Penn researchers discover how key protein stops inflammation
... Their findings, published in Science, open new avenues of exploration for developing therapies to treat infectious or inflammatory diseases, such as sepsis, diabetes...Penn researchers discover pathway that eliminates genetic defects in red blood cells
... The results appear in the most recent issue of Nature Structur...Measuring the unseeable: Penn researchers probe proteins' dark energy
... The situation is akin to the discussion in astrophysics in which theoreticians predict that there is dark matter, or energy, that no one has yet se...Fedoroff, of Penn State, to receive National Medal of Science
... The National Medal of Science honors individuals for pioneering scientific research, in a range of fields including physical, biological, mathematical, social, beh...Penn researchers discover how microRNAs control protein synthesis
... Scientists estimate miRNAs have the ability to regulate the expression of approximately one third of human genes, and previous studies have linked abnormal activity of miRN...Penn researchers report that gene therapy awakens the brain despite blindness from birth
Philadelphia - Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated that gene therapy used to restore retinal activity to the blind also restores function to the brains visual center, a critical component of seeing. ...The multi-institutional study led by Geoffrey K. Aguirre, assistant professor of neurology in Penn's School of Medicine, shows that gene therapy can improve retinal,...Rutgers, Penn researchers capture research dollars to improve prostate cancer diagnostic methods
... Diagnostic methods being developed by Rutgers biomedical engineers and University of Pennsylvania physicians use powerful high resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) techniques to reveal previously hidden cancerous tissue in prostate glands. The innovative techniques also can pinpoint concentrations of suspicious tissue, thus improving the...Bungee-powered backpack can lighten your load, University of Pennsylvania researcher says
PHILADELPHIA Old Saint Nick might very well be able to run from rooftop to rooftop without reindeer this year, if only he carried toys in a backpack like the one developed by biologists at the University of Pennsylvania. ... In this week's edition of the journal Nature, Penn researchers have announced details for a suspended-load ergonomic backpack that reduces the force of a backpack's load o...Penn leads $4 million grant to study gene-environment interactions in lung cancer
... The award, which was announced by Governor Rendell last month, will fund the establishment of a Center for Gene-Environment Interactions in Lung Cancer directed by Steve...Penn study finds ICD devices offer heart patients life-saving benefits
PHILADELPHIA -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine have discovered that implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) -- electric monitoring devices that deliver a lifesaving shock in the event of a cardiac arrest -- help patients with heart problems live longer more active lives. Further, the study found most patients living with ICDs enjoy a quality of life con...Penn scientists engineer small molecules to probe proteins deep inside cell membrane
... To probe the secrets of these seemingly inaccessible proteins, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have designed peptides that are able to bind to specific...Penn study finds inhaled anesthetics accelerate the appearance of brain plaque in animals
PHILADELPHIA Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine have discovered that common inhaled anesthetics increase the number of amyloid plaques in the brains of animals, which might accelerate the onset of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. Roderic Eckenhoff, MD, Vice Chair of Research in the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Anesthesia and Critical Car...Penn researchers discover new molecular path to fight autoimmune diseases
(PHILADELPHIA) -- Multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and arthritis are among a variety of autoimmune diseases that are aggravated when one type of white blood cell, called the immune regulatory cell, malfunctions. In humans, one cause of this malfunction is when a mutation in the FOXP3 gene disables the immune cells ability to function. In a new study published online this week in the Proceedings of...Penn researchers replace organ in adult mice using 'single-parent' stem cells
... "Creating uniparental embryonic stem cells is actually much more efficient th...Penn researchers discover initial steps in the development of taste
.....An AIDS-related virus tricks cells to become tumors, new Penn study finds
... KSHV is an opportunistic pathogen that rarely affects individuals with normal immune systems. However, HIV/AIDS patients and those who are immune suppressed such as organ transplant patients...Penn researcher shows that DNA gets kinky easily at the nanoscale
