Who, What, Why: Sociologist Wendy Roth on genetic ancestry tests and race perception

With funding from the National Institutes of Health, Roth plans to explore how people view others who change their racial identity based on results from at-home DNA kits.

A pile of zines read things like, "uneven skin...," "lose weight fast," and "I'm not going to change my mind."

‘My body belongs to me???’: Students question media messaging in an Annenberg course

dental student in gown, gloves, and mask works on a patient in a dental chair

A growing focus on equitable oral care for people with disabilities

Announcement

Penn COVID-19 Response

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Pre-pandemic conspiratorial mindset predicted hesitance to accept COVID-19 vaccine

Marci Hamilton works to prevent child sex abuse globally

Sayin selected Ivy Offensive Player of the Week

What U.S. adults know and believe about polio and the bivalent COVID booster

Tuskegee-Penn partnership advances Black preservation

Home health care—a crucial edge for the future of medicine

Jewish history scholar talks antisemitism in today’s world

EVENTS → NEWS ARCHIVES →

Wes Alvers and Jake Muscato stand amid piles of folded clothing

The LGBT Center’s new Clothing Closet

A new partnership between Wellness at Penn and the LGBT Center offers a sustainable way for students, faculty, staff, and community members to recycle outfits and shop for new ones.

Kristina García ・November 21, 2022

A pink stained microscopic image shows the round structure of adrenal organoids growing together

Recreating the adrenal gland in a petri dish

A School of Veterinary Medicine–led team coaxed stem cells to take on the characteristics and functions of a human adrenal gland, progress that could lead to new therapies for adrenal insufficiencies and a deeper understanding of the genetics of such disorders.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・November 21, 2022

At the Tse Center, two fencers face off during a bout.

Penn fencers prevail against nation’s top teams

The men’s and women’s fencing teams both played lights out at the Elite Invitational on Saturday at the Tse Center.

Greg Johnson ・November 21, 2022

Going beyond the binary in historical explorations of sex and gender

Beans Velocci of the School of Arts & Sciences explores how sex and gender have been shaped and categorized through history—and the consequences of those constructions taking on the guise of scientific and medical fact.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・November 20, 2022

Vikram Balasubramanian standing in front of a leafy hedge wearing a suit and tie

Penn fourth-year Vikram Balasubramanian named George J. Mitchell Scholar

Fourth-year Vikram Balasubramanian, a double-major in statistics and philosophy in the Wharton School and the College of Arts and Sciences, has been selected as one of 12 in the nation to receive a George J. Mitchell Scholarship, which covers one academic year of graduate study in Ireland or Northern Ireland.

Louisa Shepard ・November 20, 2022

Penn’s ninth president

The inauguration of Liz Magill included an academic procession, ceremony, academic symposium, and picnic and concert.

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Historical keys used in Penn president inaugurations on a velvet bag on a table.

Campus & Community

Keys to knowledge: Penn presidential inaugural traditions

Health Sciences

Meeting a ‘generational challenge’: Feeding the world and doing it sustainably

penn president liz magill at start of 5k race

Campus & Community

Red and blue pride to last a lifetime

Campus & Community

Penn plans for Tomorrow, Together

President Liz Magill launches University-wide collaborative effort to inform strategic next steps.

A few people walk along a mountainside as some vegetation regrows after a wildfire

Science & Technology

Physics of disaster: How mudslides move

Researchers led by Douglas Jerolmack and Paulo Arratia used samples from the deadly 2018 Montecito mudslides to understand the complex forces at work in these disasters.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

New Penn Global program fosters ethical research around the world

The first student cohort of the Penn Global Research Institute piloted the program this summer in the Galápagos.

jared farmer sitting on a bench on college green

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

A modern history of ancient trees, through the lens of climate change

Historian Jared Farmer discusses his new book, “Elderflora,” looking at why humans have no trouble looking at the ancient past but can’t seem to envision the deep future, and what trees can teach us.

