9/20
Health Sciences
An unsolved mystery: Why are we sleepy when sick?
An unsolved mystery: Why are we sleepy when sick?
David Raizen, a professor of neurology, alongside PURM student Hina Sako, spent the summer moving forward research examining how sickness affects sleep.
The brain-blood barrier’s role in governing ant behavior
The brain-blood barrier’s role in governing ant behavior
New research from Penn Medicine uncovers a link between a single enzyme and complex social behaviors in ants.
Removing the barrier surrounding solid tumors clears path for T cells
Removing the barrier surrounding solid tumors clears path for T cells
Penn researchers uncover a new way to target solid tumors. Using CAR T cells to remove cancer-associated fibroblasts surrounding pancreatic tumors allows T cells to infiltrate and attack the tumor cells.
Penn Medicine’s Carl June to receive 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
Penn Medicine’s Carl June to receive 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
The Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Perelman School of Medicine is honored for pioneering the development of CAR T cell therapy, which programs patients’ own immune cells to fight their cancer.
Can the COVID playbook help end malaria?
Can the COVID playbook help end malaria?
In a Perry World House conversation, Matthew Laurens, Martina Mchenga, and Drew Weissman discussed how lessons from a global pandemic could help in the fight to eradicate malaria.
The nursing burnout crisis is also happening in primary care
The nursing burnout crisis is also happening in primary care
A study co-authored by Penn Nursing’s Jacqueline Nikpour and J. Margo Brooks Carthon finds nurses in primary care face burnout and poor work environments, especially in low-income clinics.
Genetic switch turns tumor suppressor into oncogene in colorectal cancer
Genetic switch turns tumor suppressor into oncogene in colorectal cancer
Researchers from the School of Veterinary Medicine have shown that an enzyme that suppresses early-stage colorectal cancer switches to become an oncogene as the cancer progresses.
The new U.S. plan to target xylazine-laced fentanyl
The new U.S. plan to target xylazine-laced fentanyl
Researchers from Penn LDI, in conjunction with the Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for Substance Use Disorder, analyze the plan and raise the question of whether it goes far enough.
A link between memory and appetite in the brain to explain obesity
A link between memory and appetite in the brain to explain obesity
Penn Medicine researchers have found the hippocampal subnetwork, located within the memory center of the brain, is more dysregulated in patients with higher body mass indexes, leading to an inability to control or regulate eating habits.
Social ecology and community work in the Galápagos
Social ecology and community work in the Galápagos
Undergraduate and graduate students spent two months on San Cristóbal Island this summer, doing research on antibacterial resistance, vectors of disease, climate change adaptation, and the impact of climate change on mental health.
In the News
The New York Times
What social media does to the teen brain
Frances Jensen of the Perelman School of Medicine examines the impact that social media is having on the brains of teenagers, the first “truly digital generation.”
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Hartford Courant
Mistrust of medical professionals harms Black residents’ health. CT professionals are working to improve it
A Perelman School of Medicine study shows that distrust of the health care system is strongly connected with self-reported fair or poor health.
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Philadelphia Inquirer
My brother’s recovery from a car crash became a lesson in how to talk to doctors and nurses
Emily Largent of the Perelman School of Medicine writes that communication is part of healing, as she experienced when her brother was in a car accident and unable to notify family himself.
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Philadelphia Inquirer
In-hospital strokes like Charlie Manuel’s are common
Steven Messé of the Perelman School of Medicine has been working on a solution to a long-standing problem in stroke care and says that for a variety of reasons in-hospital strokes sometimes are not detected until hours after they occur.
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Philadelphia Business Journal
Penn researcher’s Every Cure nonprofit lands ‘game-changing’ support as it works to help patients with uncurable diseases
David Fajgenbaum of the Perelman School of Medicine comments on “game-changer” funding for the nonprofit Every Cure, which he co-founded.
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