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With more kids eligible for vaccines, is the pandemic in a new phase?
Child wearing mask in school writes at a desk

With more kids eligible for vaccines, is the pandemic in a new phase?

With the FDA authorization last week, 28 million more children are eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Experts from the School of Nursing and Perelman School of Medicine share their thoughts about what to expect in the weeks and months to come.

Katherine Unger Baillie

A hub for zoonotic disease research
Cryptosporidium A Penn Vet-led team was the first to sequence, study, and manipulate a naturally occurring mouse Cryptosporidium, a parasite responsible for life-threatening illness in people, as well as livestock, pets, and wildlife worldwide. (Image: Muthugapatti Kandasamy, Adam Sateriale, and Boris Striepen)

A hub for zoonotic disease research

The new Institute for Infectious and Zoonotic Diseases, launched by the School of Veterinary Medicine, leans on Penn’s strengths in immunology and infectious disease to prepare for emerging threats to animal and human health.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Four facts about the COVID-19 boosters
Stock image of two vials of COVID-19 vaccines. One is upright, the other laying on its side. They both say "COVID-19 vaccine, LOT: D66A443, EXP: 03.22, INJECTION ONLY"

Four facts about the COVID-19 boosters

The FDA and CDC endorsed boosters of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines just a month after the agencies did the same for a Pfizer/BioNTech booster. Here’s what’s known today about these shots.

Michele W. Berger

Mandates likely work to increase vaccine uptake
Five rows of COVID-19 vaccine vials. The vials are angled diagonally, from bottom left to top right.

Mandates likely work to increase vaccine uptake

Rather than causing a backlash, vaccination requirements will succeed at getting more people inoculated, according to research from PIK Professor Dolores Albarracín and colleagues at Penn.

Michele W. Berger , Michele W. Berger

A scientific hunch. Then silence. Until the world needed a lifesaving vaccine

A scientific hunch. Then silence. Until the world needed a lifesaving vaccine

Drew Weissman of the Perelman School of Medicine was profiled in a series of articles about the scientists who helped create the COVID-19 vaccines. “The person who achieves his goal is the one that has faced frustration and dealt with it, understood it, and used it to their advantage,” Weissman said.

A one-way ticket. A cash-stuffed teddy bear. A dream decades in the making

A one-way ticket. A cash-stuffed teddy bear. A dream decades in the making

Katalin Karikó of the Perelman School of Medicine was profiled in a series of articles about the scientists who helped create the COVID-19 vaccines. “I think she should be given credit for saving the world,” said her colleague Jean Bennett. Karikó’s ideas were “so ahead of her time, she had a hard time convincing people that they would actually work,” Bennett said. “They seemed too science fiction-y to people and too challenging.”

Philadelphia doctor develops rapid COVID test with results on smartphone

Philadelphia doctor develops rapid COVID test with results on smartphone

A team of researchers led by Ping Wang of the Perelman School of Medicine is developing a more accurate rapid test for COVID-19 that uses smart phone cameras. “The PCR is great. It's sensitive, but at the same time it's only residing in the core laboratories,” she said. “So, you can't really do PCR at home for most settings.”