Michele W. Berger

Penn Nursing’s innovation ecosystem

In the past five years, the school has been intentional about creating an atmosphere that rewards risk-taking and supports failures. It’s led to story slams and accelerators and a shift to an innovation-centric mindset.

Michele W. Berger

How have new social norms emerged as COVID-19 has spread?

In a study of nine countries, researcher Cristina Bicchieri found that motivating people to modify behavior requires changing their expectations about the actions and thoughts of those who matter to them.

Michele W. Berger

Crowd-sourcing optogenetics data to tackle neurological diseases

The specialized field of neuroscience, optogenetics, shows clinical promise for conditions like epilepsy and Parkinson’s. But before human trials can get fully underway, the field must better understand a crucial intermediate step, aided by 45 labs in nine countries sharing information.

Michele W. Berger

U.S. COVID deaths may be underestimated by 36%

The research team found that more of these deaths occurred in places with greater income inequality, more non-Hispanic Black residents, and other factors indicating a pattern related to socioeconomic disadvantage and structural racism.

Michele W. Berger