn Medicine is working toward better access and equity for biomedical innovations.

Science & Technology

The physics of fat droplets reveal DNA danger

Penn Engineers are the first to discover fat-filled lipid droplets’ surprising capability to indent and puncture the nucleus, the organelle which contains and regulates a cell’s DNA.

Science & Technology

For a new generation of antibiotics, scientists are bringing extinct molecules back to life

Marrying artificial intelligence with advanced experimental methods, Penn Engineering’s Machine Biology Group has mined the ancient past for future medical breakthroughs, bringing extinct molecules back to life.

Silicon wafer with chips lightinhg in neon light.

Science & Technology

SCALAR: A microchip designed to transform the production of mRNA therapeutics and vaccines

Researchers have developed a platform that could rapidly accelerate the development of mRNA-based lipid nanoparticle vaccines and therapeutics at both the small and largescale, SCALAR.

close up image of the laser cutter at the biotech commons

Campus & Community

Holman Biotech Commons meets the evolving needs of campus

Resources at the Penn Libraries’ Holman Biotech Commons are available to the entire Penn community to support research, collaboration, and innovation.

Man in laborer clothes holds shovel, smokes a pipe and looks at his paycheck by a sign reading "USA Work Program WPA"

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

‘Illusions of Progress’

A new book by historian Brent Cebul looks at the successes and failures of American liberalism, from the New Deal to the 1990s and beyond.

Political Science Ph.D. candidate Mikhail Strokan stands in front of a sign with a seal that reads "Tashkent."

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Resisting the resource curse

Political science Ph.D. candidate Mikhail Strokan’s work looks at the idea that countries abundant in such natural resources as oil and natural gas wind up struggling economically despite the bounty—and examines why some of these countries fare better than others.

Protesters both pro- and anti-choice holding signs in Washington D.C.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

One year post-Dobbs, what’s actually happened?

Four takeaways from Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences researchers in the aftermath of the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

In support of a wilder democracy

A new book from political science professor Anne Norton advocates for a system that embraces self-reliance, freedom, and courage.

The New York Times

What social media does to the teen brain

Frances Jensen of the Perelman School of Medicine examines the impact that social media is having on the brains of teenagers, the first “truly digital generation.”

FULL STORY →

Hartford Courant

Mistrust of medical professionals harms Black residents’ health. CT professionals are working to improve it

A Perelman School of Medicine study shows that distrust of the health care system is strongly connected with self-reported fair or poor health.

FULL STORY →

Philadelphia Inquirer

My brother’s recovery from a car crash became a lesson in how to talk to doctors and nurses

Emily Largent of the Perelman School of Medicine writes that communication is part of healing, as she experienced when her brother was in a car accident and unable to notify family himself.

FULL STORY →

CNBC

I lived like a monk for 48 hours, and it helped me break three of my worst habits—here’s how

Justin McDaniel of the School of Arts & Sciences explains the benefits of his class “Living Deliberately,” which requires students to observe a code of silence and abstain from using electronic communications.

FULL STORY →

Huffington Post

There’s a reason why your boyfriend or husband is obsessed with the Roman Empire

Kimberly Bowes of the School of Arts & Sciences believes that modern-day male obsession with the Roman Empire has something to do with men’s preoccupation of power.

FULL STORY →

Bloomberg

The B-School advice no one gives you

Samuel Jones and Nicolaj Siggelkow of the Wharton School offer advice for pursuing a business school degree.

FULL STORY →

Philadelphia Inquirer

In-hospital strokes like Charlie Manuel’s are common

Steven Messé of the Perelman School of Medicine has been working on a solution to a long-standing problem in stroke care and says that for a variety of reasons in-hospital strokes sometimes are not detected until hours after they occur.

FULL STORY →

The New York Times

Trump attacked me. Then Musk did. It wasn’t an accident

In an Op-Ed, Yoel Roth of the Annenberg School for Communication says that his experience of public attacks and harassment while working at Twitter was part of a larger, targeted political campaign to erode online safety and strengthen misinformation.

FULL STORY →

Philadelphia Business Journal

Penn researcher’s Every Cure nonprofit lands ‘game-changing’ support as it works to help patients with uncurable diseases

David Fajgenbaum of the Perelman School of Medicine comments on “game-changer” funding for the nonprofit Every Cure, which he co-founded.

FULL STORY →

Business Insider

Bad news, star employees: You’re not the ones who’ll benefit the most from AI

A study co-authored by Ethan Mollick of the Wharton School found that consultants who ranked below average benefitted the most from using AI technology.

FULL STORY →

1.5* Minute Climate Lectures

Why Ornament Matters

Student Climate Lectures

Social Security Benefits Planning

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By the Numbers: Undergraduates share their research

Filmmaker Mira Nair’s approach to storytelling

Fellowship in South Korea offers language benefits, cultural reconnection

Quakers slay NJIT

Tracking parental leisure time and ‘intensive mothering’

Inside Penn

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Featured

Campus & Community

At Convocation, students encouraged to take a ‘fisheye’ view

Kicking off the University’s 284th academic year, first-year and transfer students were advised to take a wide view during at least some of their time at Penn, expanding horizons and seeing the borderless nature of knowledge.

Big Ideas

A hub for water innovation and leadership

Green energy transition may leave some workers behind

Could we breed cows that emit less methane?

China, UAE, and the race to stop climate change

A low-cost, eco-friendly COVID test

Hospital understaffing and poor work conditions associated with burnout

Comparing urban and rural excess mortality during COVID-19

Putting biomedical research advances within reach

The physics of fat droplets reveal DNA danger

For a new generation of antibiotics, scientists are bringing extinct molecules back to life

SCALAR: A microchip designed to transform the production of mRNA therapeutics and vaccines

Holman Biotech Commons meets the evolving needs of campus

‘Illusions of Progress’

Resisting the resource curse

One year post-Dobbs, what’s actually happened?

In support of a wilder democracy

Penn in the NewsSee all →

What social media does to the teen brain

Mistrust of medical professionals harms Black residents’ health. CT professionals are working to improve it

My brother’s recovery from a car crash became a lesson in how to talk to doctors and nurses

I lived like a monk for 48 hours, and it helped me break three of my worst habits—here’s how

There’s a reason why your boyfriend or husband is obsessed with the Roman Empire

The B-School advice no one gives you

In-hospital strokes like Charlie Manuel’s are common

Trump attacked me. Then Musk did. It wasn’t an accident

Penn researcher’s Every Cure nonprofit lands ‘game-changing’ support as it works to help patients with uncurable diseases

Bad news, star employees: You’re not the ones who’ll benefit the most from AI