Health Sciences

First Microscopic Video of Blood Clot Contraction Reveals How Platelets Naturally Form Unobtrusive Clots

The first view of the physical mechanism of how a blood clot contracts at the level of individual platelets is giving researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania a new look at a natural process that is part of blood clotting. A team led by John W.

Karen Kreeger

Connecting Homeless Populations With Health Care

Homeless people are uniquely vulnerable, at risk of a variety of health problems, including chronic illness, hunger, pain, and infections. While resources exist to provide homeless populations with health insurance and care, those resources don’t always make their way to the people who need them.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Targeting enzyme in ‘normal’ cells may impede pancreatic cancer’s spread, Penn Vet team shows

Cancer of the pancreas is a deadly disease, with a median survival time of less than six months. Only one in 20 people with pancreatic cancer survives five years past the diagnosis. The reason is the cancer’s insidiousness; tumor cells hide deep inside the body, betraying no symptoms until late in the disease, when the cancer has almost invariably spread to other organs.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn Medicine: Blood Flow in the Developing Heart Guides Maturation of Heart Valves

Congenital heart valve defects appear in 2 percent of all live births, making them the most common type of birth defect. While some of these defects have been linked to specific genetic mutations, the majority have no clearly definable genetic cause, suggesting that epigenetic factors – changes in gene expression versus an alteration in the genetic code -- play an important role.



In the News


6ABC.com

Bird flu suspected in deaths of 200 snow geese in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley

Stephen Cole of the School of Veterinary Medicine says that indoor cats are contracting bird flu through raw pet foods of poultry origin or raw milk products.

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Self

The surgeon general calls for new warning labels on alcohol—here’s the truth about how it impacts your health

Henry Kranzler of the Perelman School of Medicine says that alcohol’s effects on the brain are observed more readily because it’s the organ of behavior.

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NPR

Tuberculosis rates plunge when families living in poverty get a monthly cash payout

Aaron Richterman of the Perelman School of Medicine says that there are large and underappreciated benefits of cash-transfer programs, such as potentially ending a tuberculosis epidemic.

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Newsweek

Cancer breakthrough as ‘speckles’ may reveal best treatment

A paper co-authored by PIK Professor Shelley Berger finds that patterns of “speckles” in the heart of tumor cells could help predict how patients with a common form of kidney cancer will respond to treatment options.

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Time

Scientists are racing to develop a new bird flu vaccine

Drew Weissman and Scott Hensley of the Perelman School of Medicine are testing a vaccine to prevent a strain of H5N1 bird flu in chickens and cattle.

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