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Study finds American women may benefit from IUD only available in Europe and Canada

Study finds American women may benefit from IUD only available in Europe and Canada

New research led by researchers at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine suggests the Food and Drug Administration should consider approving more and smaller IUDs. While the larger IUDs are 99% effective at preventing pregnancies over three years, the researchers have found the mini IUDs were still very effective (at 95%) for the same duration.

Stem cell discovery could be key to healing tough-to-fix fractures

Stem cell discovery could be key to healing tough-to-fix fractures

The ability of a stem cell originating in skeletal muscle to turn into bone could hold the key to bone healing after catastrophic fractures, according to research at Penn’s Perleman School of Medicine. The researchers find that Prg4+—a type of stem cell that originates in the muscles that support the skeleton—is crucial to bone repairs because the cells could actually transform from muscle cells to bone cells.

Eri Maeda: Investigating barriers to menopause care
Eri Maeda standing outdoors against a brick wall and smiling, facing forward.

Eri Maeda, a rising third-year in the College of Arts & Sciences, spent her summer in the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program (PURM) studying the impact of insurance status on menopause care access in the U.S. A neuroscience major pursuing a pre-medicine path, Maeda has gained new insights and research skills throughout her PURM experience.

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Eri Maeda: Investigating barriers to menopause care

Rising third-year Eri Maeda dedicated her summer to a Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program project exploring how insurance status may shape access to menopause care in the U.S.

4 min. read

Researchers advance mRNA delivery to the retina using stabilized lipid carriers

Researchers advance mRNA delivery to the retina using stabilized lipid carriers

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.

Penn’s Benjamin Nathans reflects on his work and Pulitzer Prize win
Benjamin Nathans sits at a table in his office.

Benjamin Nathans has been studying Soviet and Russian history for four decades.

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Penn’s Benjamin Nathans reflects on his work and Pulitzer Prize win

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.

5 min. read

AI vision, reinvented: The power of synthetic data

AI vision, reinvented: The power of synthetic data

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.

Ian Scheffler

2 min. read

Three undergraduates map climate and health education opportunities across campus
Wendy Hernandez Higarede and Veronica Baladi look at glass case in Houston Hall.

Wendy Hernandez Higarede and Veronica Baladi made observations in Houston Hall as part of their fieldwork.

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Three undergraduates map climate and health education opportunities across campus

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.

2 min. read

Understanding the social needs of cancer survivors
Person with head covering looking out a window.

Image: Liliya Krueger via Getty Images

Understanding the social needs of cancer survivors

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.

3 min. read

Could exoplanets locked in eternal day and endless night support life?
Artist depiction of exoplanet LHS 3844 b.

Image: Courtesy of NASA

Could exoplanets locked in eternal day and endless night support life?

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).

7 min. read