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Genetics

The use and misuse of race in health care
drawing of diverse group of people

The use and misuse of race in health care

In a Q&A, PIK Professor Sarah Tishkoff, the Perelman School of Medicine’s Giorgio Sirugo, and Case Western Reserve University’s Scott Williams shed light on the “quagmire” of race, ethnicity, genetic ancestry, and environmental factors and their contribution to health disparities.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Pinpointing how cancer cells turn aggressive
Concentric circles with different colors inside representing cancer cell lineages

Pinpointing how cancer cells turn aggressive

Penn scientists have developed a new method for tracing the lineage and gene expression patterns of metastatic cancer at the single-cell level.

Katherine Unger Baillie

How humans evolved a super-high cooling capacity
Person wiping sweat from their brow with a towel under the sun.

How humans evolved a super-high cooling capacity

The higher density of sweat glands in humans is due, to a great extent, to accumulated changes in a regulatory region of DNA that drives the expression of a sweat gland-building gene, explaining why humans are the sweatiest of the Great Apes.

From Penn Medicine News

Turning back the clock on a severe vision disorder
microscopic image of retinal tissue layers labeled in red and blue

A mutation in the NPHP5 gene leads to a severe blinding disorder, Leber congenital amaurosis. Dogs with the condition that were treated with a gene therapy regrew normal, functional cone cells, labeled in red, that had previously failed to develop. The treatment led to a recovery of retinal function and vision. (Image: Courtesy of Gustavo Aguirre and William Beltran)

Turning back the clock on a severe vision disorder

Gene therapy triggered the regrowth of healthy photoreceptor cells and restored vision in dogs with a severe form of Leber congenital amaurosis.

Katherine Unger Baillie

New test can detect presence of gene doping in equines
Blurred sport shot of horses racing in a pack close together on grass.

New test can detect presence of gene doping in equines

A team of Penn Vet researchers have created and validated a quantitative test that is able to detect the presence of a gene doping agent in plasma and synovial fluid quickly and conveniently.

From Penn Vet

Five Penn faculty named 2021 Sloan Research Fellows
portraits of from top left clockwise Ishmail Abdus-Saboor, Bo Zhen, Marc Miskin, Ziyue Gao, and Bhaswar B. Bhattacharya

Five Penn faculty named 2021 Sloan Research Fellows

The fellowship recognizes extraordinary U.S. and Canadian researchers whose creativity, innovation, and research accomplishments make them stand out as the next generation of scientific leaders.

Erica K. Brockmeier