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New Penn Program Studies the Body’s Cells, One By One

New Penn Program Studies the Body’s Cells, One By One

By Sarah Welsh Cancer starts with a single cell going haywire. What is it about that one cell that makes it different from the rest, setting it on a path of destruction? A new program at the University of Pennsylvania may help find an answer to that and many other questions.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Penn Medicine: Genomewide Screen of Learning in Zebrafish Identifies Enzyme Important in Neural Circuit

Penn Medicine: Genomewide Screen of Learning in Zebrafish Identifies Enzyme Important in Neural Circuit

Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvaniadescribe the first set of genes important in learning in a zebrafish model in the journal Neuron this week. “Using an in-depth analysis of one of these genes, we have already revealed an important relevant signaling pathway,” says senior author Michael Granato, PhD, a professor of Cell and Developmental Biology. “The proteins in this pathway could provide new insights into the development of novel pharmacological targets.”

Karen Kreeger

Penn Medicine Experts Offer Suggestions for Nudging Children toward Healthier Food Choices

Penn Medicine Experts Offer Suggestions for Nudging Children toward Healthier Food Choices

Strategies aimed at reducing childhood obesity should acknowledge individuals’ rational taste preferences and apply insights from behavioral economics to design choice architecture that increases their likelihood of success, say two physician-scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics in an editorial published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Anna Duerr

Penn Medicine Researchers Pinpoint Potential New Drug Target for Protection against Certain Neurodegenerative Diseases

Penn Medicine Researchers Pinpoint Potential New Drug Target for Protection against Certain Neurodegenerative Diseases

Penn Medicine researchers have discovered that hypermethylation - the epigenetic ability to turn down or turn off a bad gene implicated in 10 to 30 percent of patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal Degeneration (FTD) - serves as a protective barrier inhibiting the development of these diseases.  Their work, published this month in Neurology, may suggest a neuroprotective target for drug discovery efforts.

Lee-Ann Donegan

Penn Researchers Describe New Approach to Promote Regeneration of Heart Tissue

Penn Researchers Describe New Approach to Promote Regeneration of Heart Tissue

The heart tissue of mammals has limited capacity to regenerate after an injury such as a heart attack, in part due to the inability to reactivate a cardiac muscle cell and proliferation program. Recent studies have indicated a low level of cardiac muscle cell (cardiomyocytes) proliferation in adult mammals, but it is insufficient to repair damaged hearts.

Karen Kreeger

Penn Medicine Study Finds Being Near Greened Vacant Lots Lowers Heart Rates

Penn Medicine Study Finds Being Near Greened Vacant Lots Lowers Heart Rates

Greening vacant lots may be associated with biologic reductions in stress, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Residents who walked near newly greened vacant lots had significantly lower heart rates compared to walking near a blighted, or neglected, vacant lot.

Greg Richter

Penn Vet Team Points to New Colon Cancer Culprit

Penn Vet Team Points to New Colon Cancer Culprit

Colon cancer is a heavily studied disease — and for good reason. It is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and its numbers are on the rise, from 500,000 deaths in 1990 to 700,000 in 2010.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Botswana-UPenn Partnership Teams up with Microsoft and Partners to Launch Telemedicine Service over TV White Spaces Network

Botswana-UPenn Partnership Teams up with Microsoft and Partners to Launch Telemedicine Service over TV White Spaces Network

The Botswana-UPenn Partnership (BUP) is collaborating with Microsoft, the Botswana Innovation Hub, and other global partners to launch the first telemedicine service in Africa using TV white spaces to bring internet connectivity to hospitals and clinics across rural areas of Botswana.

Steve Graff