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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

A Perturbed Skin Microbiome Can Be ‘Contagious’ and Promote Inflammation, Penn Study Finds

A Perturbed Skin Microbiome Can Be ‘Contagious’ and Promote Inflammation, Penn Study Finds

Even in healthy individuals, the skin plays host to a menagerie of bacteria, fungi and viruses. Growing scientific evidence suggests that this lively community, collectively known as the skin microbiome, serves an important role in healing, allergies, inflammatory responses and protection from infection.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Fossil ‘Winged Serpent’ Is a New Species of Ancient Snake, Penn Doctoral Student Finds

Fossil ‘Winged Serpent’ Is a New Species of Ancient Snake, Penn Doctoral Student Finds

An ancient sink hole in eastern Tennessee holds the clues to an important transitional time in the evolutionary history of snakes. Among the fossilized creatures found there, according to a new paper co-authored by a University of Pennsylvania paleontologist, is a new species of snake that lived 5 million years ago.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn Team Characterizes the Underlying Cause of a Form of Macular Degeneration

Penn Team Characterizes the Underlying Cause of a Form of Macular Degeneration

Named for Friedrich Best, who characterized the disease in 1905, Best disease, also known as vitelliform macular dystrophy, affects children and young adults and can cause severe declines in central vision as patients age. The disease is one in a group of conditions known as bestrophinopathies, all linked to mutations in the BEST1 gene.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Look to Lactate to Help Predict Ill Cats’ Prognoses, Penn Vet Study Says

Look to Lactate to Help Predict Ill Cats’ Prognoses, Penn Vet Study Says

Many factors go into evaluating the prognosis of a critically ill animal, usually involving a combination of objective metrics, such as blood pressure or blood oxygenation, and more subjective clinical signs, such as alertness or lethargy.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn Vet Library Exhibit Explores the Human-Animal Connection Through Art

Penn Vet Library Exhibit Explores the Human-Animal Connection Through Art

Eleanor Hubbard, an artist and University of Pennsylvania alumna, is a firm believer in the power of serendipity. Without it, her latest exhibition, “Natural Selection: Lost Cat, Found Ox and Other Inspiring Bonds,” would have never come to be.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn Vet Team Identifies New Therapeutic Targets for the Tropical Disease Leishmaniasis

Penn Vet Team Identifies New Therapeutic Targets for the Tropical Disease Leishmaniasis

Each year, about 2 million people contract leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease transmitted by the bite of a sand fly. The cutaneous form of the disease results in disfiguring skin ulcers that may take months or years to heal and in rare cases can become metastatic, causing major tissue damage.

Katherine Unger Baillie