Bioengineering | Penn Today

Microscopic view of lung cells expressing the synthetic mRNA

Nanoparticles can turn off genes in bone marrow

Using specialized nanoparticles, researchers from Penn Engineering and MIT have developed a way to turn off specific genes in cells of bone marrow, which play an important role in producing blood cells.

an audience in a lecture hall watching a speaker give a powerpoint presentation

Future collaborators and scientific pioneers at the Women in STEM symposium

Graduate students and faculty across Penn met to share their work and discuss solutions for issues faced by women in STEM.

HL-60 cells treated with a Mac-1 blocking antibody migrate upstream on ICAM-1 at a shear rate of 800s-1

Engineers coax white blood cells to crawl upstream

Penn engineers find that by fighting the direction of the blood flow, white blood cells forge a faster route to battle infections.

Computer-generated antibiotics and biosensor Band-Aids

For Penn synthetic biologist César de la Fuente and his team, these concepts aren’t some far-off ideal. They’re projects already in progress, and they have huge real-world implications should they succeed.

strella biotech team members working in the lab

Strella Biotechnology tackles food waste by ‘hacking the fruit’

President’s Innovation Prize awardees Katherine Sizov and Malika Shukurova are expanding their startup and confronting $1 trillion of food waste with their novel biosensing technology.

a group of people seated at a circle of chairs talking to each other

Inspiring young women in STEM

Over two days, nearly two dozen female STEM role models at Penn welcomed more than 100 high school students and teachers to campus as part of the Girls Advancing in STEM (GAINS) Initiative Conference on campus.

rendering of an antibody about to go through the membrane of a cell

An easier way of sneaking antibodies into cells

Penn Engineers have found a plug-and-play solution that makes antibodies compatible with the delivery vehicles commonly used to ferry nucleic acids through the membrane of a cell without damaging either.

Researchers explore spinal discs’ early response to injury

Researchers may have found a way to press pause on spinal disc injuries, giving doctors more time to treat them before worse issues develop.

Engineers solve the paradox of why tissue gets stiffer when compressed

Tissue gets stiffer when it’s compressed. That stiffening response is a long-standing biomedical paradox, as common sense dictates that when you push the ends of a string together, it loosens tension, rather than increasing it. New research explains the mechanical interplay between that fiber network and the cells it contains.

an abstract depiction of a brain in multi-colors

A model for brain activity during brain stimulation therapy

Combined with data from other stimulation experiments , these models could help researchers determine the specific patterns of brain activity to target for improving memory.

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