Health Sciences

The University of Pennsylvania’s Ruth Schwartz Cowan has been elected to the American Philosophical Society. She is professor emerita in the Department of History and Sociology of Science.

Nearly half of all adults in the United States suffer from the gum disease periodontitis, and 8.5 percent have a severe form that can raise the risk of heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and pregnancy complications.

Stimulation of a certain population of neurons within the brain can alter the learning process, according to a team of neuroscientists and neurosurgeons at the University of Pennsylvania. A report in the Journal of Neuroscience describes for the first time that human learning can be modified by stimulation of dopamine-containing neurons in a deep brain structure known as the substantia nigra.

The body’s innate immune system is a first line of defense, intent on sensing invading pathogens and wiping them out before they can cause harm. It should not be surprising then that bacteria have evolved many ways to specifically evade and overcome this sentry system in order to spread infection.

Studies of vaccine programs in the developing world have revealed that individuals with chronic infections such as malaria and hepatitis tend to be less likely to develop the fullest possible immunity benefits from vaccines for unrelated illnesses.

While large genetic testing panels promise to uncover clues about patients’ DNA, a team of researchers from Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center (ACC) has found that those powerful tests tend to produce more questions than they answer.

Despite claims suggesting otherwise, inappropriate cancer patient demands are few and very rarely lead to unnecessary tests and treatments from their health care providers, according to new results from a study that will be presented by researchers in the Abramson Cancer Center  (ACC) and the Perelman Sch

Breastfeeding, tubal ligation – also known as having one’s “tubes tied” – and oral contraceptives may lower the risk of ovarian cancer for some women with BRCA gene mutations, according to a comprehensive analysis from a team at the University of Pennsylvania's Basser Research Center for BRCA and the 

A University of Pennsylvania researcher has discovered that the common selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram arrested the growth of amyloid beta, a peptide in the brain that clusters in plaques that are thought to trigger the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

Ancient philosophers looked to alchemy for clues to life everlasting. Today, researchers look to their yeast. These single-celled microbes have long served as model systems for the puzzle that is the aging process, and in this week’s issue of Cell Metabolism, they fill in yet another piece.