8.21
Health Sciences
Could NFL players’ performance after a concussion mask the dangers?
Could NFL players’ performance after a concussion mask the dangers?
A new study shows NFL players return to the field quickly and with no dip in their stats, but this may come at a cost.
Gutmann, Moreno op-ed details ‘ethical mess’ of health care system
Gutmann, Moreno op-ed details ‘ethical mess’ of health care system
“Surely our fellow Americans with life-threatening diseases of all sorts are also worth saving,” they write.
A wearable new technology moves brain monitoring from the lab to the real world
A wearable new technology moves brain monitoring from the lab to the real world
The portable EEG created by PIK Professor Michael Platt and postdoc Arjun Ramakrishnan has potential applications from health care to sports performance.
Balance of ‘stop’ and ‘go’ signaling could be key to cancer immunotherapy
Balance of ‘stop’ and ‘go’ signaling could be key to cancer immunotherapy
A Penn study shows potential of the interferon pathway as a biomarker to help predict which patients are likely to respond to immunotherapies.
Dangers and protections of rising temps for people on common medicines
Dangers and protections of rising temps for people on common medicines
We know that as temperatures rise, so do many health risks: not just for heat stroke and dehydration but also for heart disease, respiratory diseases, and deaths overall. Three studies explore the impact that rising temperatures have on people who take common medications.
Five insights into how the brain works
Five insights into how the brain works
As the Center for Neuroscience & Society celebrates 10 years, founding director Martha Farah reflects on the array of research from its faculty, on subjects from brain games to aggression.
Looking into the immune system to better fight disease
Looking into the immune system to better fight disease
A rare, short-lived population of immune cells in the bloodstream may serve as ‘periscopes’ to monitor immune status via lymph nodes deep inside the body, researchers say.
The brain’s amyloid buildup is not a powerful indicator of Alzheimer’s disease
The brain’s amyloid buildup is not a powerful indicator of Alzheimer’s disease
Researchers find fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET, which measures the brain’s glucose consumption as a marker of neural activity, is a better indicator of cognitive performance when compared to PET scans that detect amyloid proteins.
A cohort study comes of age
A cohort study comes of age
For nearly two decades, a major national study of kidney disease led and coordinated at Penn has defined key risk factors in an all-too-common silent epidemic.
Improving outcomes for sepsis patients
Improving outcomes for sepsis patients
More than 1 million sepsis survivors are discharged annually from acute care hospitals in the United States. Although the majority of these patients receive post-acute care services, with more than a third coming to home health care, sepsis survivors account for a majority of readmissions nationwide.
In the News
Philadelphia Inquirer
Treating gun violence in Philadelphia trauma bay
Jeremy Cannon, Jose Pascual, and Franklin Caldera of the Perelman School of Medicine and Rhonda Browning, Michael Atweh, and John Ehman of Penn Medicine were quoted in an article about the impact of gunshot wounds on hospital employees.
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PBS NewsHour
Does the placenta carry germs? What parents should know before they eat one
Frederic Bushman of Perelman School of Medicine commented on research that found that placenta encapsulation kits may be pre-contaminated by outside microbes. “It was really a very impressive bunch of detective work,” he said. “They were absolutely artistic at figuring out the sources of different kinds of contamination.”
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Scientific American
Scientists seek better guidelines for editing genes in human embryos
Bruce Levine of the Perelman School of Medicine called for a moratorium on scientific research that entails gene editing in human embryos. “There has not been a conversation with society at large—the lay public, government, religious groups, NGOs [nongovernmental organizations], stakeholders—because the science has been moving faster than [our own] conversations have been,” he said.
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The New York Times
The ethical mess of our healthcare system
President Amy Gutmann and PIK Professor Jonathan Moreno authored an op-ed about the U.S. health care system. “By revising and reinforcing the A.C.A.,” they wrote, “we can benefit all Americans without threatening any with the loss of hard-fought, lifesaving health coverage. Surely our fellow Americans with life-threatening diseases of all sorts are also worth saving.”
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BBC
How ‘smart’ email could change the way we talk
Maria Geffen of the Perelman School of Medicine spoke about the potential implications of the ongoing use of predictive text technology. “By taking prediction away from our language system, more advanced predictive text fills it in with something that regresses to the mean, reducing variability,” she said.
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