The Penn Park Orchard, located at the southeastern edge of campus, is home to fruit trees, herbs, perennial flowers, and more. Planting events set for this fall will expand the orchard's boundaries. (Photo: Cole Jadrosich/FRES)
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.
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.
Stem cells extracted from baby teeth were able to regenerate dental pulp (above, with fluorescent labeling) in young patients who had injured one of their adult teeth.
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.
The new Center for Sub-Cellular Genomics will be at the forefront of new technologies for studying the dynamics of genomic interactions within a single cell.
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.
Sampling containers collected airborne particles from the sides of highways in Germany as part of a study led by Penn’s Reto Gieré. The findings suggest that tire wear is a major contributor to roadside pollution. (Photo: Federal Highway Research Institute)
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.
On three Saturday evenings in September, Jacob Rivkin, an artist-in-residence with the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities, will be floating on the Schuylkill River, displaying hand-drawn animations on a screen suspended between two canoes. His work reflects past and present narratives about the waterway. (Photo: Aidan Un)
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)
In a rigorous attempt to address the “replication crisis” in the social sciences, a multi-institutional team found that many key findings failed to reproduce with the same significance seen in the original studies.
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.
Maps reflecting the thickness of a key layer of the retina show how a gene therapy treatment (right panels) protected against severe retinal degeneration.
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.
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.
Like drones heading for battle, cancer cells emit vesicles containing immunity-suppressing proteins to tamp down T cell responses at sites throughout the body. (Image: Kelsey Burke)
Cancer cells send out ‘drones’ to battle the immune system from afar
Checkpoint inhibitor therapies have made metastatic melanoma and other cancers a survivable condition, but only for some patients. Researchers uncovered a novel mechanism by which tumors suppress the immune system, raising the possibility that a straightforward blood test could predict which patients could respond to immunotherapy.
