http://www.pennmedicine.org/news The latest news and announcements from Penn Medicine - the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Health System. en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss robert.press@uphs.upenn.edu (Robert Press) 2013, The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania http://www.pennmedicine.org/images/pennmedicine_logo.jpg http://www.pennmedicine.org/news With little evidence to guide them, many hospital intensive care units (ICUs) have been employing critical care physicians at night with the notion it would improve patients' outcomes. However, new results from a one-year randomized trial from researchers at Penn Medicine involving nearly 1,600 patients admitted to the Hospital of the University Pennsylvania (HUP) Medical ICU suggest otherwise: Having a nighttime intensivist had no clear benefit on length of stay or mortality for these patients, not even patients admitted at night or those with the most critical illnesses at the time of admission. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/halpern/ Mon, 20 May 2013 19:00:00 GMT Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a procedure traditionally used during cardiac surgeries and in the ICU that functions as an artificial replacement for a patient's heart and lungs, has also been used to resuscitate cardiac arrest victims in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Now, a novel study of this technique in the U.S. has been completed by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, indicating a potential role for this intervention to save patients who are unable to be resuscitated through conventional measures. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/ecmo/ Fri, 17 May 2013 14:15:00 GMT The majority of cancer doctors, patients, and members of the general public support cutting health care costs by refusing to pay for drugs that don't improve survival or quality of life, according to results of a new study that will be presented by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania during the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago in early June (Abstract 6518). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/gogineni/ Wed, 15 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT In the largest clinical trial to date to examine the efficacy of PARP inhibitor therapy in BRCA 1/2 carriers with diseases other than breast and ovarian cancer, the oral drug olaparib was found to be effective against advanced pancreatic and prostate cancers. Results of the study, led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel, will be presented during the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting in Chicago in early June (Abstract 11024). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/domchek/ Wed, 15 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT Eve J. Higginbotham, SM, MD, has been named the first Vice Dean for Diversity and Inclusion at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, effective August 1, 2013. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/dean/ Wed, 15 May 2013 19:30:00 GMT Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have created the first U.S. map that pinpoints hotspots for infection and severe sepsis related-deaths. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/hotspots/ Wed, 15 May 2013 16:00:00 GMT Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Health Michael Wolf will be in Philadelphia tomorrow to present the second annual “Awards for Excellence in Health Care Compliance” to the Pennsylvania Hospital (PAH) Skilled Care Center (SCC). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/awards/ Tue, 14 May 2013 18:30:00 GMT In animal studies, group-2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) confer immunity during a parasitic infection in mice and are also involved in allergic airway inflammation. A team of Perelman School of Medicine, researchers from the Departments of Medicine, Microbiology, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Cancer Biology, found that maturation of ILC2s requires T-cell factor 1 (TCF-1, the product of the Tcf7 gene) to move forward. TCF-1 is protein that binds to specific parts of DNA to control transcription of genetic information from DNA to messenger RNA. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/bhandoola/ Mon, 13 May 2013 21:00:00 GMT A new study looking at the genomes of more than 13,000 men identified four new genetic variants associated with an increased risk of testicular cancer, the most commonly diagnosed type in young men today. The findings from this first-of-its-kind meta-analysis were reported online May 12 in Nature Genetics by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/nathanson/ Sun, 12 May 2013 18:00:00 GMT Now, researchers have found that a mutation in a key molecule active during embryonic development makes the plumbing between the immature heart and lungs short-circuit, disrupting the delivery of oxygenated blood to the brain and other organs. The mutation ultimately causes blood to flow in circles from the lungs to the heart's right side and back to the lungs. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/epstein/ Sun, 12 May 2013 18:00:00 GMT Not all IL17-producing cells are the same, and the rules regarding how particular cell types are instructed to produce this important mediator differ. Research published this week in Nature Immunology from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania sheds light on the intricacies of those instructions. