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Nathi Magubane

Science News Officer
  • nathi@upenn.edu
  • (215) 898-8562
  • A portrait of science writer Nathi Magubane
    Articles from Nathi Magubane
    Penn pioneers a ‘one-pot platform’ to promptly produce mRNA delivery particles
    3D illustration showing cross-section of the lipid nanoparticle carrying mRNA of the virus entering a human cell.

    Lipid nanoparticles present one of the most advanced drug delivery platforms to shuttle promising therapeutics such as mRNA but are limited by the time it takes to synthesize cationic lipids, a key component. Now, Michael Mitchell and his team at the School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a faster way to make cationic lipids that are also more versatile, able to carry different kinds of treatments to target specific organs.

    (Image: iStock / Dr_Microbe)

    Penn pioneers a ‘one-pot platform’ to promptly produce mRNA delivery particles

    New lipid platform enables rapid synthesis of molecules that can shuttle therapeutics for a range of diseases with a high degree of organ specificity.
    Duncan Watts and CSSLab’s New Media Bias Detector
    Cropped Hands Of Journalists Interviewing a politician.

    iStock: microgen

    Duncan Watts and CSSLab’s New Media Bias Detector

    PIK Professor Duncan Watts and colleagues have developed the Media Bias Detector, which uses artificial intelligence to analyze news articles, examining factors like tone, partisan lean, and fact selection.
    Hurricane changed ‘rules of the game’ in monkey society
    A group of rhesus macaques sits amidst the bare, leafless trees of their hurricane-impacted habitat.

    For more than 17 years, PIK Professor Michael Platt and his collaborators have followed a free-ranging colony of rhesus macaques in the Puerto Rican Island of Cayo Santiago who, in 2017, experienced the devastation of Hurricane Maria. The team showed that the macaques who invested in relationships had higher survival rates, findings that can provide insights into human social behavior and health in the face of environmental change.

    (Image: Courtesy of Lauren J. Brent) 

    Hurricane changed ‘rules of the game’ in monkey society

    PIK Professor Michael Platt and collaborators from the University of Exeter find Hurricane Maria transformed a monkey society by changing the pros and cons of their interpersonal relations.
    Kotaro Sasaki and his team unveil the genetics of testicular cancer
    Microscopic image of seminoma tissue. The image shows green-stained cells representing early-stage germ cells, red-stained areas indicating high gene activity linked to cancer growth, and gray-stained nuclei of various cells
    Section of seminoma tissue, a type of testicular cancer, showing strong expression of proteins/RNAs (TFAP2C, green; BICD1, red) that are typically present in pre-migratory/migratory primordial germ cells, precursors of sperm.

    (Image: Courtesy of Kotaro Sasaki)

    Kotaro Sasaki and his team unveil the genetics of testicular cancer

    Researchers from Penn Vet develop the first in vitro seminoma model, shedding light on chromosomal anomalies and signaling pathways.
    Researchers upend theory about the formation of the Milky Way Galaxy
    Visualization of a ‘wrinkly’ halo of stars around the Milky Way.

    This image visualizes the Milky Way and its surrounding “halo” of stars. Most stars in the Milky Way lie in the disc (like the Sun, for example), but stars from past collisions end up in the halo, a large “cloud” of stars that extends outwards in all directions. These halo stars have been enhanced in this image, but in reality would be very dim compared to the disc. The halo appears messy and “wrinkly” here, a sign that a merger has occurred relatively recently.

    (Image: Halo stars: ESA/Gaia/DPAC, T Donlon et al. 2024; Background Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds: Stefan Payne-Wardenaar)

    Researchers upend theory about the formation of the Milky Way Galaxy

    New findings by Robyn Sanderson and collaborators suggest galaxy’s last major collision was billions of years later than previously thought.
    Fruitful insights on the brain
    Photograph of researcher, China Byrns, in front of monitor showing microscopy images of fly brain

    China Byrns used high-magnification confocal microscopy to visualize senescent glia (red) in Drosophila brains as part of a multidisciplinary approach to define the origin and effects of senescent cells in brain aging.

    (Image: Courtesy of Riya Anand)

    Fruitful insights on the brain

    Research led by China Byrns of the lab of Nancy M. Bonini in the School of Arts & Sciences have uncovered new details about the role of zombie-like cells in brain aging, using the fruit fly as a model.
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