Science & Technology

Dyskeratosis congenita, or DC, is a rare, inherited disease for which there are limited treatment options and no cure. Typically diagnosed in childhood, the disorder causes stem cells to fail, leading to significant problems including bone marrow failure, lung fibrosis, dyskeratosis of the skin and intestinal atrophy and inflammation.

By Patrick Ammerman Why do some science news stories catch our eye, even if they use exaggerated, irrelevant or inaccurate information?

The placenta is oddly ephemeral for an organ. It appears, grows, and changes throughout the course of pregnancy, and then is gone. After delivery, researchers have a few hours at most to work with donated placentae before the tissue dies, and that is the best among limited options. Experimenting on the organ in vivo is effectively impossible.

A team of University of Pennsylvania researchers has developed a computer model that will aid in the design of nanocarriers, microscopic structures used to guide drugs to their targets in the body.

The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design has named three new senior fellows: William Hederman, former senior advisor to the U.S.

In humans, it’s well documented that having a healthy social life is associated with better physical health. The same is true for baboons: females who have close bonds with other females live longer and have greater reproductive success.

The bacteria that live in dental plaque and contribute to tooth decay often resist traditional antimicrobial treatment, as they can “hide” within a sticky biofilm matrix, a glue-like polymer scaffold.

Spending the summer taking classes and working in the University of Pennsylvania admissions office and as a research assistant is giving rising sophomore Andrea Ning an opportunity to stretch her mind and expand her interests.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed the first placenta-on-a-chip that can fully model the transport of nutrients across the placental barrier.

It has remained frustratingly difficult to develop a vaccine for HIV/AIDS, in part because the virus, once in our bodies, rapidly reproduces and evolves to escape being killed by the immune system.