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/koretzky/ Fri, 10 May 2013 19:45:00 GMT The Perelman School of Medicine's impact in global and community health will be well represented this Sunday at graduation, when 160 students take the Hippocratic Oath for the first time as new doctors. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/commencement/ Fri, 10 May 2013 14:30:00 GMT John A. Dani, PhD, will become the new chair of the Department of Neuroscience in the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, on July 1, 2013. He will also serve as Director of the Mahoney Institute of Neurosciences (MINS) at Penn. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/dani/ Mon, 06 May 2013 18:15:00 GMT A national movement to eliminate non-medically indicated (NMI) delivery before 39 weeks has prompted nearly two-thirds of all U.S. hospitals handling non-emergency births to adopt specific policies against the practice, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The results of the nationwide survey represent a strong step in promoting maternal and perinatal health, and reducing the number of infants requiring admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The full results of the survey are being presented today at the Annual Clinical Meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/acog/ Mon, 06 May 2013 15:00:00 GMT David Artis, PhD, assistant professor of Microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, will receive the AAI-BD Biosciences Investigator Award for outstanding, early-career research contributions to the field of immunology from the American Association of Immunologists (AAI). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/05/artis/ Mon, 06 May 2013 15:00:00 GMT Perelman School of Medicine researchers Shelley L. Berger, PhD, Daniel S. Och University Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology; director of the Penn Epigenetics Program, and Virginia Man-Yee Lee, PhD, director, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research; John H. Ware 3rd Professor in Alzheimer's Research; and professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, have been elected as new members to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/aaas/ Tue, 30 April 2013 19:00:00 GMT Researchers from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Perelman School of Medicine at The University of Pennsylvania, along with colleagues at the Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Centre of Excellence, conducted the first large-scale comparison of first-line treatments for HIV-positive children, finding that initial treatment with efavirenz was more effective than nevirapine in suppressing the virus in children ages 3 to 16. However, the less effective nevirapine is currently used much more often in countries with a high prevalence of HIV. The results of the study of more than 800 children are published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/efavirenz/ Tue, 30 April 2013 15:00:00 GMT Brian L. Strom, MD, MPH, the executive vice dean for Institutional Affairs in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, was recently presented with a National Award for Career Achievement and Contribution to Clinical and Translational Science at the Translational Science 2013 meeting in Washington, D.C. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/strom/ Mon, 29 April 2013 20:45:00 GMT University of Pennsylvania alumna Nicole Lurie, MD, MSPH (B.A. '75, M.D.'79), Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will deliver the address at the Perelman School of Medicine's commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 12, 2013 in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/commencement/ Fri, 26 April 2013 15:00:00 GMT With a better understanding of underlying mechanisms that cause a rare neurodevelopmental disorder in the Old Order Mennonite population, referred to as Pretzel syndrome, a new study reports that five children were successfully treated with a drug that modifies the disease process, minimizing seizures and improving receptive language. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/seizures/ Thur, 25 April 2013 20:15:00 GMT A post-doctoral fellow and doctoral student in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have each been awarded an Autism Science Foundation (ASF) grant. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/locke/ Wed, 24 April 2013 17:00:00 GMT Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that an area of the brain that initiates behavioral changes had greater activation in smokers who watched anti-smoking ads with strong arguments versus those with weaker ones, and irrespective of flashy elements, like bright and rapidly changing scenes, loud sounds and unexpected scenario twists. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/langleben/ Tue, 23 April 2013 22:00:00 GMT Deep brain stimulation (DBS) in a precise region of the brain appears to reduce caloric intake and prompt weight loss in obese animal models, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/dbs/ Tue, 23 April 2013 22:00:00 GMT Researchers did not exactly understand how menin mutations lead to MEN1 syndrome, and more importantly, what molecular pathways might be dysregulated by menin mutations and thus can be targeted to improve therapy against this type of cancer. Now, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found that pathway, which may lead to a new treatment for patients with MEN1 and sporadic endocrine tumors. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/hua/ Tue, 23 April 2013 19:45:00 GMT A gene therapy study focused on finding a cure for a rare congenital blinding disease has been recognized as one of the ten most outstanding clinical research projects of the year by the Clinical Research Forum (CRF). