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Innovation

Packaging-free design quadruples microbatteries’ energy density
Dandelion head for scale with a tiny microbattery resting on top of it.

Weighing about as much as two grains of rice but with the energy density of a much larger, heavier battery, the researchers’ packing-free design could enable a host of otherwise impossible electronics. (Image: Penn Engineering Today)

Packaging-free design quadruples microbatteries’ energy density

New research from the School of Engineering and Applied Science shows a new way to build and package microbatteries that maximizes energy density even at the smallest sizes.

Evan Lerner

Penn Medicine’s first living donor uterus transplant
uterine donor, recipient and baby

Penn Medicine’s first living donor uterus transplant

Cheryl Cichonski-Urban donated her uterus to Chelsea Jovanovich through Penn Medicine’s Uterus Donation program. In May, Jovanovich gave birth to a baby boy.

Sophie Kluthe

Inaugural Projects for Progress recipients announced
College Hall

Inaugural Projects for Progress recipients announced

Awardees include three Penn teams that will help address health care, education, and environmental justice, respectively, in Philadelphia.

Lauren Hertzler

Beer with no buzz: 2021 Y-Prize awards dealcoholization project
Beer in a scientific beaker.

Beer with no buzz: 2021 Y-Prize awards dealcoholization project

LiberTech, the award-winning team, pitched their plan to filter alcohol from beer using a nanostructured membrane, which preserves the flavor of beer.

From the William and Phyllis Mack Institute for Innovation Management

In the vaccine trenches with Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman
vaccine_vials

In the vaccine trenches with Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman

Key breakthroughs leading to the powerful mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 were forged at Penn, and the COVID-19 vaccines may only be the beginning of its impact on 21st-century medicine.

The Pennsylvania Gazette

Cancer cell therapy pioneer Carl June receives the Sanford Lorraine Cross Award
carl june

Cancer cell therapy pioneer Carl June receives the Sanford Lorraine Cross Award

The Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine and director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center received the award for his work in developing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy.

Steve Graff

Even without a brain, metal-eating robots can search for food
Film still of a small wheeled robot traveling a path between yellow tape.

The “metal-eating” robot can follow a metal path without using a computer or needing a battery. By wiring the power-supplying units to the wheels on the opposite side, the robot autonomously navigates away from the tape and towards aluminum surfaces. (Image: Penn Engineering Today)

Even without a brain, metal-eating robots can search for food

SEAS engineers are developing robot-powered technology with energy sources that are harvested in the robot’s environment.

Evan Lerner