http://www.pennhealth.com/news The latest news about infectious diseases from Penn Medicine - the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Health System. en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss rachel.ewing@uphs.upenn.edu (Rachel Ewing) 2011, The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania http://www.pennhealth.com/images/pennmedicine_logo.jpg http://www.pennmedicine.org/news A new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, suggests a novel therapeutical approach that might be used to shift the balance of power in chronic infections. The study appears in the November 30 issue of Science. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/wherry/ Thur, 29 Nov 2012 16:00:00 GMT Healthy humans harbor an enormous and diverse group of bacteria and other bugs that live within their intestines. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/06/brothers/ Mon, 18 June 2012 19:00:00 GMT Four faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), three from the Perelman School of Medicine. This year 539 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/01/aaas-fellows-2012/ Thu, 5 Jan 2012 04:00:00 GMT There are ten microbial cells for every one human cell in the body, and microbiology dogma holds that there is a tight barrier protecting the inside of the body from outside invaders, in this case bacteria. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/gatekeepers/ Thur, 17 June 2011 13:00:00 GMT For tens of thousands of years, the genomes of malaria parasites and humans have been at war with one another, each involving an attempt to get the upper hand. Scientists have now performed a genetic analysis of 15 ethnic groups across Africa, in an effort to identify gene variants that could explain differing local susceptibility to malaria. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/arms-race/ Fri, 10 June 2011 15:00:00 GMT The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gave the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CCEB) at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine $2 million over the next five years to fund research to find new ways to reduce infections in health care settings. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/cceb-infection-control-research-program/ Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:00:00 GMT New research on how tuberculosis (TB) bacteria develop multi-drug tolerance points to ways TB infections might be cured more quickly. The study was published online last week in Cell. The results identify both a mechanism and a potential therapy for drug tolerance that is induced in the TB bacteria by the host cells they infect. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/tb-drug-tolerance/ Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:30:00 GMT Although untreated HIV infection eventually results in immunodeficiency (AIDS), a small group of people infected with the virus, called elite suppressors (0.5 percent of all HIV-infected individuals), are naturally able to control infection in the absence of antiretroviral therapy, or HAART. Elite suppressors and HIV- infected individuals treated with HAART have similar levels of virus in the blood stream. However, levels of HIV integrated into immune cells are much lower in elite suppressors compared to levels in cells from HIV-infected individuals on HAART, according to a study at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/understanding-hiv-elite-suppressors/ Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:00:00 GMT David Weiner, PhD, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, will receive $3.2 million, in collaboration with the Public Health Service of Canada and biotech firm Inovio Corp., to develop a universal flu vaccine, one that is intended to protect against all strains of flu. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/10/nih-transformative-research-grants/ Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:00:00 GMT Beatrice Hahn, MD and George Shaw, MD, will be joining the faculty of the Penn Center for AIDS Research in the School of Medicine in 2011. Both are international leaders in human and simian immunodeficiency virus research and have made groundbreaking contributions to this field for over two decades. Hahn and Shaw have also contributed significantly to the study of the transmission of human infectious pathogens from non-human animals. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/hiv-researchers-hahn-shaw-join-penn-medicine/ Thu, 23 Sep 2010 22:00:00 GMT Researchers have shown how a battle for survival at a microscopic level could leave humans as the unlikely victims. They modeled in mice how the common bacterium Streptococcus pneumonia interacts with other bacteria, showing that competition for space between rival bacteria can cause deadlier forms of bacteria to evolve. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/06/bacterial-competition-evolution/ Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:00:00 GMT Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine presented today the results from an ongoing Phase I/II open-label clinical trial of Lexgenleucel-T at the 16th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in San Francisco, CA. Lexgenleucel-T is a cell and gene therapy product being investigated for the treatment of HIV infection. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/hiv-gene-therapy/ Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:59:59 GMT Two studies published this month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation provide a significant advance in understanding how some species of monkeys such as sooty mangabeys and African green monkeys avoid AIDS when infected with SIV, the simian equivalent of HIV. Researchers comparative genomics of SIV infection, attempting to identify possible genes related to disease progression or resistance. Their findings change the way AIDS researchers think about human versus simian AIDS infection. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/12/monkeys-that-dont-get-aids/ Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:30:00 GMT Researchers today announced the opening for enrollment of the first ever study using patients’ cells carrying an engineered T cell receptor to treat HIV. The trial may have important implications in the development of new treatments for HIV potentially slowing – or even preventing – the onset of AIDS. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/10/engineered-t-cell-hiv-trial/ Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:00:00 GMT A University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researcher has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support a global health research project conducted by Doron Greenbaum, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, to look for new ways to fight malaria. