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20 breakthroughs of 2025
Masoud Akbarzadeh holding up one of the fabricated materials.

The Polyhedral Structures Laboratory is housed at the Pennovation Center and brings together designers, engineers, and computer scientists to reimagine the built world. Using graphic statics, a method where forces are mapped as lines, they design forms that balance compression and tension. These result in structures that use far fewer materials while remaining strong and efficient.

(Image: Eric Sucar)

20 breakthroughs of 2025

From ancient tombs and tiny robots to personalized gene editing and AI weather models, Penn’s 2025 research portfolio showed how curiosity—paired with collaboration—moves knowledge into impact and stretches across disciplines and continents.

5 min. read

Startup recognized for milestones in cancer care
Marco Ruella in the Ruella Lab, collaborating with two lab technicians. Ruella is wearing a white lab coat and holding up a chemical sample. Two of his colleagues are observing the sample.

Marco Ruella, associate professor of medicine at PSOM and hematologist-oncologist at Penn Medicine, collaborates with his colleagues in the Ruella Lab.

nocred

Startup recognized for milestones in cancer care

During the Penn Center for Innovation’s 10th annual Celebration of Innovation, viTToria Biotherapeutics was presented with the Startup of the Year Award for its remarkable progress in the development of promising treatment of T-cell lymphoma.

4 min. read

Early immune clues could help detect and prevent type 1 diabetes
A teen takes a blood sugar reading with an app on their phone.

Image: Halfpoint Images via Getty Images

Early immune clues could help detect and prevent type 1 diabetes

Researchers from Penn Medicine have uncovered new clues in pancreas lymph nodes and the spleen that may stop the disease before insulin is lost forever.

Matt Toal

2 min. read

Identifying genes that keep cancer from spreading
Immunofluorescent view of a normal colon on the left and a colon tumor on the right.

Histopathology tissue sections of the normal colon (left) showing highly organized cell-cell junctions (red) and proliferative zones (green) in colonic crypts. In contrast, a colon adenocarcinoma (right) is highly disorganized, with inconsistent cell junctions that can ultimately contribute to metastatic dissemination.

(Image: Maggie Robertson)

Identifying genes that keep cancer from spreading

Using a novel approach, Penn Vet’s Chris Lengner and M. Andrés Blanco and colleagues have identified two genes that suppress colorectal cancer metastasis.

3 min. read