Computer-generated antibiotics and biosensor Band-Aids
For Penn synthetic biologist César de la Fuente and his team, these concepts aren’t some far-off ideal. They’re projects already in progress, and they have huge real-world implications should they succeed.
Socioeconomic status in the U.S. harder to change than any time in past 150 years
Research from Penn sociologist Xi Song and colleagues shows that mobility declined substantially during this period, particularly for those born in the 1940s and later.
Penn Closet, the thrift shop in Williams Hall, is run by eight students, including Marcela Gomez (left) of Guatemala City, who is director of operations, and Emily Yao of Taipei, who is director of marketing.
As good as new at Penn Closet
The student-run thrift shop on the ground floor of Williams Hall gives clothes and other items a second life, plus offers donators and shoppers a simple way to practice sustainability.
Penn Medicine’s Eugenia South, seen here with John MacDonald of the Department of Criminology, studies the effect of chronic stress and neighborhood environment on health outcomes. South’s latest pilot, Nurtured in Nature, follows work from the pair showing that cleaning up vacant lots leads to a signifiant decrease in gun violence and less stress for local residents. (Pre-pandemic photo)
Using science to make cities safer and healthier
In a Q&A, criminologist John MacDonald discusses his new book, grounded in years of research on the positive effects of remediation like fixing up abandoned lots and houses.
Funding in the recently proposed Green New Deal for Public Housing legislation would go toward energy-retrofitting interventions such as installing solar panels.
The data at the heart of Green New Deal public housing legislation
Beyond improving living conditions, greening these spaces would reduce emissions and create 250,000 jobs annually, according to research from Penn and Data for Progress.
The new NIH-funded work from researchers Dylan Tisdall of Penn Medicine and Allyson Mackey of the School of Arts and Sciences will work to develop an MRI method geared specifically to three- to five-year-olds and calculate how exposure to opioids can impede neurocognitive development of children in that age range.
How does opioid exposure affect brain development in young children?
That’s the question Allyson Mackey and Dylan Tisdall hope to answer, through a new grant from an NIH initiative focused on addiction research.
Memory recall and spatial navigation elicit similar electrical activity in brain
Penn neuroscientists show for the first time that low-frequency oscillations called theta waves appear in both cases, a finding that could eventually help diminish memory loss.
An FDA-approved drug called exendin-4 decreased voluntary oxycodone taking and drug-seeking behavior during withdrawal in rats without reducing the relief the opioid provided.
Mary Ann Krisman Scott (back, facing forward) was a nurse during the Vietnam War. She is also a 2001 Ph.D. graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. (Image: Courtesy Bates Center Archives, University of Pennsylvania)
Working hand in hand with the nation’s largest integrated care system
In a unique partnership, Penn Nursing collaborates with the Veterans Health Administration on a range of issues, from pain management to end-of-life care.
Childhood exposure to trauma costs society $458 billion annually
Bureaucratic hurdles block access to treatment services, so they tend to go unused. This leads to adverse outcomes that put stress on public systems like social services and law enforcement.
