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Combating urban heat
Sarah Sterinbach

Combating urban heat

Through the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program, rising junior Sarah Sterinbach has spent the summer learning about the policies Philadelphia has used to protect its citizens from extreme heat and how those efforts might improve in the future.

Luis Melecio-Zambrano

‘Music connects’ for Summer Institute students
Timothy Rommen next to a piano and a podium teaching a class full of students.

Timothy Rommen (right) teaches a class on Dominica’s popular music, one of several in this year’s Center for Africana Studies Summer Institute for Pre-Freshmen.

‘Music connects’ for Summer Institute students

The Summer Institute for Pre-Freshmen brings new students together with experienced faculty and graduate students to discuss cultural themes in Africana studies.

Kristina García

Cultural representations in films
Maori amidst foliage
  • Q&A

    • Cultural representations in films

    In partnership with BlackStar Projects, Maori Karmael Holmes of Penn Live Arts curates films to uplift the work of Black, brown, and Indigenous artists.

    Anna Chen

    Cancer cells selectively load ‘drones’ to keep T cells from infiltrating tumors
    four panels show a cancerous tumor with some portions labeled in red, green, and blue, and a close up image of part of it

    The researchers found that levels of phosphorylated HRS varied across tumors, negatively corresponding with the level of T cell infiltration in those areas. (Image: Guo lab/Nature Communications)

    Cancer cells selectively load ‘drones’ to keep T cells from infiltrating tumors

    Biologist Wei Guo and colleagues elucidate the process of sorting and loading cargo for these biological drones with implications for a more targeted and effective use of checkpoint inhibitor drugs in cancer treatment.

    Katherine Unger Baillie

    Moore v. Harper: Voting rights, election law, and the future of American democracy
    Woman wearing face mask walks along sidewalk lined with campaign signs

    Campaign signs from Maryland’s primary election, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. (Image: AP Photo/Julio Cortez) 

    Moore v. Harper: Voting rights, election law, and the future of American democracy

    Experts from law, political science, and history share their thoughts on the potential dangers posed by a case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear next term.

    Kristen de Groot

    Martial arts and Asian American identity
    Angela Shen smiles in front of the red steel sculpture on Locust Walk

    Angela Shen, a rising junior in the Huntsman program, is researching Asian American identity and martial arts. 

    Martial arts and Asian American identity

    Rising junior Angela Shen researches the ritual and practice of judo, taekwondo, kung fu, and karate.

    Kristina García

    Dorothy Roberts on the future of abortion advocacy
    A crowd of people gathered, one holds a sign that reads ABORTION IS ESSENTIAL.

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  • Q&A

    • Dorothy Roberts on the future of abortion advocacy

    Dorothy Roberts speaks with Penn Today on the implications of the Dobbs decision, which struck down Roe v. Wade, leaving many states with no legal right to abortion.

    Kristina García

    Mentorship strategies to boost diversity in paleontology
    Scientists Erynn Johnson and Aja Carter use a 3D printer to make shell shapes

    Erynn Johnson and Aja Carter both earned their doctoral degrees in paleontology from Penn, employing pioneering techniques, such as 3D printing to replicate the forms of ancient creatures. In a new publication, they share advice for attracting and retaining students and trainees from underrepresented groups to paleontology. 

  • Q&A

    • Mentorship strategies to boost diversity in paleontology

    Drawing on research as well as their experiences as women of color in paleontology, Aja Carter and Erynn Johnson, who earned doctoral degrees from Penn, coauthored a paper offering advice for making the field more inclusive.

    Katherine Unger Baillie

    Inspired by nature, artificial microtubules can work against a current to transport tiny cargoes
    graphic of microvascular networks showing how free-swimming microrobots disperse but a microcatheter propels robots against a flow to a target

    W

    hile free-swimming microrobots have been explored as a way to precisely deliver therapeutics within a blood vessel, they can disperse in the strong flows, failing to reach their target at high enough concentrations. In contrast, microrobots propelled along an artificial microtubule, developed by physicist Arnold Mathijssen and colleagues, can be transported precisely, even working against the current. (Image: Courtesy of Arnold Mathijssen/Nature Machine Intelligence)

    Inspired by nature, artificial microtubules can work against a current to transport tiny cargoes

    Technology developed by Arnold Mathijssen of the School of Arts & Sciences and colleagues could one day clear blockages in blood vessels or precisely target chemotherapy drugs to a tumor.

    Katherine Unger Baillie