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The view from inside the ‘medical scandal’ of China’s gene-edited babies
A scientist in a white coat with blue rubber gloves on holding a petri dish. In the background are lab materials on several sets of shelves.

Kiran Musunuru is an associate professor of cardiovascular medicine and genetics in the Perelman School of Medicine. His work is focused on cardiovascular genetics, in trying to find ways to prevent heart attack using genetics as a tool. (Image: Peggy Peterson)

  • Q&A

    • The view from inside the ‘medical scandal’ of China’s gene-edited babies

    In a Q&A, geneticist Kiran Musunuru describes his unintentional connection to the scientist behind the scandal and the book that came out of the experience.

    Michele W. Berger

    Reprogramming ant ‘soldiers’
    carpenter ant perched on the top of a stick

    Reprogramming ant ‘soldiers’

    A Penn study reveals the epigenetic pathway that controls social behavior in carpenter ants, finding that the ants reprogram up to five days after they hatch, while reprogramming was ineffective at the 10-day mark.

    Penn Today Staff

    Genes play a role in dog breed differences in behavior
    Row of six adorable and different dog breeds

    Genes play a role in dog breed differences in behavior

    Border collies are highly trainable, greyhounds love to chase, and German shepherds make good guard dogs. While the environment plays a role, traits like these are highly heritable. A new study identifies 131 genetic variants associated with breed differences in behavior.

    Katherine Unger Baillie

    How genetics paint a picture of the Jewish past

    How genetics paint a picture of the Jewish past

    Steven Weitzman of the School of Arts and Sciences commented on efforts to study Jewish genetics. While the research is “fascinating,” he acknowledges that it may make some uncomfortable. “There’s a lot of resistance to [genetic research] within the field of Jewish studies,” Weitzman said. “A lot of people remember or have in mind the role of race science in Nazism. So the idea that Jewish scholars would look in any way to genetics to understand Jewish identity or Jewish history and origins can make people concerned.”

    A DNA test revealed this man is 4% black. Now he wants to abolish affirmative action

    A DNA test revealed this man is 4% black. Now he wants to abolish affirmative action

    Wendy Roth of the School of Arts and Sciences spoke about DNA testing and its intersection with culture and identity. “Right now I don’t think that [companies selling at-home genealogy kits] are generally doing a good enough job of explaining how these tests should be interpreted and what the limitations are and what some potential negative impacts could be,” she said.

    Fruit flies’ microbiomes shape their evolution
    fruit fly close-up on a piece of vegetation

    An ambitious outdoor experiment in fruit flies at Pennovation Works revealed that an altered microbiome can drive evolutionary change. (Photo: Seth Rudman)

    Fruit flies’ microbiomes shape their evolution

    In just five generations, an altered microbiome can lead to genome-wide evolution in fruit flies, according to new research led by Paul Schmidt and postdoc Seth Rudman of the School of Arts and Sciences.

    Katherine Unger Baillie

    Is treatment forever? Success of gene therapy for inherited blindness depends on timing
    Top-and-bottom show fluorescent, microscopic images of layers of the eye's retina in blue, green, and red.

    Canine retinas after successful gene augmentation therapy with RPE65 (red-labeling of the RPE cell layer). When eyes are treated at a stage when photoreceptor numbers are close to normal, there is an arrest of retinal degeneration, and cone (labeled in green) and rod photoreceptors retain normal structure for at least four years following treatment (upper image). If degeneration is ongoing at the time of treatment, there is substantial and progressive loss of photoreceptors in spite of robust RPE65 expression (lower image). (Image: Aguirre Laboratory/Penn Vet)

    Is treatment forever? Success of gene therapy for inherited blindness depends on timing

    An FDA-approved gene therapy for Leber congenital amaurosis, an inherited vision disorder with a childhood onset and progressive nature, has improved patients’ sight. But new research underscores the importance of further investigation to halt the progression of the disorder.

    Katherine Unger Baillie

    A molecular ‘atlas’ of animal development
    An abstract depiction of data features an elongated shape with various projections in pixels of different colors.

    Each cell of a developing nematode worm embryo is catalogued at the molecular level in a new paper out in Science. In this visualization of the dataset, each dot represents a single cell, its color represents the age of the embryo it came from (orange=early, green=mid, blue/red=late), and the dots are arranged so that cells with similar transcriptomes are near each other. Visualized this way, the data form various thin “trajectories” that correspond to tissues and individual cell types. (Image: Cole Trapnell)

    A molecular ‘atlas’ of animal development

    Scientists have studied the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans for decades, making essential contributions to basic science. In the latest milestone, a team uses cutting-edge technology to individually profile the genes expressed in more than 80,000 cells in a developing C. elegans embryo.

    Katherine Unger Baillie

    Cardiac genetic mutation may not always predict heart disease
    points of light representing the human torso and the human heart signifying cardiovascular health

    Cardiac genetic mutation may not always predict heart disease

    Researchers at Penn Medicine and Geisinger find only 5% of patients with a mutation of the TTN gene have dilated cardiomyopathy, despite changes in heart function.

    Penn Today Staff