Health Sciences | Penn Today

Konrad Kording (left) and George Demiris

University professorships for Konrad Kording, George Demiris

Kording, a data scientist who studies the brain, will become the Nathan Francis Mossell University Professor. Demiris, a gerontologist who studies IT to support older adults, will become the Mary Alice Bennett University Professor.

Three Penn faculty named Hastings Center Fellows

Holly Fernandez Lynch, Quayshawn Spencer, and Connie Ulrich have been named Hastings Center Fellows for deepening public understanding of complex ethical issues in health, health care, science, and technology.

Changing the identity of cancer cells to eliminate them

A team led by the School of Veterinary Medicine’s M. Andrés Blanco has uncovered a new target for treating certain blood cancers that works by removing an obstacle to their maturation.

illustrated bubbles of five people exchanging questions and ideas

Q&A

Putting community first, in a new social justice initiative

The Community Collaboratory for Co-Creation, led by Penn Nursing and Penn Engineering, will focus on research, education, and community engagement and outreach.

Side by side maps of the northeastern United States representing 2016 and 2015 with darker shading in certain counties.

A better estimate for tick numbers with ‘citizen science’ data

A team led by School of Arts & Sciences biologists found a way to account for biases in data collected by members of the public, using it to create a comprehensive abundance map of the tick responsible for transmitting Lyme disease.

Woman leans against a tree with her arms crossed, looking into the camera, with other trees in fall colors behind her on a sunny day

Q&A

Past plagues, current pandemics, and public hygiene messaging

History Ph.D. candidate Sarah Xia Yu discusses her research on public hygiene in China and what the past might tell us about how governments could better communicate public health messages.

An illustration of six faces with different skin tones, ranging from dark to light. Above the faces are connected lines that look like jacks, to indicate social networks.

Clinician peer networks remove race and gender bias

Research from Damon Centola of the Annenberg School for Communication shows that structured health care networks significantly reduce health care inequities and disparities in patient treatment.

Microscopic view of an amino acid chain.

‘Encrypted’ peptides could be wellspring of natural antibiotics

An interdisciplinary team of Penn researchers have used a carefully designed algorithm to discover a new suite of antimicrobial peptides, or naturally occurring antibiotics, in the human genome.

Historic move ushers in new era of care

Over eight hours, 310 patients moved to the Pavilion, a 17-story, 1.5-million-square-foot addition to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania campus.

A hub for zoonotic disease research

The new Institute for Infectious and Zoonotic Diseases, launched by the School of Veterinary Medicine, leans on Penn’s strengths in immunology and infectious disease to prepare for emerging threats to animal and human health.

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