Health Sciences | Penn Today

front steps of Penn Nursing’s Fagin Hall in sunlight

A first-of-its-kind academic social entrepreneurship lab

The Eidos LGBT+ Health Initiative, anchored in the School of Nursing, is part of a $750 million University investment in science, engineering, and medicine.

Engaging Minds event continues ‘pushing knowledge to new frontiers’

Penn’s annual Engaging Minds event featured three faculty experts whose innovative research is changing the way we think and talk about policing, immigration, and suicides.

PIK Professor Kevin Johnson named University Professor

Kevin Johnson, who has appointments in the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication, will become the David L. Cohen University Professor.

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.

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