Katherine Unger Baillie

Growing a ‘culture of cultivation’ on campus

Even on an urban campus, there are numerous places to coax food from the soil. From the Penn Student Garden on Spruce Street to the Penn Park Orchard, Facilities and Real Estate Services staff are expanding opportunities for the community to interact with an edible landscape.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Targeting a viral vulnerability to treat disease

Robert Ricciardi company ViRAZE utilizes interdisciplinary approaches to drug discovery. Its first target is molluscum contagiosum, a disease that targets children and immune-compromised adults with no current FDA-approved therapy.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Regrowing dental tissue with stem cells from baby teeth

In a clinical trial led by Songtao Shi of the School of Dental Medicine, stem cells extracted from baby teeth were used to regrow the living tissue in teeth damaged by injury. The promising findings highlight the potential of dental stem cells, which could be used in a wide range of dental procedures, or treating certain systemic diseases.

Katherine Unger Baillie

New center will study the complex genomics within individual cells

Junhyong Kim and James Eberwine are leading a multi-disciplinary team in developing cutting-edge technologies that can assess the genetic material inside individual compartments of single cells. The new Center for Sub-Cellular Genomics aims to revolutionize therapies for diseases such as bipolar disorder, autism, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Analyzing roadside dust to identify potential health concerns

Reto Gieré is working with collaborators across the world to identify an overlooked but significant factor in traffic-related air pollution: Tiny bits of tires, brake pads, and road materials that become suspended in the air when vehicles pass over.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Floating art installation brings Schuylkill River history to life

Jacob Rivkin, an artist-in-residence for the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities and an instructor in the School of Design, will present a public art installation on the Schuylkill River called “Floating Archives,” starting this weekend. (Video)

Katherine Unger Baillie

Testing the reproducibility of social science research

A team co-led by Gideon Nave of the Wharton School replicated 21 high-profile social science studies and found discrepancies with the original research. Researchers betting in prediction markets, however, were quite accurate at predicting which findings would replicate and which would not.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Knockdown and replace: A gene therapy twofer to treat blindness

More than 150 different mutations in the light-sensing molecule rhodopsin can cause retinitis pigmentosa, characterized by a progressive loss of night and peripheral vision, and a team of researchers have developed a treatment for the condition. Successful results in dogs set the stage for testing in humans.

Katherine Unger Baillie, Hannah Messinger

Navigating urban waters, with an interdisciplinary approach

With independent research projects and immersive experiences on and near Philadelphia’s waterways, summer fellows with the Penn Program in the Environmental Humanities are collaborating to develop new ways of learning and sharing knowledge.

Katherine Unger Baillie