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‘Self-eating’ stem cell process may be the key to new regenerative therapies
stem cells in autophagy

A translucently colored embryonic stem (ES) cell and its differentiating derivatives. (Image: Penn Medicine News)

‘Self-eating’ stem cell process may be the key to new regenerative therapies

A Penn study uncovers new roles of chaperone-mediated autophagy in how stem cells repair or regenerate damaged organs.

From Penn Medicine News

Advancing knowledge on archaea
Petri dish with a honeycomb-like growth

Biologists found that the archaeon Haloferax volcanii rapidly forms honeycomb structures in response to changes in its environment. They hope to gain more insights into the microbes through a new initiative, the Archaeal Proteome Project. (Image: Courtesy of the Pohlschroder lab)

Advancing knowledge on archaea

An open-source data platform for researchers studying archaea is paving the way for new insights and educational opportunities.

Katherine Unger Baillie

300-million-year-old fish resembles a sturgeon but took a different evolutionary path
Illustration of a prehistoric fish with a long snout

In a new report, paleontologists Lauren Sallan and Jack Stack re-examine the “enigmatic and strange” prehistoric fish Tanyrhinichthys mcallisteri. (Image: Nobu Tamura)

300-million-year-old fish resembles a sturgeon but took a different evolutionary path

Tanyrhinichthys mcallisteri recasts the notion of what it means to be a “primitive” vertebrate, according to paleontologists Lauren Sallan and Jack Stack.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Additional challenges in bringing research online
researching working in simons observatory

The Devlin lab are working on creating an extremely cold environment (nearly -460 degrees Fahrenheit) so that the new Simons Observatory can detect cosmic microwave background (CMB), the residual radiation left behind by the Big Bang. Work done at the High Bay is essential for keeping the project from falling further behind after shutdown delays.

nocred

Additional challenges in bringing research online

As research on campus slowly restarts, those whose work requires field surveys, large-scale collaborations, or travel face additional challenges in bringing their research back online.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Parasites and the microbiome
scientists process samples in a field setting

Researchers Meagan Rubel and Eric Mbunwe process fecal samples in a hunter-gatherer village at dusk. (Image: Courtesy of the Tishkoff laboratory)

Parasites and the microbiome

In a study of ethnically diverse people from Cameroon, the presence of a parasite infection was closely linked to the make-up of the gastrointestinal microbiome, according to a research team led by Penn scientists.

Katherine Unger Baillie

At home, but still engaged with STEM classes
close up of tito device

At home, but still engaged with STEM classes

While instructional laboratories on campus are closed, students, faculty, and instructors are finding creative solutions for science, math, and engineering courses and projects.

Erica K. Brockmeier

Coming together to solve the many scientific mysteries of COVID-19
Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (green) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (purple), isolated from a patient sample.

Colorized scanning electron micrograph of an apoptotic cell (green) heavily infected with SARS-COV-2 virus particles (purple), isolated from a patient sample. Image captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Maryland. (Image: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH)

Coming together to solve the many scientific mysteries of COVID-19

Putting some of their regular research projects on the back burner, researchers around Penn are digging into unknowns about the novel coronavirus from their deep and varied perspectives.

Katherine Unger Baillie