Looking to the stars

This year's Simons Observatory Collaboration conference included a community star party that consisted of a panel, a mixer with astronomers, and stargazing.

Eating healthy with Jill Joseph

How researchers and clinicians navigate social media

Sharing space to support ‘better science’

Kick back, relax, and enjoy the music

Orthopaedic implants for the future

Project grants and faculty awards from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage

New insight into autism and reward circuitry in the brain

Dental researchers identify protein key to wound healing

Sharing the science behind what we do, what we say, and how we learn

EVENTS → NEWS ARCHIVES →

Harnessing DNA tricks to boost nanosensors

Researchers have found a way to increase the sensitivity of graphene sensors using a trick of DNA engineering. The sensors might one day be used to monitor and treat HIV.

Ali Sundermier ・ June 15, 2018

With Pride Month in full swing, a look forward and back at Penn’s LGBT Center

For 35 years, the LGBT Center has been a trailblazer in academia and a resource for students, staff and their families, and helps the University navigate issues around health benefits, pronouns, and even restrooms.

Brandon Baker ・ June 14, 2018

On the training table with Emily Dorman

Emily Dorman, the head athletic trainer at Penn Athletics, supervises the overall health care of roughly 1,000 student-athletes at Penn.

Greg Johnson ・ June 14, 2018

Fine arts professor marries art and science on the Schuylkill River banks

Fine Arts lecturer Deirdre Murphy answered a call for artists for Penn's Ecotopian Toolkit project with a piece based on the migratory patterns of birds on the Schuylkill River, right in her backyard.

Brandon Baker ・ June 13, 2018

Representing slavery in children’s literature

Ebony Elizabeth Thomas of the Graduate School of Education discusses her work exploring depictions of slavery in children’s books.

Greg Johnson ・ June 13, 2018

Bioengineer takes big step forward to treating neurodegeneration

Science & Technology

A virtual world for an ancient society

Sports

Athlete and advocate discusses her work preventing sexual violence

Campus & Community

2018: The Year in Review

From Convocation to Commencement, here’s a snapshot of the 2017-18 school year.

Health Sciences

How baking soda may boost cancer therapy

Researchers describe how acidity makes oxygen-starved cancer cells dormant and drug resistant, and efforts to reduce acidity may be the key to improved responses to immunotherapy.

Science & Technology

A chemotherapy companion to save thousands of lives

A trio of Penn students created the startup Sanguis, producing an inexpensive, portable blood cell counting device.

Health Sciences

Ovarian cancer drug shows promise in pancreatic cancer patients

Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine have isolated the specific mutations that respond to FDA-approved treatments for ovarian cancer, opening up treatment options for other cancer patients who harbor those mutations.

Health Sciences

Stem cell signaling drives mammary gland development and, possibly, breast cancer

A connection between mammary stem cells and macrophages, a type of immune cell, is crucial for mammary gland development, and may also figure into the biology of breast cancer.

Health Sciences

Early-life seizures prematurely wake up brain networks tied to autism

An antiepileptic drug may keep synapses associated with autism ‘silent’ following seizures so the brain can develop normally during the critical early years of brain development.

A radical, innovative approach by a bioengineer takes a big step forward

Health Sciences

Bioengineer takes big step forward in radical approach to treating neurodegeneration

Research by D. Kacy Cullen, an associate professor of neurosurgery in the Perelman School of Medicine, could aid patients with neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson’s disease.

Penn Integrates Knowledge professor Michael Platt

Health Sciences

Oxytocin, vasopressin flatten social hierarchy and synchronize behaviors

Findings from a study of male rhesus macaques from PIK professor Michael Platt and postdoc Yaoguang Jiang could lead to treatment options for social impairments in disorders like autism and schizophrenia.

Health Sciences

Being hungry shuts off perception of chronic pain

Finding food is a necessary survival skill, but so is avoiding pain. Research led by J. Nicholas Betley and postdoctoral researcher Amber Alhadeff showed that being hungry activates a neural pathway that inhibits the sensing and responding to chronic pain. The findings offer up new targets for treating pain.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

PennDesign adds to the FREESPACE at the Venice Biennale

Members of PennDesign faculty, along with teaching assistants and students, will have installations showcased at the esteemed Venice Architecture Biennale through Nov. 25.

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Honoring the fallen: a Q&A with Ken Lum

The School of Design professor and chair of the Fine Arts Department discusses the challenge of designing a war memorial, and shares which memorials he finds most compelling.

Science & Technology

2018 Senior Design Competition winners innovate, develop, and deliver

In the annual Senior Design Project Competition, students from Penn Engineering’s six departments found solutions to real-world problems using emerging technologies.

Campus & Community

Penn Electric Racing gears up for this year’s competition with an innovative new design

Penn Electric Racing, a team of about 60 students at the University of Pennsylvania, design and build electric cars to race in the Formula SAE Electric competition each year.

Science & Technology

An innovative approach to better energy storage

A Penn/Drexel research team has engineered a way to manipulate nanomaterials to stand up vertically on a scale that has potential for industrial applications.

Science & Technology

Earthquakes at the nanoscale

Scientists have gotten better at predicting where earthquakes will occur, but they’re still in the dark about when they will strike and how devastating they will be. Penn researchers hope to tackle this by investigating the laws of friction at the smallest possible scale, the nanoscale.

