Research

The efficient delivery of synthetic mRNA to the retina has been a barrier to mRNA-based treatments for vision loss. A new study from Penn Vet has found that coating mRNA-lipid complexes (lipoplexes) with polyethylene glycol (PEG)-lipid derivatives can enhance their stability and penetration into retinal tissue.

Historian Benjamin Nathans’ huge volume on the stories and lives of Soviet dissidents has gotten renewed attention after winning the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. Nathan’s research and insights span a four-decade-long career studying Russia and the USSR, modern Jewish history, and the history of human rights.

Researchers at Penn Engineering and the Allen Institute for AI are using AI to create scientific figures, charts, and tables that teach other AI systems how to interpret complex visual information for open-source models.

For a Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program project, Wendy Hernandez Higarede, Veronica Baladi, and Faith Amolo Owino are engaging with Penn’s Climate and Health Education Working Group and learning ethnographic methods.

Penn researchers and their colleagues have investigated how unmet social needs impact the health and well-being of U.S. cancer survivors. Their findings are relevant for other serious chronic illnesses.

Ever so slightly bigger than Earth, the exoplanet LHS 3844b orbits its parent star, LHS 3884, a red dwarf 48.5 light-years away from our solar system, in such a way that the speed of its axial spin mirrors the speed of its orbit. The result? One side of LHS 3844b is perpetually bathed in scorching sunlight, locked into a never-ending, blistering hot day, while the other is forever shrouded in darkness so cold that particles are incapable of movement, a state known as absolute zero (zero Kelvin).

A new study by researchers at the Annenberg School for Communication reveals effective ways to reduce false beliefs about nicotine.

Research from psychologists in the School of Arts & Sciences shows that children ages 3 to 5 can identify emotions in music, but that kids who show fewer signs of empathy or guilt demonstrate poorer emotion recognition. “We’re excited to continue to use music as a paradigm both to understand underlying mechanisms and as a treatment target,” Rebecca Waller says.

With their StoryMaps projects, Penn students explore the history of Philadelphia’s neighborhoods utilizing both cutting-edge tools and historical primary sources provided by the Penn Libraries.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers approaches the question ‘How do teeth mineralize?’ by analyzing the physical, biological, and genetic properties of teeth for real-world clinical applications in the future.