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The year America’s hair fell out

The year America’s hair fell out

Susan Taylor of the Perelman School of Medicine said Black patients experiencing hair loss are more likely to have central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia, a condition many practitioners are unfamiliar with. “For Black women in particular, they’re told, ‘Stop your relaxers; don’t straighten your hair,’” she said. “And then they say to me, ‘But Dr. Taylor, I always wear my hair natural. I don’t relax my hair.’”

A Black-owned radio station, a physician, and a quest to prevent colon cancer
A pair of hands holding a cancer screening kit vial in one hand and paperwork in another extended to a person standing in a park.

A FIT Kit comes in an envelope and includes instructions, a prepaid return mailing envelope, and a small tube to contain a probe that the user will insert into a stool sample to capture a tiny particle. In the lab, the small sample is tested for signs of blood in the stool, which may not be visible. (Image: Penn Medicine Service in Action)

A Black-owned radio station, a physician, and a quest to prevent colon cancer

A unique community-based campaign by Penn Medicine, WURD, Philadelphia’s Black-owned and -operated talk radio station, and other organizations provide free colon cancer testing kits and follow-up support to Philadelphia residents.

From Penn Medicine News

‘Encrypted’ peptides could be wellspring of natural antibiotics
Microscopic view of an amino acid chain.

‘Encrypted’ peptides could be wellspring of natural antibiotics

An interdisciplinary team of Penn researchers have used a carefully designed algorithm to discover a new suite of antimicrobial peptides, or naturally occurring antibiotics, in the human genome.

From Penn Engineering Today

New study illuminates the biology of common heart disorder
Gold-colored human heart model

New study illuminates the biology of common heart disorder

Dilated cardiomyopathy, an often fatal heart disorder, due to titin gene mutations involves both a shortage of good titin and a buildup of mutant, potentially “bad” titin.

Brandon Lausch

Ethnic and racial diversity in surgical faculty associated with medical student diversity
Four nurses in gowns and masks standing smiling in a row.

Ethnic and racial diversity in surgical faculty associated with medical student diversity

A new study confirms there is little progress made in the last decade to expand racial and ethnic diversity in surgical faculty, despite evidence that more diverse faculty leads to greater racial, ethnic, and gender diversity in the medical student population.

From Penn LDI

With more kids eligible for vaccines, is the pandemic in a new phase?
Child wearing mask in school writes at a desk

With more kids eligible for vaccines, is the pandemic in a new phase?

With the FDA authorization last week, 28 million more children are eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Experts from the School of Nursing and Perelman School of Medicine share their thoughts about what to expect in the weeks and months to come.

Katherine Unger Baillie