Medicine | Penn Today

Patient with a face mask looking at a computer with a medical professional.

Busting myths about the Asian American ‘model minority’

Two new studies highlight the problem with aggregating diverse groups of people into a single category of “Asian American” when applied to cardiovascular disease and cancer diagnosis and outcomes.

Microscopic view of nanomedicine particles attacked by immune system proteins.

A new method to increase effectiveness of nanomedicines

Penn Medicine researchers have developed a new technique that uses complement inhibitor Factor I to prevent proteins from attacking treatment-carrying nanoparticles so they can better reach targets within the body.

A person in a doctor's office checks their fitness tracker on their wrist.

Wearables can predict near-term blood sugar control in prediabetes patients

Penn researchers find that using wearable devices, especially those on the wrist, and machine learning approaches could predict blood sugar control.

Researchers find new potential targets for skin-cancer treatment

Making up for the genetic mutations of MLL4 in skin cells, one of the most commonly mutated genes across all of human cancers, may keep epithelial cancer from beginning and progressing

Melatonin isn’t a sleeping pill. Here’s how to use it

Ilene Rosen of the Perelman School of Medicine explained how melatonin works. “It may take several hours,” she said, “which is what I think is the misconception about how melatonin is used.”

Rendering of a brain and brain activity as a result of dots representing genetic information.

How one researcher is helping us better understand the brain through epigenetics

Erica Korb, assistant professor of genetics, combines microscopy, bioinformatics, biochemistry, and behavioral testing to better understand gene expression and its impact on brain development.

A structural blueprint of nanoparticles to target acute lung inflammation

Targeting neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that, when overactive, contributes to acute lung inflammation, is a potential new route to diagnose and treat acute respiratory distress syndrome.

A cancer cell being attacked by CAR T cells.

Vaccine-like mRNA injection can be used to make CAR T cells in the body

An experimental immunotherapy can temporarily reprogram patients’ immune cells to attack heart fibroblast cells via only a single injection of mRNA.

Sickle cell math is brutally simple but not widely taught

Kwaku Ohene-Frempong of the Perelman School of Medicine said that often, particularly in major cities, babies cared for in public health clinics are not assigned a pediatrician at birth and that any medical test results are noted in the mother’s chart with no follow-up.

From foundational discoveries to profound impact

How decades of mRNA research at Penn made powerful new COVID-19 vaccines possible—and opened a new vista for future discoveries.

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