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Taking Blood Using ‘Push-Pull’ Method Gets Accurate Results With Fewer Pokes, Penn Study Shows

Taking Blood Using ‘Push-Pull’ Method Gets Accurate Results With Fewer Pokes, Penn Study Shows

A new study by University of Pennsylvania veterinary researchers has found that blood samples collected from an intravenous catheter using a special “mixing” technique are as accurate as those collected via venipuncture, in which a needle is used to access the vein directly.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Targeting enzyme in ‘normal’ cells may impede pancreatic cancer’s spread, Penn Vet team shows

Targeting enzyme in ‘normal’ cells may impede pancreatic cancer’s spread, Penn Vet team shows

Cancer of the pancreas is a deadly disease, with a median survival time of less than six months. Only one in 20 people with pancreatic cancer survives five years past the diagnosis. The reason is the cancer’s insidiousness; tumor cells hide deep inside the body, betraying no symptoms until late in the disease, when the cancer has almost invariably spread to other organs.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn Study Shows How Female Immune Cells Keep Their Second X Chromosome Shut Off

Penn Study Shows How Female Immune Cells Keep Their Second X Chromosome Shut Off

Autoimmune diseases tend to strike women more than men and having multiple X chromosomes could be the main reason why. While a process called X chromosome inactivation serves to balance out gene dosage between males and females, some genes on the “inactive X” chromosome in immune cells can sometimes escape this process, giving women an extra dose of immunity-related gene expression.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn Team Shows How Seemingly Acute Viral Infections Can Persist

Penn Team Shows How Seemingly Acute Viral Infections Can Persist

Infections caused by viruses, such as respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, measles, parainfluenza and Ebola, are typically considered acute. These viruses cause disease quickly and live within a host for a limited time. But in some cases the effects of the infection, and presence of the virus itself, can persist.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Confronted With Bacteria, Infected Cells Die So Others Can Live, Penn Study Finds

Confronted With Bacteria, Infected Cells Die So Others Can Live, Penn Study Finds

The immune system is constantly performing surveillance to detect foreign organisms that might do harm. But pathogens, for their part, have evolved a number of strategies to evade this detection, such as secreting proteins that hinder a host’s ability to mount an immune response.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Celebrating five years of working dogs at Penn
Penn Working Dog Center

Ammo, a 7-month-old Belgian Malinois, works the rubble pile at the Working Dog Center on the Pennovation Works campus. Trainers and volunteers hide amidst the debris to refine dogs’ ability to detect the scent of a concealed person.

Celebrating five years of working dogs at Penn

The Working Dog Center began with just a few puppies, and now, five years later, has trained some of the best noses in the business. Canine graduates have gone on to police work, search and rescue, and explosives, narcotics, and diabetes detection.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Successful Guide Dogs Have ‘Tough Love’ Moms, Penn Study Finds

Successful Guide Dogs Have ‘Tough Love’ Moms, Penn Study Finds

Much has been written of the pitfalls of being a helicopter parent, one who insulates children from adversity rather than encouraging their independence.

Michele W. Berger , Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn Vet Researchers Contribute Expertise to Checklist for ‘One Health’ Studies

Penn Vet Researchers Contribute Expertise to Checklist for ‘One Health’ Studies

A growing body of scientific research is focused on One Health, the integration of knowledge concerning humans, animals and the environment. Yet there is no clear, unified definition of what a One Health study is or how such a study should be conducted.

Katherine Unger Baillie