Perelman School of Medicine

Penn Medicine: Donor Smoking and Recipient Obesity Tied to Higher Rates of Death and Lung Injury After Lung Transplantation

PHILADELPHIA — A multi-institution study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has identified several important risk factors, including a donor’s smoking history and recipient obesity, linked to severe primary graft dysfunction (PGD), the major cause of serious illness and death after lung transplantation. PGD is a common complication that affects up to 25 percent of lung transplant patients shortly after surgery.  The study also found that some previously identified risk factors, including donor sex, race, age, and means of death, were not associated with PGD.

Jessica Mikulski

Penn Medicine: Adding to the List of Disease-Causing Proteins in Brain Disorders

PHILADELPHIA — A multi-institution group of researchers has found new candidate disease proteins for neurodegenerative disorders. James Shorter, Ph.D., assistant professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Paul Taylor, M.D., PhD, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, and colleagues describe in an advanced online publication of Nature that mutations in prion-like segments of two RNA-binding proteins are associated with a rare inherited degeneration disorder affecting muscle, brain, motor neurons and bone (called multisystem proteinopathy) and one case of the familial form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Karen Kreeger

Penn Medicine: Tweaking Gene Expression to Repair Lungs

PHILADELPHIA — Lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are on the rise, according to the American Lung Association and the National Institutes of Health.

Karen Kreeger



In the News


The New York Times

How Kennedy could make it harder for you and your family to get vaccinated

In a co-written opinion essay, PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel explains how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his allies in the Trump administration could discourage the use and research of vaccines.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Penn is giving out free gun safes to help Philadelphians secure their firearms

Penn Medicine is giving out gun safes and locks to help people keep their firearms safe from children in the home, with remarks from Sunny V. Jackson and Neda Khan.

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The New York Times

Elon Musk asked people to upload their health data. X users obliged

Matthew McCoy of the Perelman School of Medicine recommends not contributing private health data to the X chatbot Grok as an individual user.

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The Washington Post

Is it anxiety or something else? What women should know

Lily Brown of the Perelman School of Medicine says that rates of anxiety disorders skyrocket around the time of first menstruation in puberty.

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The Washington Post

The latest skincare trend: Beef fat. Yes, beef fat

Bruce Brod of the Perelman School of Medicine says that there’s no evidence to show beef tallow is better than conventional moisturizers.

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