Winners of a 2018 Penn President's Engagement Prize, Wharton seniors Svanika Balasubramanian and Peter Wang Hjemdahl will launch rePurpose, a digital marketplace that connects individual waste recyclers in India to larger recycling operations, boosting wages and diverting trash from landfills.
Empowering workers while reducing waste in Mumbai
In Mumbai, waste sorters represent a crucial yet marginalized labor pool, diverting would-be trash from landfills by sorting and selling recyclables. President’s Engagement Prize recipients Svanika Balasubramanian and Peter Wang Hjemdahl will connect these workers to larger recycling operations through a digital marketplace.
Penn President Amy Gutmann and a delegation from the University welcomed HRH Princess Chulabhorn Mahidol of Thailand to discuss potential collaborations in science and health research and education.
Princess Chulabhorn of Thailand visits Penn, with scientific partnerships in mind
The princess met with President Amy Gutmann and leaders of Penn’s health schools on Thursday, April 5, to discuss future collaboration aimed at advancing health and science.
A mathematical formula predicts the way that river rocks, ocean pebbles and dune sands acquire a rounded shape, Penn researchers found. Credit: AniVar/Wikipedia
By river, ocean, or wind, rocks round the same way
Observations from Puerto Rican river rocks, New Mexican sand grains, Italian ocean pebbles, and the lab lent Douglas Jerolmack and his team insight into a general geophysical process.
Animals must respond to competing needs as they navigate their environment. Penn researchers found that hunger pathways selectively
suppress inflammatory pain in mice. (Art by Amber and Sam Alhadeff)
Being hungry shuts off perception of chronic pain
Finding food is a necessary survival skill, but so is avoiding pain. Research led by J. Nicholas Betley and postdoctoral researcher Amber Alhadeff showed that being hungry activates a neural pathway that inhibits the sensing and responding to chronic pain. The findings offer up new targets for treating pain.
Colorful chalk drawings and informative displays along Locust Walk engaged passersby in learning about 4 billion years of the evolution of life on Earth.
Opening the Teach-in by breaking down barriers
The first full day of the Penn Teach-in engaged participants with expert panels on vaccine denial and firearm violence, an "evolutionary walk through time," and a dialogue on the production and dissemination of knowledge.
To assist with wound healing, mesenchymal stem cells from the gum tissue secrete extracellular vesicles (labeled red) that contain the anti-inflammatory signaling molecule IL-1RA (labeled green).
Unraveling how stem cells from gum tissue accelerate wound healing
Gum tissue stem cells heal twice as fast as skin, and researchers are determining their potential in accelerated wound healing research.
Grave Gardeners program reconnects the Woodlands and Penn
The Woodlands Grave Gardeners program, now in its third season, pairs volunteer gardeners with the park’s cradle graves—tombstones with a bathtub-like extension—to plant them with lush flowers, as the makers had intended.
Ashley Boyle (center) of Penn Vet took the lead in writing a new consensus statement on treating, controlling, and preventing the equine infectious disease strangles.
The latest on preventing and treating 'strep throat' in horses
Just as strep throat can run rampant in elementary schools, strangles, the “strep throat” of horses, caused by a different Streptococcus bacterium, Streptococcus equi sp equi, is highly contagious.
A massive, nation-wide effort to improve yields while reducing fertilizer use reached more than 20 million smallholder farmers across China. Penn Vet's Zhengxia Dou partnered in the effort, which was led by Fusuo Zhang of China Agricultural University (center, holding plant).
Agricultural sustainability project reached 20.9 million farmers across China
Increasing smallholder farmer efficiency while reducing their environmental impact are critical steps to ensuring a sustainable food source for the world’s growing population.
