Science & Technology

The totality of RNA molecules in an organism at any one time is the product of a delicate dance. Genes must be “turned on,” or expressed, in order to turn DNA into RNA and then that RNA into proteins that accomplish an organism’s physiological needs. But, just as important, those RNA transcripts must be cleared away once they are no longer required. 

Shuying (Sheri) Yang, a new associate professor in the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine’s Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, began her career as a medical student, the fulfillment of a childhood dream.

For people who work in the service sector, unpredictable, unstable schedules have a range of negative consequences, including psychological stress and poor health, according to a new working paper from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley.

By Patrick Ammerman

By Patrick Ammerman Evolution tends to create simple rules that can work in organisms of all kinds. These rules are often all that nature needs to build some of the most complicated parts of biology through thousands of years of adaptation.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded the University of Pennsylvania a $24 Million, five-year grant to establish a Science and Technology Center (STC) focused on engineering mechanobiology, or the way cells exert and are influenced by the physical forces in their environment. This award is part of an overall $94 million from NSF to support four new STCs.

By Patrick Ammerman Scientists can seem set apart from other disciplines, interpreting the rules of the natural world without the involvement of the social sciences and the humanities. But a new initiative at the University of Pennsylvania is trying to change that by fostering new collaborations around the lynchpin issue of energy.

Two doctoral students from the University of Pennsylvania were selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as inaugural Health Policy Research Scholars. They are Jasmine L. Blanks Jones and Sondra Calhoun. 

Take a glance around the oceans, rivers and lakes of today and you’ll confront an astonishing diversity of fish, from narrow-bodied eels to the 25-foot-long giant oarfish to delicate, fluttering seahorses. The vast majority of fish alive today — approximately 96 percent — are known as teleosts, a group of ray-finned fish that emerged 260 million years ago.

Protein drugs, which derive from biological sources, represent some of the most important and effective biopharmaceuticals on the market. Some, like insulin, have been used for decades, while many more based on cloned genes are coming to market and are valued for their precise and powerful functions.