PHILADELPHIA Scientists have answered a long-standing molecular stumper regarding DNA: How can parts of such a rigid molecule bend and coil without requiring large amounts of force? According to a team of researchers from the United States and the Netherlands, led by a physicist from the University of Pennsylvania, DNA is much more flexible than previously believed when examined over extremely...Environmental toxicology experts to convene at Penn symposium
WHAT: Members of the media are invited to attend The Environment, Health and Disease, a symposium hosted by the new Center for Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The Center is the first of its kind in Pennsylvania and will bring together world-renowned experts from the field of environmental toxicology. Topics to be addressed inclu...Penn to host Herbal Medicine Symposium
The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and the Morris Arboretum are jointly sponsoring a symposium on September 19-20, 2006 entitled Herbal Medicine: Perception, Practice and Rational Use. The symposium will bring together world-renowned experts in the field of herbal medicine. The broad range of topics to be addressed will include everything from a look at the his...Good times ahead for dinosaur hunters, according to U of Penn scientist's dinosaur census
PHILADELPHIA The golden age of dinosaur discovery is yet upon us, according to Peter Dodson at the University of Pennsylvania. In a forthcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dodson revises his groundbreaking 1990 census on the diversity of discoverable dinosaurs upward by 50%, offering a brighter outlook about the number of dinosaurs waiting to be found. His fi...U of Penn researchers identify gatekeeper involved in chronic inflammatory diseases
PHILADELPHIA The road to many an inflammatory disease is guarded by a cytokine messenger protein called interleukin-27, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Chronic inflammation results when the immune system becomes over stimulated and begins attacking healthy tissue in excess. The Penn researchers found that IL-27 inhibits the immune s...Penn researchers determine structure of smallpox virus protein bound to DNA
... "This enzyme is one of the most closely studied DNA-modifying enzymes in biology," says Frederic D. Bushman, PhD, Professor of Microbiology, one of the senior authors. "The structure of the DNA complex has been long-...Penn researchers find role for microRNAs in angiogenesis
Philadelphia -- Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine have identified how molecules of microRNA are responsible for the growth of blood vessels in a model for human colon cancer. The process, called angiogenesis, results in ability of ravenous cancer cells to recruit blood vessels and receive a steady supply of nutrients and oxygen.... The findings, which...Gatekeeping: Penn researchers find new way to open ion channels in cell membranes
... The enzyme, sphingomyelinase D (SMase D), splits a lipid called sphingomyelin that surrounds the channel embedded in the cell membra...Penn receives $4 million to establish a Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology
(Philadelphia, PA) Over the next four years, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine will receive $4.1 million from the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to study the effects of environmental pollutants on human health. The new Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) represents a partnership be...Penn researchers discover gene for FOP, profound skeletal disorder
WHAT: FINDINGS EMBARGOED UNTIL: ...Sunday, April 23, 2006 ...1300 Eastern Time...... Investigators at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have located the cause of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) a gene that, when damaged, causes the body's skeletal muscles and soft connective tissue to undergo a metamorphosis into bone, progressively locking joints in place and r...Penn researchers discover gene that creates second skeleton
(Philadelphia, PA) Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have located the "skeleton key," a gene that, when damaged, causes the body's skeletal muscles and soft connective tissue to undergo a metamorphosis into bone, progressively locking joints in place and rendering movement impossible. Identifying the gene that causes fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), one...Penn professor to present research on radiation-induced cancer on 20th anniversary of Chernobyl
Philadelphia, PA Virginia A. LiVolsi, MD, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, will be a key presenter at the "Living with Radiation in the Modern World: Commemorating Chernobyl, Remembering Hiroshima / Nagasaki," conference to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown. An expert in thyroid pathology...Pennsylvania researchers find liver transplants provide metabolic cure for rare genetic disease
Pittsburgh Liver transplants cured the metabolic symptoms of 11 patients with a rare but devastating genetic condition known as Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD), according to a study by researchers from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the Clinic for Special Children....... All patients from the study (ranging in age from 1-20) are alive and well with normal liver function, according to the...Penn clinical chemist wins prestigious Ullman Award
