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Novel mRNA vaccine prevents and treat C. difficile
Microscopic view of C. difficile.

Image: iStock/Dr_Microbe

Novel mRNA vaccine prevents and treat C. difficile

Penn Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia have developed the first mRNA vaccine against C. difficile to successfully ward off the bacterial infection.

Alex Gardner

A year after the Nobel Prize, Penn’s mRNA research is revving up
A lab worker with latex gloves doing mRNA research.

The flurry of new innovation in mRNA beyond COVID-19 vaccines began prior to Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó’s Nobel, but the award has only built on the wave of enthusiasm for mRNA research.

(Image: Dan Burke)

A year after the Nobel Prize, Penn’s mRNA research is revving up

In 2023, Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó received Nobel Prize recognition for mRNA vaccines. Today, the work continues apace as successes across the University show how medicine is changing rapidly as a result of the prize-winning discovery.

Alex Gardner

Katalin Karikó, Nobel Laureate and pioneering mRNA researcher, named to Distinguished Daughters of Pennsylvania
kariko portrait

Katalin Karikó is a senior vice president at BioNTech and an adjunct professor of neurosurgery in the Perelman School of Medicine. (Image: Peggy Peterson/Courtesy of Penn Medicine)

Katalin Karikó, Nobel Laureate and pioneering mRNA researcher, named to Distinguished Daughters of Pennsylvania

Karikó was honored by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro at a special ceremony in Harrisburg.

Alex Gardner

Understanding the cellular mechanisms driving solid tumors’ robust defense system
A 3D rendering of the tumor microenvironment with cancer cells, T-Cells, nanoparticles, cancer associated fibroblast layer of tumor microenvironment normal cells, molecules, and blood vessels.

In a collaborative interdisciplinary study, Michael Mitchell of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Wei Guo of the School of Arts & Sciences, and Drew Weissman of the Perelman School of Medicine show that solid tumors can block drug-delivery mechanisms with a “forcefield-like” effect but certain genetic elements that can effectively “shut down” the forcefield. Their findings hint at new targets for delivering cancer treatments that use the body’s immune system to fight tumors.

(Image: iStock / CIPhotos)

Understanding the cellular mechanisms driving solid tumors’ robust defense system

Researchers from Penn have identified a “forcefield-like” defense system in solid tumors and the genetic elements that can switch it off.
Penn pioneers a ‘one-pot platform’ to promptly produce mRNA delivery particles
3D illustration showing cross-section of the lipid nanoparticle carrying mRNA of the virus entering a human cell.

Lipid nanoparticles present one of the most advanced drug delivery platforms to shuttle promising therapeutics such as mRNA but are limited by the time it takes to synthesize cationic lipids, a key component. Now, Michael Mitchell and his team at the School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a faster way to make cationic lipids that are also more versatile, able to carry different kinds of treatments to target specific organs.

(Image: iStock / Dr_Microbe)

Penn pioneers a ‘one-pot platform’ to promptly produce mRNA delivery particles

New lipid platform enables rapid synthesis of molecules that can shuttle therapeutics for a range of diseases with a high degree of organ specificity.