Penn Engineers Identify Protein Implicated in 3-D Epigenetics of Brain Development

The vast majority of genetic mutations that are associated with disease occur at sites in the genome that aren’t genes. These sequences of DNA don’t code for proteins themselves, but provide an additional layer of instructions that determine if and when particular genes are expressed.

Evan Lerner, Ali Sundermier

Penn Researchers Engineer Macrophages to Engulf Cancer Cells in Solid Tumors

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

Penn Professors Lead Call for Ethical Framework for New 'Mind Control' Technologies

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

Penn Engineering Course Gives Students a Global Perspective

Over spring break, 13 students in the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science travelled to Beijing and Shanghai to learn more about engineering and technology innovations happening in China. They went as part of a new semester-long global immersion class launched this spring.[flickr]72157682064286286[/flickr]

Evan Lerner, Ali Sundermier

Penn Engineers’ ‘Photonic Doping’ Makes Class of Metamaterials Easier to Fabricate

The field of metamaterials, an intersection of materials science, physics, nanotechnology and electrical engineering, aims to produce structures with unusual electromagnetic properties. Through the careful combination of multiple materials in a precise periodic arrangement, the resulting metamaterials exhibit properties that otherwise couldn’t exist, such as a negative index of refraction.

Evan Lerner, Ali Sundermier