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/05/gates-malaria-research-grant.html Mon, 18 May 2009 16:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that parasites hijack host-cell proteins to ensure their survival and proliferation, suggesting new ways to control the diseases they cause. The study, appearing this week online in Science, was led by Doron Greenbaum, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology in the Penn School of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/04/host-cell-protein-hijack.html Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:50:00 GMT Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) fell by more than 90 percent during the past three years at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania due to a multi-pronged approach combining leadership initiatives, electronic infection surveillance, checklists to guide line insertion and maintenance, and implementation of the Toyota Production System to encourage best practices in line care. The findings, which Penn physicians say provide a road map for cutting the deadly, costly toll of hospital-acquired infections nationwide, were presented on Friday, March 20 at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/bloodstream-infection-control.html Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:00:00 GMT The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, in collaboration with The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Lincoln University, and the Pennsylvania State University, will receive $5.5 million to study why patients infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) frequently experience recurrent infections despite appropriate treatment. The researchers will also determine how often MRSA spreads among household members and the factors contributing to the spread of MRSA within the household. An intervention to prevent new and recurring MRSA infections will be tested. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/mrsa-recurrence-research.html Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:30:00 GMT A microbicide gel intended to prevent HIV infection in women, called PRO 2000 (0.5% dose), was 30% effective, according to results from a clinical trial conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and six trial sites in Africa. The results of the study, known as HPTN 035, were presented today at the international Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Montreal, Canada. This is the first human clinical study to suggest that a microbicide gel may prevent male-to-female sexual transmission of HIV infection. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/02/anti-hiv-gel.html Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:30:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have likely found one reason why the Ebola virus is such a powerful, deadly, and effective virus. Using a cell culture model for Ebola virus infection, they have discovered that the virus disables a cellular protein called tetherin that normally can block the spread of virus from cell to cell.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/01/tetherin-ebola.html Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and colleagues in the United Kingdom have engineered T cells able to recognize HIV-1 strains that have evaded the immune system. The findings of the study, published online in the journal Nature Medicine, have important implications for developing new treatments for HIV, especially for patients with chronic infection who fail to respond to antiretroviral regimens. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/11/t-cells-recognize-hiv.html Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a potential new way to vaccinate against avian flu. By delivering vaccine via DNA constructed to build antigens against flu, along with a minute electric pulse, researchers have immunized experimental animals against various strains of the virus. This approach could allow for the build up of vaccine reserves that could be easily and effectively dispensed in case of an epidemic. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/07/dna-flu-vaccine.html Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and collaborators are using minute, naturally occurring proteins called zinc fingers to engineer T cells to one day treat AIDS in humans. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/06/zinc-finger-hiv.html Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have shown that monitoring treatment adherence to AIDS therapy is a simple blood-free way to monitor risk of disease progression. The international study was published in the May issue of the journal PLoS Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/05/blood-free-monitoring-aids.html Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and School of Engineering and Applied Science have discovered a better way to deliver drugs to tumors. By using a cylindrical-shaped carrier they were able sustain delivery of the anticancer drug paclitaxel to an animal model of lung cancer ten times longer than that delivered on spherical-shaped carriers. These findings have implications for drug delivery as well as for better understanding cylinder-shaped viruses like Ebola and H5N1 influenza. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/apr07/nano-drug-delivery.html Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered how the Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) subverts a normal cell process in order to promote tumor growth. The finding, published in the most recent issue of PLoS Pathogens, offers new potential strategies for treating Kaposi's sarcoma and other cancers associated with viruses. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/nov06/KSHV.htm Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine have found that heart transplant patients who receive a donor heart from a person with hepatitis C (HCV) have a lower rate of survival. Corresponding Author Leanne Gasink, MD, MSCE, of the University of Pennsylvania's Division of Infectious Disease and colleagues report their findings in the October 17th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/oct06/hepc.htm Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have determined the structure of an important smallpox virus enzyme and how it binds to DNA. The enzyme, called a topoisomerase, is an important drug target for coming up with new ways to fight smallpox. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/aug06/smlpxenz.htm Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered part of the reason why cold sores, caused by a herpes virus, come back again and again. The new study, published online last month in Nature, points to a small RNA molecule, called a microRNA (miRNA) as the culprit that keeps the latent virus-infected cell alive. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/jun06/HSV-1.htm Rob Roy MacGregor, MD, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has been recognized for his many contributions to Penn and the field of Infectious Diseases. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/jun06/macgregorhonors.htm