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The Interwoven University

Mikhaidia Miller: First-gen perspectives on nursing, health equity, and what’s next
Mikhaidia Miller wearing a striped sweater and standing with arms crossed, smiling and facing sideways, in the Penn First Plus office.

A first-generation student graduating from the School of Nursing, fourth-year Mikhaidia Miller has benefited from Penn First Plus mentorship, programming, and resources throughout her time at Penn. She aims to become a certified registered nurse anesthetist and help improve health equity for all patients.

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Mikhaidia Miller: First-gen perspectives on nursing, health equity, and what’s next

The fourth-year reflects on what underpins her desire to pursue a nursing career and how Penn First Plus has supported her as a first-generation student.

3 min. read

Beating the heat: Designing cooling for bodies in motion
Two workers in a lab working on cooling structures.

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Beating the heat: Designing cooling for bodies in motion

Dorit Aviv, director of Weitzman’s Thermal Architecture Lab, studies how humans, technology, and design intersect, paving the way for the development of novel approaches to cooling people efficiently.

5 min. read

Solar solutions for farmers in The Gambia
A group photo in front of a borehole drilling machine at Alna Farms in Gambia.

Students visited Alna Farms and posed for a picture in front of a borehole drilling machine.

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Solar solutions for farmers in The Gambia

For students in Engineers Without Borders at Penn, collaborating with Gambian farmers to design an irrigation system is a way to both address food insecurity in the smallest country in mainland Africa and apply their knowledge from the classroom in the real world.

4 min. read

How interdisciplinary teaching becomes climate action

How interdisciplinary teaching becomes climate action

Penn graduate students are learning that net zero is a systems challenge requiring fluency across disciplines, and why interdisciplinary teaching is climate action—including how it builds the human capital the clean energy transition demands.

From Kleinman Center for Energy Policy

2 min. read

Dogs with cancer are helping save lives—both canine and human
Nicola Mason, Antonia Rotolo, and Mary Beth Boland with Rex, first dog treated on metastatic osteosarcoma trial.

(Left to right) Nicola Mason, Mary Beth Boland, and Antonia Rotolo with Rex, the first dog treated in the metastatic osteosarcoma trial.

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Dogs with cancer are helping save lives—both canine and human

The Comparative Immunotherapy Program led by Penn Vet’s Nicola Mason is redefining how therapies are developed and tested—uniting human and veterinary medicine to move promising immunotherapies forward.

4 min. read

AI x Science Postdoctoral Fellowship
Aerial shot of Amy Guttman Hall

Bhuvnesh Jain of the School of Arts & Sciences has teamed up with PIK University Professor René Vidal of the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Engineering and Applied Science to create the AI x Science Fellowship offering postdoctoral researchers across the University opportunities to collaborate across disciplines.

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AI x Science Postdoctoral Fellowship

Bhuvnesh Jain and René Vidal have teamed up to create the AI x Science Fellowship, which builds on the thriving postdoctoral program of the Data Driven Discovery Initiative to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration among researchers across the University.

6 min. read

The soul of an artist, the mind of a mathematician
From left: Shreya Arya, Miguel Lopez, Rob Ghrist, and Julian Gould

From left: Postdoctoral researcher Shreya Arya, Ph.D. candidate Miguel Lopez, PIK Professor Rob Ghrist, and Ph.D. candidate Julian Gould. 

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The soul of an artist, the mind of a mathematician

An artist, author, engineer, mathematician, and mentor, PIK Professor in the School of Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science Robert Ghrist embraces innovation to enrich each of these roles.

8 min. read

Collaborating toward a better future for all
Group pose of Draw Down the Lightning grants winners.

Winners of the inaugural Draw Down the Lightning grants with Penn President J. Larry Jameson and Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives David Asch.

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Collaborating toward a better future for all

The 12 winning teams of the inaugural Draw Down the Lightning grants were celebrated by Penn leadership at a reception, bringing to life the vision of In Principle and Practice.

4 min. read

Armoring CAR T cells to take on cancer
 3D visualization showing a reddish-blue tumor mass with internal vasculature, surrounded by blue CAR T cells and small extracellular vesicles against a dark background.

Wei Guo of the School of Arts & Sciences and colleagues from the Perelman School of Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, and School of Engineering and Applied Science have teamed up to uncover how solid tumors’ complicated microenvironments can manipulate cancer-fighting CAR T cells through extracellular vesicles, causing the engineered CAR T cells to commit fratricide—essentially turning against each other instead of attacking the cancer.

(Image: iStock / Marcin Klapczynski)

Armoring CAR T cells to take on cancer

Wei Guo of the School of Arts & Sciences and colleagues from the Perelman School of Medicine, School of Veterinary Medicine, and School of Engineering and Applied Science have uncovered how solid tumors manipulate cancer-fighting CAR T cells through extracellular vesicles, causing the engineered CAR T cells to commit fratricide—essentially turning against each other instead of attacking the cancer.

3 min. read