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/crf/ Fri, 19 April 2013 18:00:00 GMT The Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery and the Joan Karnell Cancer Center at Pennsylvania Hospital will conduct free screenings for national oral, head and neck cancer during Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week, April 14-20. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/screenings/ Fri, 19 April 2013 14:30:00 GMT Three physician scientists whose landmark research helped transform the treatment of cancer are the recipients of the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, to be officially awarded May 17. Peter C. Nowell, M.D., the Gaylord P. and Mary Louise Harnwell Professor Emeritus, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, will share the prize with Janet D. Rowley, M.D., University of Chicago, and Brian J. Druker, M.D., Oregon Health and Science University. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/nowell/ Thur, 18 April 2013 18:00:00 GMT Four Penn Medicine researchers have been awarded a total of $2.4 million in grants from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/pancreatic/ Tue, 16 April 2013 21:00:00 GMT Though the toll of sepsis is known to be enormous – it is estimated to cost the U.S. health care system $24.3 billion each year, and is the nation's third-leading killer, behind heart disease and cancer – the true magnitude of incidence of and death from the illness remains unknown. There is substantial variability in these numbers, depending on the method used to identify the condition in patients treated at hospital across the United States, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/sepsis/ Tue, 16 April 2013 20:30:00 GMT A study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Boston University School of Medicine has found that nearly one quarter of patients may return to the emergency department within 30 days of being discharged from a hospitalization. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/return/ Tue, 16 April 2013 16:00:00 GMT Garret FitzGerald MD, FRS, chairman of the Pharmacology Department and director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, has been awarded the 2013 Grand Prix Scientifique by the Institut de France. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/fitzgerald/ Mon, 15 April 2013 18:30:00 GMT Late stage thyroid cancer patients with aggressive disease may benefit from a genetic test, but experts caution that use of this test in early stage patients is inappropriate because it is unlikely to lead to better outcomes. Testing for BRAF V600E-positive tumors should be reserved for patients older than 45 who have more advanced disease, according to an accompanying editorial in JAMA co-authored by two Perelman School of Medicine researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/cappola/ Tue, 10 April 2013 18:00:00 GMT A variation in the gene ABCA7 causes a twofold increase in the risk of late onset Alzheimer disease among African Americans, according to a meta-analysis by a team of researchers including experts from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. This is the largest analysis to date to determine genetic risk associated with late-onset Alzheimer disease (LOAD) specifically in African American individuals. The study appears in the April 10 issue of JAMA, a genomics theme issue. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/gwas/ Mon, 09 April 2013 18:00:00 GMT The Myc oncogene can disrupt the 24-hour internal rhythm in cancer cells. Postdoctoral fellow Brian Altman, PhD, and graduate student Annie Hsieh, MD, both from the in the lab of Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD, director of the Abramson Cancer Center, Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, present their data in the “Metabolic Pathway Regulation in Cancer” session at the 2013 American Association for Cancer Research meeting, Washington, D.C., April 9, 2013. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/altman/ Mon, 09 April 2013 18:00:00 GMT Only 53 percent of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients who were at high risk of carrying a BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 mutation – based on age, diagnosis, and family history of breast or ovarian cancer – reported that their doctors urged them to be tested for the genes, according to a research team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/brca/ Mon, 08 April 2013 18:00:00 GMT A team led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania will present findings (Presentation #1679A) during the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2013 showing that colon cancer and lung cancer cell lines which expressed a gene known as helicase-like transcription factor (HLTF) tended to be impervious to the effects of the autophagy inhibition drug hydroxycholoroquine (HCQ). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/autophagy/ Mon, 08 April 2013 18:00:00 GMT In 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) halted reimbursement for so-called “virtual colonoscopy” for routine colon-cancer screening in asymptomatic patients, in part due to concerns over how this procedure, computed tomography colonography (CTC), was being used in the elderly population. In the first study to examine appropriate utilization of the test among asymptomatic Medicare beneficiaries from 2007 to 2008, a research team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that CTC was used appropriately and may have expanded colorectal cancer screening beyond the population screened with standard (“optical”) colonoscopy. