News from

Perelman School of Medicine

Visit the School's Site
Reset All Filters
2694 Results
A wearable new technology moves brain monitoring from the lab to the real world
Two people standing in a lab space, holding headbands.

Postdoc Arjun Ramakrishnan (left) and Penn Integrates Knowledge professor Michael Platt created a wearable EEG akin to a Fitbit for the brain, with a set of silicon and silver nanowire sensors embedded into a head covering like the headband seen here. The new technology led to the formation of a company called Cogwear, LLC.

A wearable new technology moves brain monitoring from the lab to the real world

The portable EEG created by PIK Professor Michael Platt and postdoc Arjun Ramakrishnan has potential applications from health care to sports performance.

Michele W. Berger

Dangers and protections of rising temps for people on common medicines
A person sits in front of a fan holding shirt front open to cool off, indicating rising temperatures

Dangers and protections of rising temps for people on common medicines

We know that as temperatures rise, so do many health risks: not just for heat stroke and dehydration but also for heart disease, respiratory diseases, and deaths overall. Three studies explore the impact that rising temperatures have on people who take common medications.

Penn Today Staff

Five insights into how the brain works
Person sitting at a table with blurry people in front and a screen hanging on the wall behind, which reads, "Experiential effects on brain development."

Martha J. Farah, the Annenberg Professor of Natural Sciences, is director of the Center for Neuroscience & Society at Penn. (Pre-pandemic image: Courtesy Martha Farah) 

Five insights into how the brain works

As the Center for Neuroscience & Society celebrates 10 years, founding director Martha Farah reflects on the array of research from its faculty, on subjects from brain games to aggression.

Michele W. Berger

Looking into the immune system to better fight disease
a gloved hand holds a glass film with blood sample underneath beneath a microscope

Looking into the immune system to better fight disease

A rare, short-lived population of immune cells in the bloodstream may serve as ‘periscopes’ to monitor immune status via lymph nodes deep inside the body, researchers say.

Penn Today Staff

Blinking eye-on-a-chip used for disease modeling and drug testing
The Huh lab’s eye-on-a-chip attached to a motorized, gelatin-based eyelid.

The Huh lab’s eye-on-a-chip attached to a motorized, gelatin-based eyelid. (Image: Penn Engineering)

Blinking eye-on-a-chip used for disease modeling and drug testing

Penn Engineering’s Dan Huh and Jeongyun Seo built an eye model that could imitate a healthy eye and an eye with dry eye disease, allowing them to test an experimental drug without risk of human harm.

Penn Today Staff

The brain’s amyloid buildup is not a powerful indicator of Alzheimer’s disease
Three stages of Alzheimers portrayed by three scans of neurons

The brain’s amyloid buildup is not a powerful indicator of Alzheimer’s disease

Researchers find fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET, which measures the brain’s glucose consumption as a marker of neural activity, is a better indicator of cognitive performance when compared to PET scans that detect amyloid proteins.

Penn Today Staff

A cohort study comes of age
illustration of kidneys

A cohort study comes of age

For nearly two decades, a major national study of kidney disease led and coordinated at Penn has defined key risk factors in an all-too-common silent epidemic.

Steve Graff

Sun, sand, and medical rehab robots
A smiling person sits as one person touches his closed hand, another looks at part of a robotic device, and a third looks on at a laptop on a table in a medical room.

Three students in the Penn Global Seminar “Robotics and Rehabilitation” fit a Jamaican man (left) with a robotic device that may help him grasp objects in a hand that lost some capabilities following a stroke. (Photo: Jacob Gross)

Sun, sand, and medical rehab robots

As part of a new interdisciplinary Penn Global Seminar, 16 undergraduates traveled to Jamaica to test and refine robotic rehabilitation devices for patients in need.

Gina Vitale Michele W. Berger

Nursing home nurses lack time and resources for complete care
person in wheelchair looks out the window, elder in an eldercare facility with a lack of nurses present.

Nursing home nurses lack time and resources for complete care

Evidence from hospitals has shown for years that nurses are more likely to leave necessary patient care undone when employed in settings with insufficient staff and resources. This “missed care” has been linked to poor care quality.

Penn Today Staff