In 2017, fentanyl surpassed heroin as the leading drug involved in overdose deaths, increasing from 57 percent of opioid-related deaths in 2016 to 84 percent in 2017.
On a busy summer evening, six patients were brought by EMS transport to the emergency department at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center for suspected overdose of crack cocaine, which, unbeknownst to the patients, had been mixed with fentanyl. Within four days, ED providers treated 12 more patients with the same life-threatening overdose symptoms. For senior resident Utsha Khatri,it was clear something was wrong. Khatri’s actions set off a chain reaction among ED leadership, Philadelphia’s Poison Center, and the Department of Health, and resulted in a coordinated rapid response that helped to stem the influx of overdose patients in just a few days.
Khatri and Jeanmarie Perrone,a professor of emergency medicine and director of Medical Toxicology, share how things unfolded that weekend, lessons learned, and how their actions can serve as a model for other hospitals on the front lines of fighting the opioid epidemic.
Novel plant-based approach to a better, cheaper GLP-1 delivery system
Research led by Penn Dental’s Henry Daniell investigates the use of a lettuce-based, plant-encapsulated delivery platform as a new oral delivery of two GLP-1 drugs previously approved by the FDA in injectable form.
No brain, no gain: Neuronal activity enhances benefits of exercise
Research led by Penn neuroscientist J. Nicholas Betley and collaborators finds that hypothalamic neurons are essential for translating physical exertion into endurance, potentially opening the door to exercise-mimicking therapies.
In honor of Valentine's Day, and as a way of fostering community in her Shakespeare in Love course, Becky Friedman took her students to the University Club for lunch one class period. They talked about the movie "Shakespeare in Love," as part of a broader conversation on how Shakespeare's works are adapted.
In Becky Friedman’s English course Shakespeare in Love, undergraduate students analyze language, genre, and adaptation in the Bard’s plays through the lens of love.
Beating the heat: Designing cooling for bodies in motion
Dorit Aviv, director of Weitzman’s Thermal Architecture Lab, studies how humans, technology, and design intersect, paving the way for the development of novel approaches to cooling people efficiently.
