Perelman School of Medicine

Saying that the sense of taste is complicated is an understatement, that it is little understood, even more so. Exactly how cells transmit taste information to the brain for three out of the five primary taste types was pretty much a mystery, until now.

The wide consensus that health care spending poses a threat to the nation’s fiscal solvency has led to the championing of “value” as a goal of health care reform efforts.

Addressing on the challenges that accompany transitions between health care settings could be a key strategy for improving clinical outcomes for people living with HIV, according to researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

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.

PHILADELPHIA — The mammalian placenta is more than just a filter through which nutrition and oxygen are passed from a mother to her unborn child.

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).

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.

PHILADELPHIA — Nicola Mason and Yvonne Paterson have been named this year’s recipients of the University of Pennsylvania

PHILADELPHIA — According to a new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, patients with Barrett's esophagus and early or pre-cancerous cells have been shown to significantly benefit from minimally invasive therapy deliver

PHILADELPHIA — Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have discovered that a protein called Jagged-1 stimulates human stem cells to differentiate into bone-producing cells.