One reason cancer is so difficult to treat is that it avoids detection by the body. Agents of the immune system are constantly checking the surfaces of cells for chemical signals that say they belong, but cancer cells express the same chemical signals as healthy ones. Without a way for the immune system to tell the difference, little stands in the way of cancer taking over.

Evan Lerner, Ali Sundermier ・July 6, 2017

As interventions for mental illnesses and neurological disorders are becoming increasingly powerful, an interdisciplinary group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, American University and Duke University are calling for new safeguards to guide treatments and protect patients.  

Evan Lerner, Ali Sundermier, Bryan Roth, Rebecca Basu ・July 5, 2017

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.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・June 29, 2017

The use of topical antibiotics can dramatically alter communities of bacteria that live on the skin, while the use of antiseptics has a much smaller, less durable impact.

John Infanti ・June 19, 2017

Certain pediatric leukemias share a common underlying cause with treatment-related secondary leukemias. Both diseases involve translocations in the KMT2A gene, in which a portion of this gene is swapped out with DNA from a “partner” gene on a separate chromosome.

Katherine Unger Baillie ・June 14, 2017

In a new study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing’s Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia examined the factors influencing the likelihood of missed nu

Katherine Unger Baillie ・June 13, 2017

More than three years ago, Penn Dental Medicine Dean Denis Kinane took leaders from the school on a retreat to ask a challenging question: How would the school rebuild and rethink

Heather A. Davis ・June 12, 2017

The University of Pennsylvania will establish the Calvin Bland Faculty Fellowships for the Penn Futures Project.

Ron Ozio ・June 9, 2017

Despite numerous studies debunking the belief that race is biologically determined, scientists continue to use race as a tool for genetic classification.

Christina Cook June 6, 2017