Perelman School of Medicine

person pushing another person in a wheelchair on a grassy area in a park during the daytime

Quantifying the health risks of being a family caregiver

Health care and economics researchers find that more research is needed in the area of ‘next friend risk,’ or the full dimension of health risks faced by family and friends who become caregivers to the homebound.

How to reinvigorate exhausted immune cells to stop cancer

A Penn study has identified a protein called TOX that regulates exhausted T-cells, and could be a key to new immunotherapies.

Q&A

Why is it so difficult to sleep when it’s hot?

Philip Gehrman of the Penn Sleep Center offers an explanation—and explores some other recent questions posed by sleep scholars.

Making history at LDI: An interview with Rachel Werner

Rachel Werner is the first female and first physician-economist executive director of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and a professor of both medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine and health care management at the Wharton School.

How to quell a cytokine storm

An international team finds new ways to dampen an overactive immune system, and can influence new drug targets for lupus and other autoimmune disorders.

person facing a classroom auditorium with back to camera

Seeing disfigured faces prompts negative brain responses

A brain imaging study finds negative implicit biases against individuals with scars, birthmarks, and other facial differences.

newborn baby in bassinet beside hospital bed with birth mother in background

Why are so many women still dying from childbirth?

Experts from Penn discuss the role that social determinants, socioeconomics, and racism play, and how the University is addressing the maternal mortality crisis head on.

Trauma linked to earlier puberty, premature brain development, and mental illness

A Penn study details the effects of poverty and trauma on brain and behavior in youths.

Jar of pills on its side with handful of pills spilling out.

New pain management protocol sends 92% of cancer surgery patients home without opioids

A Penn study of robotic urologic surgery patients points to a key step in overcoming opioid crisis—start patients with over the counter medications, and only use opioids if they are really needed.

Child in a white shirt sleep on a paper-covered desk in a classroom, with three students in the background.

Children who nap midday are happier, excel academically, and have fewer behavioral problems

A Penn study of nearly 3,000 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders in China revealed strong connections between 30 to 60 minutes of shuteye at least three days a week and positive outcomes in a handful of areas.

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