Penn’s AI x Science Postdoctoral Fellows Program is breaking down traditional scientific boundaries by integrating artificial intelligence across diverse research fields. Less than a year in, the program is already paying dividends in the form of new collaborations and research publications for inaugural fellows like Brynn Sherman (left) of the School of Arts & Sciences and Kieran Murphy (right) of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
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AI x Science Postdoctoral Fellows collaborate across disciplines
The new fellowship program, offered through the School of Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, offers mentorship and peer engagement opportunities.
An interdisciplinary team led by School of Engineering and Applied Science’s Lee C. Bassett and Dani Bassett, also of the School of Arts & Sciences, have studied the mechanical properties of prions, the mysterious shape-shifting proteins that are infamous for mad cow disease yet essential for yeast survival
Researchers led by César de la Fuente of the Perelman School of Medicine have created new peptides that fight hard-to-treat “superbug” infections by punching holes in bacterial cells and stimulating immune cells to signal for more defenders.
(Image: Courtesy of Jianing Bai)
Delivering a one-two punch to superbugs to fight infections
Penn researchers create mirror-image molecules that both kill pathogens outright and rally the immune system—an advance aimed at the growing crisis of antimicrobial resistance.
Image: Courtesy of NASA’s Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory
Cost-effective, lifesaving weather predictions
Penn professor Paris Perdikaris and collaborators developed Aurora, a machine-learning model that has predictive capabilities for air quality, ocean waves, tropical cyclone tracks, and weather.
Lillian Miller (left) graduated as a chemistry and environmental scieces double major in May. This summer, she returns to begin her graduate training in Irina Marinov’s (right), where researchers use big data and computational techniques to make better climate models.
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Lillian Miller: May grad turned Penn Ph.D.
Lillian Miller, a May graduate from the College, will begin graduate studies in the laboratory of Irina Marinov this summer, where she is leveraging big data to tackle ocean and climate-focused research.
Bhuvnesh Jain of the School of Arts & Sciences has teamed up with PIK University Professor René Vidal of the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Engineering and Applied Science to create the AI x Science Fellowship offering postdoctoral researchers across the University opportunities to collaborate across disciplines.
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AI x Science Postdoctoral Fellowship
Bhuvnesh Jain and René Vidal have teamed up to create the AI x Science Fellowship, which builds on the thriving postdoctoral program of the Data Driven Discovery Initiative to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration among researchers across the University.
From left: Postdoctoral researcher Shreya Arya, Ph.D. candidate Miguel Lopez, PIK Professor Rob Ghrist, and Ph.D. candidate Julian Gould.
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The soul of an artist, the mind of a mathematician
An artist, author, engineer, mathematician, and mentor, PIK Professor in the School of Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science Robert Ghrist embraces innovation to enrich each of these roles.
Four faculty have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their innovative contributions to original scientific research. The newly honored scholars are Mark Devlin (top left) from the School of Arts & Sciences and Katalin Karikó (top right), Virginia M.Y. Lee (bottom left), and E. John Wherry III (bottom right) from the Perelman School of Medicine.
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National Academy of Sciences elects four from Penn
The newly elected members, recognized for their innovative contributions to original research, are Mark Devlin of the School of Arts & Sciences and Katalin Karikó, Virginia Lee, and E. John Wherry III of the Perelman School of Medicine.
Melanie Herbert (center), a fourth-year in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, created Sync Labs—an innovative AI solution that addresses caregiving in senior care. Joined by Nami Lindquist (left) of the Wharton School and Penn Engineering and Alex Popescu of Penn Engineering (right) their technology, which has earned them the 2025 President’s Innovation Prize, allows caregivers to see three times more seniors while providing more personalized care.
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Penn students develop AI-driven solution to transform senior care
Fourth-year students Melanie Herbert, Nami Lindquist, and Alexandra Popescu were awarded the President’s Innovation Prize for Sync Labs, a privacy-centered AI system to address the growing caregiving gap in senior care
Wei Guo of the School of Arts & Sciences and colleagues from the Perelman School of Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, and School of Engineering and Applied Science have teamed up to uncover how solid tumors’ complicated microenvironments can manipulate cancer-fighting CAR T cells through extracellular vesicles, causing the engineered CAR T cells to commit fratricide—essentially turning against each other instead of attacking the cancer.
(Image: iStock / Marcin Klapczynski)
Armoring CAR T cells to take on cancer
Wei Guo of the School of Arts & Sciences and colleagues from the Perelman School of Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, and School of Engineering and Applied Science have uncovered how solid tumors manipulate cancer-fighting CAR T cells through extracellular vesicles, causing the engineered CAR T cells to commit fratricide—essentially turning against each other instead of attacking the cancer.
