Health Sciences

Mom always said you need your sleep, and it turns out, she was right.

Playing an active role in their radiation treatment decisions leaves cancer patients feeling more satisfied with their care, and may even relieve psychological distress around the experience, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report in the

Researchers at Penn Medicine have discovered that the tumor suppressor gene folliculin (FLCN) is essential to normal lung function in patients with the rare disease Birt-Hogg-Dube (BHD) syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects the lungs, skin and kidneys.

Tucked behind old factory buildings on Penn’s South Bank campus stands a gleaming greenhouse. The $2 million structure, completed late last year, is state-of-the-art.

Two Penn Medicine research teams have received a total of $1,450,000 in funding commitments from CurePSP, the Foundation for PSP | CBD and Related Brain Diseases, to study rare neurodegenerative disorders that cause motor, balance and cognitive impairment.

The consequences of modern life -- shift work, cell phone addiction, and travel across time zones -- all disturb internal clocks. These are found in the brain where they regulate sleep and throughout the body where they regulate physiology and metabolism. Disrupting the clocks is called circadian misalignment, which has been linked to metabolic problems, even in healthy volunteers.

New research by Andrew Stokes, a doctoral student in demography and sociology in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, suggests that many obesity studies substantially underestimate the mortality risks associated with excess weight in the United States. His study, “Using Maximum Weight to Redefine Body Mass Index Categories in Studies of The Mortality Risks of Obesity,” was published in the March issue of the open-access journal Population Health Metrics.

A multi-institutional team led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has found that despite widespread rumors of limited access to primary care services, providers across the country were capable of accepting new patients pr

How will we, as individuals, and a society, live with brains at risk for Alzheimer's disease dementia?

Lyme disease, if not treated promptly with antibiotics, can become a lingering problem for those infected.