Health Sciences

Penn Study Highlights Significant Side Effects Experienced by BRCA Mutation Carriers Following Cancer Risk-Reducing Surgical Procedure

The majority of women with cancer causing BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations experience sexual dysfunction, menopausal symptoms, cognitive and stress issues, and poor sleep following prophylactic removal of their Fallopian tubes and ovaries - a procedure known as risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO) - according to results of a new study from the Abramson Canc

Katie Delach

Penn Medicine's Innovation Grant Program Announces Second Round Winners

The Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation will fund three new initiatives in the second round of its  Innovation Grant Program. The program encourages Penn employees and students to submit their ideas for advancing health and health care delivery.

Greg Richter

Penn Medicine: Clinical Trials Designed to Block Autophagy in Multiple Cancers Show Promise

In the largest group of results to date, researchers from Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center and other institutions have shown in clinical trials that the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) blocked autophagy in a host of aggressive cancers—glioblastoma, melanoma, lymphoma and myeloma, renal and colon cancers—and in some cases helped stabilize disea

Steve Graff

Penn Vet Study Reveals Salmonella’s Hideout Strategy

The body’s innate immune system is a first line of defense, intent on sensing invading pathogens and wiping them out before they can cause harm. It should not be surprising then that bacteria have evolved many ways to specifically evade and overcome this sentry system in order to spread infection.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn Researchers Show Human Learning Altered by Electrical Stimulation of Dopamine Neurons

Stimulation of a certain population of neurons within the brain can alter the learning process, according to a team of neuroscientists and neurosurgeons at the University of Pennsylvania. A report in the Journal of Neuroscience describes for the first time that human learning can be modified by stimulation of dopamine-containing neurons in a deep brain structure known as the substantia nigra.

Kim Menard



In the News


Philadelphia Gay News

UPenn hosts free online panel for LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion

The Eidos LGBTQ+ Health Initiative, led by José Bauermeister and Jessica Halem of the School of Nursing, will host a free online panel in April on the integration of LGBTQ+ people in the workforce.

FULL STORY →



The New Yorker

How to die in good health

PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel says that incessantly preparing for old age mistakes a long life for a worthwhile one.

FULL STORY →



Philadelphia Inquirer

Mayor Parker’s plan to ‘remove the presence of drug users’ from Kensington raises new questions

Shoshana Aronowitz of the School of Nursing and Ashish Thakrar of the Perelman School of Medicine comment on the lack of specificity in Philadelphia’s plan to remove drug users from Kensington and on the current state of drug treatment in the city.

FULL STORY →



WHYY (Philadelphia)

Homeward bound: When a Penn Medicine nurse was diagnosed with uterine cancer, she turned to the service dogs she helped to train

A profile highlights Maria Wright of Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, from her volunteer work connecting people with service dogs to her cancer diagnosis and her own journey applying for a service dog.

FULL STORY →



Philadelphia Inquirer

How many patients would recommend their Philly-area hospital to family and friends? Check your local hospital

The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania has been named one of the most recommended acute-care facilities by patients in the Philadelphia area.

FULL STORY →