A week’s worth of online events, aimed at engaging the entire Penn community, will examine the interplay of climate change, COVID, and social injustice.
Climate Week offers something for ‘every member of the Penn community’
With participation from schools, centers, and groups across the University and a focus on the interplay of the climate emergency with social justice issues and the global pandemic, Climate Week at Penn will run September 21-25. The week’s dozens of events will help participants learn about the climate crisis—and then act.
Junior Ashna Sethi found an opportunity to delve into one of her passions this summer with paleobiologist Lauren Sallan’s lab in the School of Arts & Sciences.
Inspired to make her synagogue community more sustainable, Jane Horwitz of the Science Outreach Initiative helped congregants grow green beans for distribution to a local food pantry. (Image: Courtesy of Jane Horwitz)
Side Gigs for Good endure amid a pandemic
The Penn community’s altruism shines as the pandemic’s effects stretch on.
Treating dogs with Krabbe disease, a rare and fatal condition that also affects infants, with a gene therapy targeted to the brain led to remarkable results in a study led by a team from the School of Veterinary Medicine. (Image: Courtesy of Charles Vite)
Progress toward a treatment for Krabbe disease
The inherited disease, which typically kills children before their second birthday, has no cure, but a School of Veterinary Medicine study in a canine model offers hope for an effective gene therapy with lasting results.
Lead poisoning robs children of opportunity, and the impact is worse in underserved communities. Faculty and students at Penn are bringing scientific and policy attention to the problem, while empowering young people to minimize their risk and be leaders for change.
Crossing the blood-brain barrier to treat the whole brain has been a challenge for researchers aiming to treat inherited neurodegenerative disease. The results from a study in a large animal model offer “a big advance” in this pursuit, says John Wolfe of Penn Vet, Penn Medicine, and CHOP.
Getting gene therapy to the brain
Using a large animal model of genetic brain disease, researchers led by John H. Wolfe of the School of Veterinary Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia delivered an effective treatment across the blood-brain barrier to correct the whole brain.
An open and engaging virtual orientation session set the tone for the Translational Research Internship Program, held online this year for the first time. (Image: Courtesy of Jessica German)
Interning virtually
The Translational Research Internship Program, offered by the Perelman School of Medicine’s Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics Education Programs, provides mentorship for undergraduates as they complete a translational research project.
Biologists found that the archaeon Haloferax volcanii rapidly forms honeycomb structures in response to changes in its environment. They hope to gain more insights into the microbes through a new initiative, the Archaeal Proteome Project. (Image: Courtesy of the Pohlschroder lab)
Advancing knowledge on archaea
An open-source data platform for researchers studying archaea is paving the way for new insights and educational opportunities.