Health Sciences

Meeting a ‘generational challenge’: Feeding the world and doing it sustainably

With the launch of the Center for Stewardship Agriculture and Food Security, the School of Veterinary Medicine is working “to make animal agriculture part of a solution to a more resilient, sustainable, and equitable future.”

Education, Business, & Law

Do vaccine lotteries work?

Wharton’s Katy Milkman shares the lessons learned from last year’s Philly Vax Sweepstakes, a Penn-funded project designed to evaluate ways of increasing COVID-19 vaccinations in the city.

A gloved hand holds a petri dish filled with green colored tablets. Plants in containers are shown in the background

Health Sciences

Chewing to curb COVID

Penn Medicine will conduct a new clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a chewing gum designed by School of Dental Medicine researchers to trap SARS-CoV-2 in the saliva.

A gloved hand holding a small vial of Sars-CoV2 mRNA vaccine.

Health Sciences

Behind the scenes in the lab and the future of mRNA research

Developing new vaccines and novel mRNA delivery methods, coupled with the satisfaction of mentoring and selfless dedication to medicine, inspire the work of scientists at the Weissman Lab.

Health Sciences

Severe COVID-19 increases risk of life-threatening blood clots

A new Penn study finds the clotting condition, venous thromboembolism, was more common in those hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to those hospitalized with influenza.

Health Sciences

Promising efforts to mitigate the opioid crisis

Margaret Lowenstein, an LDI senior fellow and assistant professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine discusses the increase in opioid and drug overdoses since the COVID-19 pandemic.

A put-out cigarette standing on its end, next to half of another crumpled cigarette. In the background are two whole cigarettes.

Health Sciences

Parental nicotine use and addiction risk for children

In research done using rats, Penn Nursing’s Heath Schmidt and colleagues found that males that engaged in voluntary nicotine use had offspring more likely to do so, too. Some offspring also developed impaired memory and anxiety-like behavior.

Health Sciences

Elizabeth Heller’s lab uncovers how drug addiction can create lasting changes in genes

Leading a neuroepigenetics lab at her alma mater, Heller and the work of her 10-person lab is focused on molecular brain mechanisms, aiming to uncover chronic changes that can happen and keep happening in the brain long after exposure to addictive substances ends.

Three medical personnel in face masks and shields reviewing paperworks.

Health Sciences

Overcoming barriers to treatment for opioid use disorder

New research shows that emergency departments can be a gateway to medications for opioid use disorder.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Journalist and activist Maria Ressa on ‘facts, truth, trust’

In the annual Annenberg Lecture, the Nobel Peace Prize winner discussed being the target of online attacks and what it will take to ensure that truth prevails.

Two men in suits face a large TV screen showing Pennsylvania 2022 Senate election results.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Five election takeaways

Stephanie Perry, executive director of the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies and manager for exit polls at NBC News, shares her team’s top five exit-poll analyses to help explain what happened.

Tulia Falleti, Melissa Teixeira, and Marilene Felinto seated at a table addressing an audience.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Brazil’s presidential election

Three experts share their thoughts on Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva’s defeat of right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, and what it means for Latin America’s largest democracy.

Voting booth with a picture of an American flag on it, with other curtained booths behind it in alternating red and blue

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Election Day 2022

In what is sure to be an historic election, Penn Today looks back at the stories it published in the months and days leading to the midterms.

Bloomberg

A green investment treaty can help close the climate funding gap

In an Op-Ed, William Burke-White of Penn Carey Law proposes a new type of international treaty that would protect climate-friendly private foreign investments.

FULL STORY →

KQED Radio (San Francisco)

How Twitter became one of the world’s preferred platforms for sharing ideas

PIK Professor Desmond Upton Patton says that Twitter has issues that need to be fixed, but that the tool has more hope and potential than negativity.

FULL STORY →

CNBC

These are the daily behaviors an expert in sleep medicine does to get the best night’s rest

Richard Schwab of the Perelman School of Medicine suggests some daily behaviors that can contribute to a good night’s sleep, including his own sleep routines.