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/zafar/ Mon, 08 April 2013 17:15:00 GMT Increasing the number of hours of sleep adolescents get each night may reduce the prevalence of adolescent obesity, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Results of the study show that fewer hours of sleep is associated with greater increases in adolescent body mass index (BMI) for participants between 14 and 18-years-old. The findings suggest that increasing sleep duration to 10 hours per day, especially for those in the upper half of the BMI distribution, could help to reduce the prevalence of adolescent obesity. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/mitchell/ Mon, 08 April 2013 16:15:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed an innovative dual CAR approach in which the activation signal for T cells is physically dissociated from a second costimulatory signal for immune cells. The two CARs carry different antigen specificity -- mesothelin and a-folate receptor. Mesothelin is primarily associated with mesothelioma and ovarian cancer, and a-folate receptor with ovarian cancer. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/powell/ Sun, 07 April 2013 14:00:00 GMT As many as three quarters of advanced ovarian cancer patients appeared to respond to a new two-step immunotherapy approach -- including one patient who achieved complete remission -- according research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be presented today in a press conference at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/kandalaft/ Sat, 06 April 2013 17:00:00 GMT A panel discussion at the American Association for Cancer Research's Annual Meeting – featuring the University of Pennsylvania physician-scientist leading the research team whose work has spurred worldwide attention to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technologies, and a trial participant whose leukemia remains in remission more than two and a half years after being treated with his own engineered cells – will explore the future of personalized cellular therapies. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/targeted/ Fri, 05 April 2013 13:00:00 GMT Penn Medicine’s new Center for Personalized Diagnostics, a joint initiative of the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center, is diving deeper into each patient’s tumor with next generation DNA sequencing. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/cpd/ Fri, 05 April 2013 13:00:00 GMT A multi-institution study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University, has found that tying financial incentives to group weight loss led to significantly greater weight loss than cash awards based on an individual's success in losing weight on his or her own. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/volpp/ Mon, 01 April 2013 22:00:00 GMT How do we hear? More specifically, how does the auditory center of the brain discern important sounds – such as communication from members of the same species – from relatively irrelevant background noise? The answer depends on the regulation of sound by specific neurons in the auditory cortex of the brain, but the precise mechanisms of those neurons have remained unclear. Now, a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has isolated how neurons in the rat's primary auditory cortex (A1) preferentially respond to natural vocalizations from other rats over intentionally modified vocalizations (background sounds). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/geffen/ Mon, 01 April 2013 19:45:00 GMT Neurosurgeons can visualize important pathways in the brain using an imaging technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), to better adapt brain tumor surgeries and preserve language, visual and motor function while removing cancerous tissue. In the latest issue of Neurosurgical Focus, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania review research showing that this ability to visualize relevant white matter tracts during glioma resection surgeries can improve accuracy and, in some groups, significantly extend survival (median survival of 21.2 months) compared to cases where DTI was not used (median survival of 14 months). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/04/brem/ Mon, 01 April 2013 16:15:00 GMT Victoria Rich, PhD, RN, FAAN, chief nurse executive at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, has received the Prism Diversity Award from the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE). The award recognizes Dr. Rich’s efforts to promote diversity within the nursing workforce and to enhance an understanding of diversity issues across the health system and greater community. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/aone/ Thur, 28 March 2013 17:30:00 GMT James L. Carey, MD, MPH, director of the Penn Center for Advanced Cartilage Repair and Osteochondritis Dissecans Treatment, is among this year's recipients of one of the nation's most prestigious orthopaedic research awards. Dr. Carey and colleagues were presented the 2013 Charles S. Neer Clinical Science Award for a study they conducted on predictors of success in non-operative treatment of rotator cuff tears. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/carey/ Thur, 28 March 2013 14:30:00 GMT Researchers have been able to reprogram cells experimentally, but few have shown that cells can change their identities under normal physiological conditions in the body, particularly in mammals. In the cover article of this month’s issue of Genes and Development, Stanger, PhD candidate Kilangsungla Yanger, Yiwei Zong, PhD, and their colleagues, did just that in the liver of a mouse. