News Archives

Student Spotlight with Elie Peltz

A SOCIAL PETRI DISH: Senior Elie Peltz is a firm believer in the power that comes from reframing personal, political, social, and religious narratives. Because of those strong convictions, he knew he wanted to study in a place as diverse yet tight-knit as Penn. “Penn is a microcosm of sorts—we have maybe a once-in-a-lifetime experience when we’re in such close proximity to people of different political viewpoints, different religious and ethnic backgrounds,” Peltz says.

Penn Yeast Study Identifies Novel Longevity Pathway

Ancient philosophers looked to alchemy for clues to life everlasting. Today, researchers look to their yeast. These single-celled microbes have long served as model systems for the puzzle that is the aging process, and in this week’s issue of Cell Metabolism, they fill in yet another piece.

Brace yourself

Penn group provides network of support for campus parents

Raising a child is a massive 18-year undertaking filled with life’s greatest prides and joys, and most terrifying worries and fears. Parenting is no easy task, whether rearing toddlers or teenagers, and can be made even more difficult without guidance, advice, or support from others. Penn faculty, staff, and students who have children have a support system in place right here on campus. The Parents at Penn group has recently taken on new life, offering friendly discussion, advice, and resources for all members of the University community.

Penn Experts Say "Insourcing" Innovation May be the Best Approach to Transforming Health Care

A group of health care and policy experts from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is urging health care institutions to look more to their own in-house personnel, including physicians and nurses, as a source of new ideas for improving how care is delivered. The practice – referred to as insourcing – relies on an organization’s existing staff to drive needed transformations.

LabTV Showcases Penn Researchers and Student Filmmakers

A series of videos produced by student filmmakers at the University of Pennsylvania has put young biomedical researchers around campus in the spotlight.

Helping Families Living With Cancer Has Personal Meaning for Penn Student Guy Viner

When Guy Viner learned in 2011 that the University of Pennsylvania was starting a chapter of Camp Kesem, he quickly joined the group. Camp Kesem, with 54 chapters in 27 states, provides a free one-week overnight summer camp for children affected by a parent’s cancer.

Penn Research Combines Graphene and Painkiller Receptor

Almost every biological process involves sensing the presence of a certain chemical. Finely tuned over millions of years of evolution, the body’s different receptors are shaped to accept certain target chemicals. When they bind, the receptors tell their host cells to produce nerve impulses, regulate metabolism, defend the body against invaders or myriad other actions depending on the cell, receptor and chemical type.

Immune Cells Outsmart Bacterial Infection by Dying, Penn Vet Study Shows

A new study led by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine has painted a clearer picture of the delicate arms race between the human immune system and a pathogen that seeks to infect and kill human cells.  The research explores the strategies by which the bacterial pathogen Yersinia, responsible for causing plague and gastrointestinal infections, tries to outsmart immune cell responses and looks at the tactics used by the immune system to fight back.

Penn Medicine: Psychiatric Medications Can Lead to Vision Problems

People suffering from vision loss are twice as likely to suffer from depression as the general population.An educational workshop at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in New York City this week will shed light on this important, growing topic. “What we are talking about is not new, but has never been a focus of the psychiatric community,” says Michael Ascher, MD, a clinical associate professor of Psychiatry in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, who will co-chair the session. “We want to use our observations to begin the dialogue.”