Health Sciences

Penn Scientists Find That Flow Means "Go" for Proper Lymph System Development

The lymphatic system provides a slow flow of fluid from our organs and tissues into the bloodstream. It returns fluid and proteins that leak from blood vessels, provides passage for immune and inflammatory cells from the tissues to the blood, and hosts key niches for immune cells. How this system develops hasn’t been well understood, but now researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found from experiments in mice that the early flow of lymph fluid is a critical factor in the development of mature lymphatic vessels.

Karen Kreeger

A Bash Between Friends

It wasn’t long ago that Maria Soltero-Rivera learned an important lesson: “Different is good.” “We’ve been working so hard doing this, and this little girl puts into a few simple words exactly what we’ve been trying to communicate to everyone,” Soltero-Rivera says. “You just learn so much from these kids.”

Lauren Hertzler

Researchers at Penn Develop Scar-like Culture Systems to Understand and Treat Fibrosis

A scar might be a reminder of an accident or surgery, but the fibrous tissue that makes up a scar also forms after a heart attack and arises in solid tumors as well as in chronic diseases such as liver cirrhosis and muscular dystrophy. Implanted medical devices and materials are similarly surrounded by fibrous capsules that impede their function.  

Evan Lerner

Penn Vet Team Shows a Protein Modification Determines Enzyme’s Fate

The human genome encodes roughly 20,000 genes, only a few thousand more than fruit flies. The complexity of the human body, therefore, comes from far more than just the sequence of nucleotides that comprise our DNA, it arises from modifications that occur at the level of gene, RNA and protein.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Vision-Restoring Gene Therapy Also Strengthens Visual Processing Pathways in Brain, According to Penn Study

Since 2007, clinical trials using gene therapy have resulted in often-dramatic sight restoration for dozens of children and adults who were otherwise doomed to blindness. Now, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), have found evidence that this sight restoration leads to strengthening of visual pathways in the brain, published this week in Science Translational Medicine.

Karen Kreeger



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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