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Summer Mentorship Program introduces high school students to dental medicine
A Penn Dental Medicine instructor sits with a dental model tool in hand beside a replica of head with an open mouth while seven high school students in white lab coats, gloves and masks watch the demonstration.

Summer Mentorship Program introduces high school students to dental medicine

Penn Dental Medicine hosted a group of high school students as part of Penn’s Provost Summer Mentorship Program, a four-week, college-career immersion program, aimed to inspire first-generation and under-represented minority students in Philadelphia to view higher education as an achievable goal.

Penn Today Staff

An army of microrobots can wipe out dental plaque
Time lapse photo of green circle shows a progressively larger cleared off area where a robot has removed a biofilm

With a precise, controlled movement, microrobots clear a glass plate of a biofilm in this time-lapse sequence.

(Image: Geelsu Hwang and Edward Steager)

An army of microrobots can wipe out dental plaque

A swarm of microrobots, directed by magnets, can break apart and remove dental biofilm, or plaque, from a tooth, thanks to a partnership led by Dental Medicine’s Hyun (Michel) Koo and Engineering’s Edward Steager.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Expanding opportunities to leverage science in the clinic
Patricia Corby in an office smiling at the camera

Patricia Corby has joined Penn Dental Medicine with a eye toward advancing clinical research at the School.

Expanding opportunities to leverage science in the clinic

Patricia Corby, who recently joined the School of Dental Medicine as associate dean for translational research, is bringing her research to bear for cancer patients undergoing radiation, while looking to advance clinical research School-wide.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Everyday enzymes, now grown in plants
Image of two plants and four examples of enzyme applications: denim biowashing, bioscouring, fruit juice clarification, and stain removal.

Everyday enzymes, now grown in plants

Myriad industrial processes rely on enzymes, from making orange juice to manufacturing denim jeans. Research emerging from the School of Dental Medicine is transforming how these enzymes get made.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn Dental Medicine educating dentists to care for persons with disabilities
 Demonstration of tooth brushing techniques using dental model

Penn Dental Medicine educating dentists to care for persons with disabilities

Penn Dental Medicine is helping to improve access to care for persons with disabilities through a commitment to provide continuing education and educational content to dentists on how to manage this special population. 

Penn Today Staff

The placebo cure
Five round pills lined up with smiley faces drawn on the front

The placebo cure

Drug researchers use control groups to measure the efficacy of their drug tests. What happens when the control group responds? Science proves the placebo effect is indeed medicine itself.
Prepping Philly high schoolers for college
student works in Penn Dental's simulation lab

Prepping Philly high schoolers for college

Rising 11th graders in the Provost Summer Mentorship Program at Penn spend a month on campus diving into the professional fields of dentistry, medicine, law, nursing, and engineering.

Lauren Hertzler

Bringing healthy smiles to Philadelphia communities
patient looking in the mirror after dental work

Bringing healthy smiles to Philadelphia communities

In health care facilities embedded around Philadelphia, students and faculty from the School of Dental Medicine are ramping up the care they provide to underserved populations.

Katherine Unger Baillie

College campuses are thinking about lactation spaces—but could be doing more
Person in a black dress standing on stairs for a portrait.

Diane Spatz is a professor of perinatal nursing and the Helen M. Shearer Professor of Nutrition at the School of Nursing, and a nurse scientist for the lactation program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. (Image: Eric Sucar)

College campuses are thinking about lactation spaces—but could be doing more

Breastfeeding mothers in higher-education environments can typically find a place to pump, but only recently have institutions begun to prioritize access to this resource.

Michele W. Berger