Perelman School of Medicine

Person wiping sweat from their brow with a towel under the sun.

How humans evolved a super-high cooling capacity

The higher density of sweat glands in humans is due, to a great extent, to accumulated changes in a regulatory region of DNA that drives the expression of a sweat gland-building gene, explaining why humans are the sweatiest of the Great Apes.

rendering of a cell nucleus amidst multicolored cellular matter

Mysterious ‘nuclear speckle’ cell structures may help block cancers

A new study out of Penn Medicine shows that the tumor-suppressor protein p53 brings speckles and DNA together to boost gene expression.

A microscopic image of a neuron labeled in fluorescent colorful markers

The immune link between a leaky blood-brain barrier and schizophrenia

Research from the School of Veterinary Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia points to the involvement of the immune system the brain as a contributor to mental disorders such as schizophrenia.

Gloved hand administering a blood sugar finger test to a hand of an African American person.

Racial, gender, and socioeconomic factors linked to likelihood of getting diabetes treatment

Penn Medicine researchers show Black, Asian, female, and lower-income patients with diabetes receive less sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors compared with overall trends.

opthamalogy exam tool in front of a computer screen displaying a large zoomed-in retina

Gene therapy shows promise in initial trial for patients with childhood blindness

Penn Medicine researchers delivered working copies of the gene GUCY2D to the eyes of patients with severe vision impairments.

medical professional in scrubs holds a vial of covid vaccine.

Study suggests those who had COVID-19 may only need one vaccine dose

People who have recovered from COVID-19 had a robust antibody response after the first mRNA vaccine dose, therefore only a single dose may be needed to produce a sufficient antibody response, according to new research from the Penn Institute of Immunology.

Gloved hand putting substance into a test tube with a pipette in a lab setting.

Penn Medicine awarded nearly $7 million to study influenza viruses

Penn Medicine is one of five institutions in the U.S. chosen by the National Institutes of Health as a Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response to improve pandemic preparedness.

microscopic view of pancreatic cancer cells.

Immune-stimulating drug before surgery shows promise in early-stage pancreatic cancer

Giving early-stage pancreatic cancer patients a CD40 immune-stimulating drug helped jumpstart a T cell attack to the notoriously stubborn tumor microenvironment before surgery and other treatments.

African American pregnant person laying back on a couch with pregnant belly exposed.

Living in a majority-Black neighborhood linked to severe maternal morbidity

Penn Medicine researchers studied the association between neighborhood-level risk factors and poor maternal health outcomes in Philadelphia between 2010 and 2017.

Cancer cell therapy pioneer Carl June receives the Sanford Lorraine Cross Award

The Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine and director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center received the award for his work in developing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy.

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