1/23
Health Sciences
Penn Research Points to Omega-3 as a Nutritional Intervention for Childhood Behavioral Problems
At the forefront of a field known as “neurocriminology,” Adrian Raine of the University of Pennsylvania has long studied the interplay between biology and environment when it comes to antisocial and criminal behavior.
Plant Toxin Causes Biliary Atresia in Animal Model, According to Penn Study
A study in this week’s Science Translational Medicine is a classic example of how seemingly unlikely collaborators can come together to make surprising discoveries.
Female Cystic Fibrosis Patients Need More Contraceptive Guidance, Penn Medicine Study Finds
nly half of women with cystic fibrosis (CF) report using contraception and frequently apt to become pregnant unintentionally, according to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Penn-Michigan State Team Develops Novel Gene Therapy for Achromatopsia
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and Michigan State University presented new preclinical data this week that evaluates the efficacy of a gene therapy treatment for achromatopsia, a rare inherited retinal disease that involves cone cells. The disease affects humans as well as dogs.
Penn Study Indicates that Gene Therapy Efficacy for LCA is Dynamic: Improvement is Followed by Decline in Vision
Gene therapy for Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), an inherited disorder that causes loss of night- and day-vision starting in childhood, improved patients’ eyesight within weeks of treatment in a clinical trial of 15 children and adults at the Scheie Eye Institute at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Penn Medicine Researchers Receive $7.5 Million to Expand HIV Gene Therapy Work
Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine and the Penn Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) have been awarded $7.5 million over five years from the National Institutes of Health to initiate a multi-project HIV study investigating a new gene therapy approach to render immune cells of HIV positive patients resistant to the virus.
Off-Label Use of Device to Prevent Stroke in A-Fib Patients is Prevalent and Potentially Dangerous, According to Penn Medicine Study
The Lariat device, which has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for soft tissue approximation (placement of a suture) during surgical procedures, is associated with a significant incidence of death and urgent cardiac surgery during its frequent off-label use to prevent stroke in patients with the irregular heartbeat known as atrial fibrillation.
NIH Awards $8 Million Renewal to Penn Medicine's Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology
The National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has renewed its funding to the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET), at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, for the next five years.
Penn Senior Matthew Lisle: Adapting to Climate Change Through Water Security
By Madeleine Stone @themadstone (This is the fifth and last in a series of features introducing the inaugural Penn President’s Engagement Prize winners.)
Medical Education Risks Becoming Two-Tiered Unless Strong Research Focus is Preserved, Argue Philadelphia Medical Leaders
For more than 100 years, exposing students to basic and clinical research has been an essential component of a medical school education in the United States. However, today, new models of medical education in which research plays a minimal role are likely to create a two-tiered system of education, decrease the physician-scientist pipeline and diminish the application of scientific advances to patient care.
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.
FULL STORY →
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.
FULL STORY →
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.
FULL STORY →
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.
FULL STORY →
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.
FULL STORY →