From ancient tombs and tiny robots to personalized gene editing and AI weather models, Penn’s 2025 research portfolio showed how curiosity paired with collaboration moves knowledge into impact and stretches across disciplines and continents.
5 min. read
A look back at 20 of the innovative breakthroughs happening at Penn in 2025 offers a glimpse of research that spans boundaries, forging novel connections to advance knowledge, improve lives, and address the greatest challenges of the time, including climate, health, and data.
It's not just what is done, but how it is done.
As Penn researchers lean into collaborations that cross disciplines and boundaries, recognizing that the more ideas and people from all backgrounds are at the table, the more rigorous and creative the discoveries will be. In laboratories, clinics, libraries, and at field sites, Penn researchers had breakthroughs across a range of disciplines, discovering ancient tombs, treating the world’s first patient with personalized CRISPR gene editing therapy, and developing cleaner, greener concrete. These stories are a snapshot of the vibrant, innovative research at Penn.
Penn Museum’s ongoing fieldwork at Abydos, Egypt has uncovered the tomb of an unknown king from a lost dynasty.
(Image: Josef Wegner for the Penn Museum)
The Penn Museum and Egyptian archaeologists working at Abydos in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities discovered the massive tomb of an unnamed pharaoh at the ancient necropolis of Anubis Mountain, shedding new light on a long-lost dynasty and a lesser-known period in Egyptian history.
Penn Medicine’s Kiran Musunuru and Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas holding KJ post infusion.
(Image: Courtesy of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia)
In a historic breakthrough, a child diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder was successfully treated with a customized CRISPR gene editing therapy by a team at the Perelman School of Medicine (Penn Medicine) and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Mechanical engineering and applied mechanics professor Paris Perdikaris and collaborators developed Aurora, a machine-learning model that has predictive capabilities for air quality, ocean waves, tropical cyclone tracks, and weather.
Research from Penn Medicine finds living in areas with a high concentration of air pollution is associated with an increased buildup of amyloid and tau proteins in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, worsening cognitive decline.
Emily Falk’s “What We Value: The Neuroscience of Choice & Change” describes the brain’s value and self‑relevance systems in everyday decisions, while Sophia Rosenfeld’s “The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life” charts how modern freedom became equated with choosing—together reshaping how we see agency and limits.
Wei Guo of the School of Arts & Sciences and colleagues from the Perelman School of Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, and School of Engineering and Applied Science have teamed up to uncover how solid tumors’ complicated microenvironments can manipulate cancer-fighting CAR T cells through extracellular vesicles, causing the engineered CAR T cells to commit fratricide—essentially turning against each other instead of attacking the cancer.
(Image: iStock / Marcin Klapczynski)
An interdisciplinary team of Penn researchers uncovered how solid tumors communicate with engineered cancer-fighting cells, causing them to commit fratricide and inhibit treatment, pointing toward improved therapies for treating cancers.
Research led by Heath Schmidt of the School of Nursing has identified a brain circuit that plays a critical role in regulating cocaine-seeking behavior, paving the way for the development of more effective therapies to treat addiction.
Seeking the neural basis of long‑lasting pain, biologist J. Nicholas Betley in the School of Arts & Sciences led a collaborative team that identified a critical brainstem hub that can halt incoming pain signals before they spread across the brain. Their findings suggest new ways to interrupt chronic pain at its source.
Early research from Penn Medicine finds a new mRNA vaccine stops allergens from causing immune reactions and life-threatening inflammation, with promise for future treatment for a variety of seasonal and food allergies.
Researchers at the School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed the world’s smallest fully programmable, autonomous robots. These microrobots, each smaller than a grain of salt, could drive advancements in medicine and manufacturing.
As artificial intelligence continues to make it simpler to produce digital replicas of real people—deepfakes, voice clones, and other once-unthinkable products, Penn Carey Law’sJennifer Rothman argues for guardrails that preserve individuals’ control over their voices and likenesses.
A collaborative team from Penn Medicine and Penn Engineering has unraveled the mathematics of a 500-million-year-old protein network that “decides” which foreign materials are friend or foe.
Using a clinical-grade antiviral gum, researchers at Penn Dental Medicine and collaborators reduced viral loads of influenza and herpes by over 95% in experimental models, offering a safe, FDA-compliant approach to curb virus spread and potentially prevent infections.
The Polyhedral Structures Laboratory is housed at the Pennovation Center and brings together designers, engineers, and computer scientists to reimagine the built world. Using graphic statics, a method where forces are mapped as lines, they design forms that balance compression and tension. These result in structures that use far fewer materials while remaining strong and efficient.
(Image: Eric Sucar)
Penn engineers, materials scientists, and designers have developed a 3D-printed concrete solution based on diatomaceous earth that has enhanced carbon capture, is stronger, and uses fewer materials like cement.
A Penn-led team has revealed a how hydralazine, one of the world’s oldest blood pressure drugs and a mainstay treatment for preeclampsia, works at the molecular level. In doing so, they made a surprising discovery—it can also halt the growth of aggressive brain tumors.
The now-abandoned city of Haneya in India was occupied between about CE 1100-1300. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the Archaeological Survey of India are studying changes in landscape, farming, and food associated with this and other past cities.
(Image: Courtesy of Kathleen Morrison)
An international group of scholars, including Penn archaeologists, produced the first large-scale synthesis of archaeological evidence of land use in South Asia from 12,000 and 6,000 years ago. Looking at the ancient practices of deforestation and urbanization, the data they collected improves the quality of current climate models.
Economist Hanming Fang’s study ties China’s high-speed rail expansion to alleviating range anxiety and significantly increasing electric vehicle sales and market share, with implications for urban growth and charging networks.
Across roughly 407,000 pediatric patients, a second SARS‑CoV‑2 infection was linked to twice the long‑COVID rate and higher risks for myocarditis, clots, and renal and cognitive issues, according to research at Penn Medicine.
Using the APEX deep‑learning system, researchers led by César de la Fuente sifted through a database of more than 40 million venom-encrypted peptides, tiny proteins evolved by snakes and spiders, surfacing hundreds of potential antibiotics.
Centering joy in AI development and implementation
PIK Professor Desmond Upton Patton—of Annenberg and SP2—and collaborators introduce a joy-informed framework designed to initiate conversations among engineers, designers, and researchers.
Reflecting on Jane Austen, 250 years after her birth
English professors Michael Gamer and Barri Joyce Gold have been teaching courses specifically dedicated to Jane Austen for years. They spoke with Penn Today about their approach to teaching her novels, how they challenge common readings and myths, and what makes Austen’s work so enduring—and adaptable to the screen—more than two centuries later.
Electronic medical records help save lives of HIV patients
Wharton’s Leandro “Leo” Pongeluppe and colleagues found that HIV clinics in Malawi that switched from paper to electronic medical records saw an estimated 28% reduction in deaths in five years.