Campus & Community

Tackling blindness with nanotechnology

To tackle blindness caused by open angle glaucoma, Brandon Kao, Rui Jing Jiang, and Adarsh Battu came up with Visiplate, a nanoscale ocular implant that shunts away excess fluid.

Science & Technology

Creating atomic water filters

A vast majority of the earth’s water is salty, making it unfit for people to drink. Researchers are working on a technology that could potentially offer a new method of desalinating water that would be both fast and scalable.

The New York Times

How Tech Companies Conquered America’s Cities

The School of Arts and Sciences’ Daniel Hopkins was cited for his book, “The Increasingly United States,” which proposed that contemporary American politics are more focused on “the spectacle far away” in Washington than on local issues.

FULL STORY →

The Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Looks to Superforecasting to Predict the Financial Future

The Wharton School’s Philip Tetlock helped to create Good Judgment Inc., a forecaster that measures the likelihood of global events in order to predict changes in the economy.

FULL STORY →

The New York Times

Should Statutes of Limitations for Rape Be Abolished?

Marci Hamilton of the School of Arts and Sciences provided statistics on amendments to prosecution deadlines for victims of child sexual abuse and assault.

FULL STORY →

NPR

Audio: What We Can Learn from Ghana's Obsession With Preschool

Sharon Wolf of the Graduate School of Education spoke about her work with the Ghanaian government to revamp schools in the capital city of Accra.

FULL STORY →

PhillyVoice

When to See the Doctor When You’re Traveling, and When to Suck It Up

Penn Global’s Erica Sebastian advised travelers to factor in a visit to the doctor when planning a trip, especially “if you have a chronic health condition.”

FULL STORY →

Philadelphia Inquirer

Former Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell Announces He Has Parkinson’s Disease

Penn Law alum and former Pa. Governor Edward Rendell announced his Parkinson’s diagnosis with support from Penn President Amy Gutmann and Matthew Stern, director emeritus of Penn’s Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center.

FULL STORY →

Chronicle of Higher Education

How Serious Are You About Diversity Hiring?

The Graduate School of Education’s Marybeth Gasman discussed the disconnect between universities’ messaging on diversity and the realities of their hiring practices and treatment of faculty of color.

FULL STORY →

Philadelphia Inquirer

South Street Curfew Criminalizes Normal Youth Behavior

Lelabari Giwa of the Law School weighed in on a South Street corridor curfew, which she believes “unfairly targets and disparately impacts young people of color from poor families.”

FULL STORY →

Nature

Microsoft’s Purchase of GitHub Leaves Some Scientists Uneasy

Post-doc Daniel Himmelstein of the Perelman School of Medicine discussed problematic elements of GitHub’s model. “Regardless of the Microsoft acquisition, GitHub, as a centralized and closed company, possesses a dangerous level of control over the open-source ecosystem,” said Himmelstein.

FULL STORY →

Philadelphia Inquirer

After Trump G-7 Blast, Tension Hangs Over July NATO Meeting, Efforts to Deter Russia

Perry World House Fellow Derek Chollet and the School of Arts and Sciences’ Mitchell Orenstein offered commentary on the Trump administration’s relationships with U.S. allies.

FULL STORY →

Astronomy Night

Animus Concert

Reelblack

Maker Faire

The Latest

Harnessing DNA tricks to boost nanosensors

With Pride Month in full swing, a look forward and back at Penn’s LGBT Center

On the training table with Emily Dorman

Fine arts professor marries art and science on the Schuylkill River banks

Representing slavery in children’s literature

Inside Penn

Upcoming Events See all →

Multimedia

2018 Penn Commencement

Featured

Campus & Community

2018: The Year in Review

From Convocation to Commencement, here’s a snapshot of the 2017-18 school year.

Big Ideas

How baking soda may boost cancer therapy

A chemotherapy companion to save thousands of lives

Ovarian cancer drug shows promise in pancreatic cancer patients

Stem cell signaling drives mammary gland development and, possibly, breast cancer

Early-life seizures prematurely wake up brain networks tied to autism

Bioengineer takes big step forward in radical approach to treating neurodegeneration

Oxytocin, vasopressin flatten social hierarchy and synchronize behaviors

Being hungry shuts off perception of chronic pain

PennDesign adds to the FREESPACE at the Venice Biennale

Honoring the fallen: a Q&A with Ken Lum

2018 Senior Design Competition winners innovate, develop, and deliver

Penn Electric Racing gears up for this year’s competition with an innovative new design

An innovative approach to better energy storage

Earthquakes at the nanoscale

Tackling blindness with nanotechnology

Creating atomic water filters

Penn in the NewsSee all →

How Tech Companies Conquered America’s Cities

Wall Street Looks to Superforecasting to Predict the Financial Future

Should Statutes of Limitations for Rape Be Abolished?

Audio: What We Can Learn from Ghana's Obsession With Preschool

When to See the Doctor When You’re Traveling, and When to Suck It Up

Former Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell Announces He Has Parkinson’s Disease

How Serious Are You About Diversity Hiring?

South Street Curfew Criminalizes Normal Youth Behavior

Microsoft’s Purchase of GitHub Leaves Some Scientists Uneasy

After Trump G-7 Blast, Tension Hangs Over July NATO Meeting, Efforts to Deter Russia