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Katherine Unger Baillie
Science News Officer
kbaillie@upenn.edu
Biology
A critical enzyme for sperm formation could be a target for treating male infertility
A critical enzyme for sperm formation could be a target for treating male infertility
The protein, SKP1, drives a key transition step in male meiosis, the type of cell division process that results in sperm, School of Veterinary Medicine researchers found.
Penn establishes center to accelerate coronavirus research
Penn establishes center to accelerate coronavirus research
The Center for Research on Coronaviruses and Other Emerging Pathogens aims to advance research efforts and support development of new therapies and vaccines.
The biology of coronaviruses: From the lab to the spotlight
The biology of coronaviruses: From the lab to the spotlight
The recent coronavirus outbreak, COVID-19, has been swift, but according to microbiology professor Susan Weiss, it didn’t come out of nowhere. Coronaviruses have been around for a long time, and new strains have transformed and may continue to emerge.
Helpful interactions can keep societies stable
Helpful interactions can keep societies stable
New work by Erol Akçay of the School of Arts and Sciences and Jimmy Qian, a recent alum, challenges 50-year-old predictions that mutualistic interactions make a community unstable.
A promising new strategy to help broken bones heal faster
A promising new strategy to help broken bones heal faster
To improve how broken bones heal in people with diabetes, the School of Dental Medicine’s Henry Daniell, Sheri Yang, and colleagues are leading work to develop an affordable oral therapy—grown in plants.
Illuminating interactions between decision-making and the environment
Illuminating interactions between decision-making and the environment
With a unifying model based in game theory, Andrew Tilman, Joshua Plotkin, and Erol Akçay of the School of Arts and Sciences inform dynamics in fields as diverse as ecology and economics.
Fruit fly love songs
Fruit fly love songs
Yun Ding, assistant professor of biology, studies the courtship behavior of fruit flies to learn how genes and brains evolve to change animal behaviors.
Answers to microbiome mysteries in the gills of rainbow trout
Answers to microbiome mysteries in the gills of rainbow trout
In trout, the School of Veterinary Medicine’s J. Oriol Sunyer and colleagues discovered that a particular type of primitive antibody is essential for fighting microbes that cause disease while preserving others that make up a healthy microbiome.
With a protein ‘delivery,’ parasite can suppress its host’s immune response
With a protein ‘delivery,’ parasite can suppress its host’s immune response
The parasite Toxoplasma gondii need not infect a host immune cell to alter its behavior, according to a new study from the School of Veterinary Medicine.
Meet the biology major who brought an Iowa caucus to Philadelphia
Meet the biology major who brought an Iowa caucus to Philadelphia
Junior Jessica Anderson organized the satellite event because she wanted to participate in the political process. Politics aside, she’s aiming for a career that combines research and patient care.
Media Contact
In the News
The Wall Street Journal
Coronavirus vs. flu: Which virus is deadlier?
Neil Fishman of the Perelman School of Medicine weighed in on the novel coronavirus and how it differs from the flu. “I think what we’re seeing with Covid-19 is what influenza would look like without a vaccine,” he said.
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PBS
Study finds kittens bond with their human caregivers like babies do
Carlo Siracusa of the School of Veterinary Medicine advised readers to keep in mind that while babies and kittens are similar, they’re not analogous; scientific findings about one may not hold true for the other. “We should be open-minded about the idea that there are other variables [at play],” he said.
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ScienceFriday.com
A squid’s eye view
Alison Sweeney of the School of Arts and Sciences discussed the complex structure of squids’ eyes, which have special lenses that allow for crisp vision in dark water. “The resolution of their eyes is approaching that of humans, their retinas are much more sensitive than ours are to light, and if you dig into the nitty-gritty of how nature figured it out, I’m forever blown away at the level of nuance to get it to work.”
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WBUR Boston
What Puerto Rico’s monkeys post-Maria teach us about survival
PIK Professor Michael Platt joined a conversation about surviving trauma and Puerto Rico’s “monkey island.”
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Philadelphia Inquirer
5 questions: Is your body clock important?
Carsten Skarke of the Perelman School of Medicine offered a primer on chronobiology and how our body clocks might affect medical treatments. “The big hope is that we can find a way to synchronize the time of treatment with the molecular time of the patient.”
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BBC
Do mosquitoes feel the effects of alcohol
Tanya Dapkey of the School of Arts and Sciences said it’s unlikely that mosquitoes feed on inebriated humans to get drunk themselves. However, she said, the fact that “alcohol makes us more attractive to them is an interesting question to me.”
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