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Even in healthy individuals, the skin plays host to a menagerie of bacteria, fungi and viruses. Growing scientific evidence suggests that this lively community, collectively known as the skin microbiome, serves an important role in healing, allergies, inflammatory responses and protection from infection.
An ancient sink hole in eastern Tennessee holds the clues to an important transitional time in the evolutionary history of snakes. Among the fossilized creatures found there, according to a new paper co-authored by a University of Pennsylvania paleontologist, is a new species of snake that lived 5 million years ago.
Named for Friedrich Best, who characterized the disease in 1905, Best disease, also known as vitelliform macular dystrophy, affects children and young adults and can cause severe declines in central vision as patients age. The disease is one in a group of conditions known as bestrophinopathies, all linked to mutations in the BEST1 gene.
Many factors go into evaluating the prognosis of a critically ill animal, usually involving a combination of objective metrics, such as blood pressure or blood oxygenation, and more subjective clinical signs, such as alertness or lethargy.
Eleanor Hubbard, an artist and University of Pennsylvania alumna, is a firm believer in the power of serendipity. Without it, her latest exhibition, “Natural Selection: Lost Cat, Found Ox and Other Inspiring Bonds,” would have never come to be.
For a trove of examples of the rich outcomes of interdisciplinary work, look no further than Darko Stefanovski’s research portfolio.
Each year, about 2 million people contract leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease transmitted by the bite of a sand fly. The cutaneous form of the disease results in disfiguring skin ulcers that may take months or years to heal and in rare cases can become metastatic, causing major tissue damage.
If you’ve ever wondered how a vaccine given decades ago can still protect against infection, you have your plasma cells to thank. Plasma cells are long-lived B cells that reside in the bone marrow and churn out antibodies against previously encountered vaccines or pathogens.
Immunotherapies have revolutionized cancer treatment, offering hope to those whose malignancies have stubbornly survived other existing treatments. Yet solid tumor cancers are often resistant to these approaches.
Viruses and their hosts are in a eternal game of one-upmanship. If a host cell evolves a way to stop a virus from spreading, the virus will look for a new path. And so on and so forth.
Cynthia Otto of the School of Veterinary Medicine says that fentanyl can be absorbed across the mucous membranes in canine noses, causing dogs to face a life-threatening overdose.
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Louise Moncla of the Veterinary School of Medicine says that the bird flu virus is clearly being transmitted to cows in some way.
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James Serpell of the School of Veterinary Medicine says that some cats are perfectly happy within the confines of the home, while others have a greater desire to wander, explore, and investigate.
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James Serpell of the School of Veterinary Medicine says that the domestic cat suffers from its legacy of being a not-quite-wild animal on the margins of society.
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Deborah Silverstein of the School of Veterinary Medicine says that the dogs most at risk for respiratory illness are those with low immunity, such as young puppies, the unvaccinated, or older dogs, and potentially short-nosed breeds.
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