FULL STORY →

Jewish Exponent

New Penn Museum exhibit adds context to Jewish history

The new Eastern Mediterranean Gallery at the Penn Museum expands the context of Jewish history, with quotes from Director Christopher Woods and Lauren Ristvet of the School of Arts & Sciences.

FULL STORY →

New Scientist

Lab-grown adrenal glands could help treat hormone-related conditions

Kotaro Sasaki of the School of Veterinary Medicine and colleagues have grown adrenal glands from stem cells in the lab for the first time.

FULL STORY →

Slate.com

The Clinton-era adoption law that still devastates Black families today

In an Op-Ed, PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts urges the repeal of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 for its negative impact on Black families.

FULL STORY →

Philadelphia Inquirer

Affirmative action is about diversity. But campuses won’t allow diverse opinions about it

In an Op-Ed, Jonathan Zimmerman of the Graduate School of Education urges universities to encourage open and honest dialogues about affirmative action.

FULL STORY →

Philadelphia Inquirer

Why the tourniquet, a relic from the earliest days of medicine, is back amid the gun violence epidemic

Lewis J. Kaplan and Elinore Kaufman of the Perelman School of Medicine discuss the use of tourniquets to close off blood vessels and stanch wounds from bullets and IEDs.

FULL STORY →

WHYY (Philadelphia)

Penn Museum unveils a new look at the ancient Mediterranean world

Virginia Herrmann, Joanna Smith, and Director Christopher Woods of the Penn Museum discuss the history behind the artifacts of the new Eastern Mediterranean Gallery.

FULL STORY →

KYW Radio (Philadelphia)

‘Real, funny, engaging and serious’: Pa. Gen Z voters on what they want in politicians beyond the 2022 midterms

Second-year Liam Hoare in the College of Arts and Sciences thinks that social media will play a large role in how candidates promote themselves in the future.

FULL STORY →

Penn Chamber Music

WXPN 1990s Dance Party

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The LGBT Center’s new Clothing Closet

Recreating the adrenal gland in a petri dish

Penn fencers prevail against nation’s top teams

Going beyond the binary in historical explorations of sex and gender

Penn fourth-year Vikram Balasubramanian named George J. Mitchell Scholar

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Penn’s ninth president

Featured

Campus & Community

Penn plans for Tomorrow, Together

President Liz Magill launches University-wide collaborative effort to inform strategic next steps.

Big Ideas

Physics of disaster: How mudslides move

New Penn Global program fosters ethical research around the world

A modern history of ancient trees, through the lens of climate change

Meeting a ‘generational challenge’: Feeding the world and doing it sustainably

Do vaccine lotteries work?

Chewing to curb COVID

Behind the scenes in the lab and the future of mRNA research

Severe COVID-19 increases risk of life-threatening blood clots

Promising efforts to mitigate the opioid crisis

Parental nicotine use and addiction risk for children

Elizabeth Heller’s lab uncovers how drug addiction can create lasting changes in genes

Overcoming barriers to treatment for opioid use disorder

Journalist and activist Maria Ressa on ‘facts, truth, trust’

Five election takeaways

Brazil’s presidential election

Election Day 2022

Penn in the NewsSee all →

A green investment treaty can help close the climate funding gap

How Twitter became one of the world’s preferred platforms for sharing ideas

These are the daily behaviors an expert in sleep medicine does to get the best night’s rest

New Penn Museum exhibit adds context to Jewish history

Lab-grown adrenal glands could help treat hormone-related conditions

The Clinton-era adoption law that still devastates Black families today

Affirmative action is about diversity. But campuses won’t allow diverse opinions about it

Why the tourniquet, a relic from the earliest days of medicine, is back amid the gun violence epidemic

Penn Museum unveils a new look at the ancient Mediterranean world

‘Real, funny, engaging and serious’: Pa. Gen Z voters on what they want in politicians beyond the 2022 midterms