Perelman School of Medicine

PHILADELPHIA -– Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new electronic method for detecting microRNA isolated from living cells. MicroRNAs are a class of small biomolecules that control gene expression into proteins, the “workers” of the cell.

When most genes are transcribed, the nascent RNAs they produce are not quite ready to be translated into proteins - they have to be processed first.

A school-based, six-session program targeting sexual risk behaviors has proven effective in reducing rates of self-reported unprotected sex and sex with multiple partners among South African sixth-graders, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Finding a drug that can cross the blood-brain barrier is the bane of drug development for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders of the brain.

Taking a cue from the world of business-performance experts and baseball talent scouts, Penn Medicine translational medicine researchers are among the first to find a way to measure the productivity of collaborations in a young, emerging institute. They published their findings the most recent issue of Science Translational Medicine.

How a T cell decides to make protein X, Y, or Z can have profound effects for fighting foreign invaders or staving off dire autoimmune reactions.

The University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center has been rated as “exceptional” by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) during a competitive research funding review by the government agency.

Four professors from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have been elected members of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the nation's highest honors in biomedicine. Three of the four new inductees are women.The new members bring Penn's total to 76, out of a total active membership of 1,649.

The Institute of Medicine today awarded the 2010 Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health to two scientists — Charles P.

Heart muscle cells do not normally replicate in adult tissue, but multiply with abandon during development. This is why the loss of heart muscle after a heart attack is so dire—you can’t grow enough new heart muscle to make up for the loss.