Dr. Larry Kricka, Director of General Chemistry at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, has been named the winner of the 2006 Edwin F. Ullman Award. The award recognizes an individual (or individuals) for contributions that advance the technology of clinical laboratory sciences through the creation of new technologies and analytical methods. In July, Dr. Kricka will be presented with t...Penn researchers awarded $1.1 million for Pulmonary Hypertension Center
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine received $1.1 million dollars from the Cardiovascular Medical Research Education Fund (CMREF) to establish the Penn Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (IPAH) Center for Cell Studies. The five-year grant is part of a national network that will study the molecular and cellular origins of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hyperte...Penn study finds hyperbaric oxygen treatments mobilize stem cells
According to a study to be published in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulation Physiology, a typical course of hyperbaric oxygen treatments increases by eight-fold the number of stem cells circulating in a patient's body. Stem cells, also called progenitor cells are crucial to injury repair. The study currently appears on-line and is scheduled for publication in the April 2006 e...Penn researchers provide recommendations for artificial nutrition and hydration
For two decades, doctors have followed an ethically-established agreement about the appropriate use of artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) for patients who are seriously ill or in a persistent vegetative state. Generally, patients or their surrogates have been able to accept or refuse ANH based upon considerations that guide most treatment decisions, i.e., potential benefits, risks, burden,...Penn virologist edits comprehensive book on Epstein-Barr virus
(Philadelphia, PA) - Erle S. Robertson, PhD, an Associate Professor of Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has edited a compendium, the largest to date, on the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). The 33-chapter, 770-page review is entitled simply Epstein-Barr Virus. The book is published by Caister/Horizon Academic Press. This is the first volume of its kind dealing solely wi...Penn State to host US DOE regional climate center
How energy production and use influences climate and environment will be the focus of Penn State's newly awarded Northeastern Regional Center of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Institute for Climatic Change Research (NICCR). ... One of four Regional Centers formed under NICCR, which replaces the National Institute on Global Environmental Change established by Congress in 1989, Penn State...Penn researchers discover key to how SARS virus infects cells
(Philadelphia, PA) - Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that inhibitors of an enzyme called cathepsin L prevent the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus from entering target cells. SARS is caused by an emergent coronavirus. There is no effective treatment at this time.... .........This study also demonstrates a new mechanism for how viral prote...Penn receives $9.5 mllion NIH grant to create center for molecular discovery
PHILADELPHIA - The University of Pennsylvania is receiving $9.5 million from the National Institutes of Health during the next three years to establish the Penn Center for Molecular Discovery. The Penn team will screen the NIH repository of small molecules to discover new biological interactions. ...Hundreds of thousands of molecules, collected and purified from natural sources or synthesized...Penn researchers determine structure of binding site of colon-cancer drug and its protein target
(Philadelphia, PA) Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have determined the precise molecular details of how Erbitux, a recently approved colorectal cancer drug, binds to its target on cancer cells. Knowing this chemical configuration will lead to better drug design for this family of cancer medications. ......Colorectal cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed...Educators in Pennsylvania and North Carolina earn top 2004 Mentoring Awards from AAAS
A Bryn Mawr College professor in Pennsylvania and an energetic North Carolina-based engineer this week earned top honors from AAAS, the world's largest general scientific organization, for their tireless efforts to help underrepresented students earn doctoral degrees in the sciences....... Rhonda J. Hughes, the Helen Herrmann Professor of Mathematics at Bryn Mawr College, was named by AAAS, the A...Self-assembled nano-sized probes allow Penn researchers to see tumors through flesh and skin
PHILADELPHIA Nano-sized particles embedded with bright, light-emitting molecules have enabled researchers to visualize a tumor more than one centimeter below the skin surface using only infrared light. A team of chemists, bioengineers and medical researchers based at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Minnesota has lodged fluorescent materials called porphyrins within the surf...