Perelman School of Medicine

Person looks out of window with bottle and a glass of wine on a table

When alcohol and a pandemic mix

Edwin Kim, medical director of Penn Medicine’s Charles O’Brien Center for Addiction Treatment, discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected how people use—and misuse—alcohol.

A black, six-lens camera in the foreground, with actors blurred in the background.

Better care for COVID patients through virtual reality

An interdisciplinary team from Penn joined efforts with physicians in New York to fast-track virtual reality coronavirus training materials.

A petri dish in a lab under a microscope with two mechanical pipettes.

A link to pregnancy complications with assisted reproduction discovered

Researchers find that embryo culture is a factor that may lead to more specific placental defects with assisted reproduction processes.

a graph showing connected circles for characters in king lear, othello, and macbeth

What do ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ ‘Macbeth,’ and a list of Facebook friends all have in common?

To an English scholar or avid reader, the Shakespeare Canon represents some of the greatest literary works of the English language. To a network scientist, Shakespeare’s 37 plays and the 884,421 words they contain also represent a massively complex communication network.

a person on public transportation wearing a mask while listening to music on a smartphone

Can contact tracing stop the spread of COVID-19?

Penn experts discuss how contact tracing works, the differences between traditional “analog” and new “digital” approaches, and how these two strategies could shape what everyday life looks like in the next phase of the pandemic.

scientists process samples in a field setting

Parasites and the microbiome

In a study of ethnically diverse people from Cameroon, the presence of a parasite infection was closely linked to the make-up of the gastrointestinal microbiome, according to a research team led by Penn scientists.

Film still of an intubation training video of a medical dummy and medical students in a hospital room

Videos, webinars and lots of feedback: Medical training’s shift amid COVID-19

Because hands-on learning and in-person simulations have been so altered during the coronavirus pandemic, there is now high demand for updated training videos and shifting best practices.

New cancer immunotherapy targeting myeloid cells slows tumor growth

Researchers found that inhibiting a molecule hijacked by tumor cells to suppress the immune system shrank tumors.

Closeup view of surgical tools on a tray while surgeons perform surgery in the background

Performing organ transplants safely amid the COVID-19 outbreak

The unique challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with fewer organ donations, led to a tremendous reduction in transplant procedures in the United States. But the Penn Transplant Institute is working through the crisis.

A medical worker in full personal protective gear holds up an x-ray of a chest and lungs

A possible link between certain psoriasis treatments and respiratory-tract infection risk

After examining data from large trials of autoimmune-disease medications called Interleukin-17 inhibitors, researchers found individuals who took these treatments were more likely to develop symptoms associated with respiratory-tract infections.

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