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The diversity of rural African populations extends to their microbiomes
A group of people, some holding sacks, next to a small rustic house and under trees

Hadza people gather to receive a government-provided food supply of beans and maize. (Photo: Alessia Ranciaro/Tishkoff Lab)

The diversity of rural African populations extends to their microbiomes

In the largest study of its kind, researchers led by PIK Professor Sarah Tishkoff, Matthew Hansen, and Meagan Rubel investigated the gut microbiomes of people from Botswana and Tanzania, and illuminate the impact of lifestyle, geography, and genetics in shaping the microbiome.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Cells and cinema
Penn senior Andrew Ravaschiere seated in a laboratory doing a procedure with a syringe

Penn senior Andrew Ravaschiere is a biology major conducting cellular research who also has a passion for cinema and filmmaking. 

Cells and cinema

As a biology major, senior Andrew Ravaschiere spends much of his time in a laboratory conducting cellular research. But as a cinema and media studies minor, he got out of the lab and into the world of filmmaking during the summer, working as an intern for a documentary filmmaker.
How do individual decisions affect group decisions?
Colin Twomey in labratory

Colin Twomey studies how groups, both human and animal, make collective decisions. His research covers a variety of topics, including fish behavior and human color perception.

How do individual decisions affect group decisions?

Postdoctoral fellow Colin Twomey looks to fish behavior to explore the dynamic between individual and group decision-making.

Jacob Williamson-Rea

Bigger brains are smarter, but not by much
line drawing of two heads and lightbulbs implying intelligence

Bigger brains are smarter, but not by much

Using a large dataset and controlling for a variety of factors, including sex, age, height, socioeconomic status, and genetic ancestry, Gideon Nave of the Wharton School and Philipp Koellinger of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam found that people with larger brains rated higher on measures of intelligence, but only accounts for two percent of the variation in smarts.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Two from Penn named to new class of AAAS Fellows
Michel Koo and Joshua Plotkin

Hyun (Michel) Koo and Joshua Plotkin

Two from Penn named to new class of AAAS Fellows

Noted for their contributions to dental and biological sciences, respectively, Hyun (Michel) Koo of the School of Dental Medicine and Joshua Plotkin of the School of Arts and Sciences are part of the newest cohort of fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Modeling the most common form of vision loss in older adults
Older man has eye examined

As the population ages, cases of age-related macular degeneration are forecast to skyrocket. New research led by a team from Penn may help make inroads into understanding its roots and possible therapies.

Modeling the most common form of vision loss in older adults

Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss in people older than 50. Kathleen Boesze-Battaglia and colleagues have developed a model system that mimics many features of the human condition, giving scientists a platform to gain a deeper understanding of risk factors and possible treatments.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Keeping campus trees—all 6,800 of them—healthy and vibrant
Looking down on campus through a variety of colorful treetops, people walk by holding umbrellas

The changing foliage of Penn’s trees make even a gray and rainy day look bright. Campus staff take a proactive approach to maintaining the trees’ health.

Keeping campus trees—all 6,800 of them—healthy and vibrant

Caring for the trees on Penn’s campus—an official arboretum since last year—is no small undertaking. Staff from Facilities and Real Estate Services and the Morris Arboretum lead the way in ensuring that the University’s trees remain safe, vibrant, diverse, and beautiful.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Dry conditions may have helped a new type of plant gain a foothold on Earth
Pots on a table in a greenhouse filled with grasses in various stages of growth

Biochemical and paleoclimate modeling revealed that plants with a new photosynthetic pathway known as C4, present in several important crop species today, emerged when atmospheric carbon dioxide was still quite high, roughly 30 million years ago. Water limitations, rather than Co2, drove its initial spread, a Penn-led team found.

Dry conditions may have helped a new type of plant gain a foothold on Earth

Plants reap energy from the sun using two photosynthesis pathways, C3 and C4. A new study led by Haoran Zhou, Erol Akçay and Brent Helliker suggests that water availability drove the expansion of C4 species, which may help to explain how different plant lineages came to be distributed on the planet today.

Katherine Unger Baillie

This startup wants to revolutionize the future of biofabrication
Biorealize's reactor in action

This startup wants to revolutionize the future of biofabrication

Before the fall of 2012, Orkan Telhan and Karen Hogan didn’t even know each other. Fast forward six years, and the Penn duo has created budding startup Biorealize, with not one—but two—transformative products.

Lauren Hertzler