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/stanger/ Thur, 28 March 2013 14:30:00 GMT Susan Mandel, MD, MPH, professor of Medicine and Radiology, and Associate Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, has been elected vice president, Physician-in-Practice, of The Endocrine Society. In addition, Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, Sylvan Eisman Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, and Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, was elected to serve as a council member, at-large. They will collaborate with other newly elected Officers and Council members to lead the world's oldest, largest and most active organization devoted to research on hormones and the clinical practice of endocrinology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/endo/ Thur, 28 March 2013 14:30:00 GMT Clumps of α-synuclein protein in nerve cells are hallmarks of many degenerative brain diseases, most notably Parkinson’s disease. “No one has been able to determine if Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites, hallmark pathologies in Parkinson’s disease can be degraded,” says Virginia Lee, PhD, director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. “With the new neuron model system of Parkinson’s disease pathologies our lab has developed recently, we demonstrated that these aberrant clumps in cells resist degradation as well as impair the function of the macroautophagy system, one of the major garbage disposal systems within the cell.” http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/lee/ Wed, 27 March 2013 21:00:00 GMT Certified Primary Stroke Centers are three times more likely to administer clot-busting treatment for strokes than non-certified centers, reports a new study by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/mullen/ Tue, 26 March 2013 21:00:00 GMT Two children with an aggressive form of childhood leukemia had a complete remission of their disease—showing no evidence of cancer cells in their bodies—after treatment with a novel cell therapy that reprogrammed their immune cells to rapidly multiply and destroy leukemia cells. A research team from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania published the case report of two pediatric patients Online First today in The New England Journal of Medicine. It will appear in the April 18 print issue. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/grupp/ Mon, 25 March 2013 18:00:00 GMT The results of two long-awaited clinical trials, testing a closure device versus medication to prevent stroke recurrence in young stroke survivors who have an opening in the atrial wall, have not provided enough evidence to conclude who, if anyone, is likely to benefit from the interventional procedure, according to an accompanying editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine co-authored by a Perelman School of Medicine researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/pfo/ Fri, 22 March 2013 15:30:00 GMT Research has long shown the negative effects cigarette smoking has on cardiovascular health. But now, a new study from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania corroborates early evidence showing that cigarette smoking leads to longer healing times and an increased rate of post-operative complication and infection for patients sustaining fractures or traumatic injuries to their bone. The full results of the study are being presented this week at the 2013 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting in Chicago. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/smoking/ Fri, 22 March 2013 14:30:00 GMT According to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, pre-operatively identifying patients with certain comorbid risk factors that may increase their chance of being admitted to the ICU following total hip replacement surgery results in fewer deaths, post-surgery complications, and unplanned ICU admissions. The full results of the study will be presented at the 2013 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting this week in Chicago. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/tha/ Fri, 22 March 2013 14:30:00 GMT Shared decision-making between patients and physicians about health care decisions has previously been presented as superior to an approach that emphasizes physicians taking a leading role in directing key aspects of a patient’s care. But now, a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, calls into question the efficacy of shared decision-making as a tool for eliciting a patient’s genuine preference for care. The results of the study will be presented this week at the 2013 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting in Chicago. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/choice/ Fri, 22 March 2013 14:30:00 GMT Richard Nemiroff, MD, of Penn Care OB/GYN at Pennsylvania Hospital, has been awarded the Clara Bell Duvall Reproductive Freedom Award from the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania. He is being honored for championing the reproductive rights of women and their families for over 40 years. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/nemiroff/ Thur, 21 March 2013 15:30:00 GMT By studying the underlying differences in gene expression during healing after a bone break in young versus aged mice, Jaimo Ahn, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and his colleagues aim to find specific pathways of fracture healing in humans. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/ahn/ Wed, 20 March 2013 14:00:00 GMT The brain's prefrontal cortex is thought to be the seat of cognitive control, working as a kind of filter that keeps irrelevant thoughts, perceptions and memories from interfering with a task at hand. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that inhibiting this filter can boost performance for tasks in which unfiltered, creative thoughts present an advantage. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/hamilton/ Mon, 18 March 2013 15:15:00 GMT Telestroke programs substantially improve access to life-saving stroke care, extending coverage to less populated areas in an effort to reduce disparities in stroke care access. A new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, being presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego March 16-23, 2013, found that telemedicine programs in Oregon pushed stroke coverage into previously uncovered, less populated areas and expanded coverage by approximately 40 percent. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/telestroke/ Fri, 15 March 2013 15:00:00 GMT Injecting synthetic tau fibrils into animal models induces Alzheimer's-like tau tangles and imitates the spread of tau pathology, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania being presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego March 16-23, 2013. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/tau/ Fri, 15 March 2013 15:00:00 GMT A series of studies demonstrate improved detection of the second most common form of dementia, providing diagnostic specificity that clears the way for refined clinical trials testing targeted treatments. The new research is being presented by experts from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego March 16-23, 2013. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/grossman/ Fri, 15 March 2013 14:00:00 GMT Penn experts will be presenting the latest advances in treatment and diagnosis of neurological conditions like Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy and stroke at the American Academy of Neurology 65th Annual Meeting. Given the high global burden of rain disorders, which cause at least 25 percent of death and disability globally, the Penn team will gather with neurologists from around the world in San Diego, CA from March 16-23 as the field discusses the latest advances in neurological medicine, science and education. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/aan/ Fri, 15 March 2013 14:00:00 GMT At the stroke of noon on March 15th, 161 Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania students (77 women and 84 men) will gather in an emotion-filled ceremony to open their "residency placement" envelopes and learn where they will spend the next few years receiving their advanced medical training. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/matchday/ Fri, 15 Mar 2013 14:00:00 GMT . John Wherry, PhD, associate professor of Microbiology and director of the Institute for Immunology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues, report in PLOS Pathogens that influenza virus-specific CD8+ T cells or virus-specific non-neutralizing antibodies are each relatively ineffective at conferring protective immunity alone. But, when combined, the virus-specific CD8 T cells and non-neutralizing antibodies cooperatively elicit robust protective immunity. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/wherry/ Thur, 14 Mar 2013 22:00:00 GMT Brown fat cells, as opposed to white fat cells, make heat for the body, and are thought to have evolved to help mammals cope with the cold. But, their role in generating warmth might also be applied to coping with obesity and diabetes. Patrick Seale, PhD, at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and postdoctoral fellow Sona Rajakumari, PhD, along with Jun Wu from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, found that a protein switch called early B cell factor-2 (Ebf2) determines which developmental path fat precursor cells take – the brown vs. white cell trajectory. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/seale/ Thur, 14 Mar 2013 17:00:00 GMT For the 16th year in a row, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States, according to an annual survey by U.S. News and World Report. In 2013, the School of Medicine was ranked #4 in the country. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/ranking/ Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:00:00 GMT New research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has revealed that many electrophysiology practitioners believe ICD and pacemaker deactivation to be ethically distinct and that an ICD should not be deactivated without discussion with patients and families, even in the face of medical futility. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/kirkpatrick/ Mon, 11 Mar 2013 18:00:00 GMT The effects of weight loss and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), the standard therapy for OSA, on blood pressure have been previously studied individually, but the incremental benefit of combination therapy (weight loss and CPAP therapy) over either therapy alone in obese patients with OSA has been unknown. Now, new research from a multidisciplinary team at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has shown that the combination of these two therapies for patients with OSA can help lower blood pressure. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/rader/ Sun, 10 Mar 2013 17:00:00 GMT A small study from researchers the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has shown that while niacin increased measured levels of HDL-C, it did not improve the functionality of HDL. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/rader/ Sun, 10 Mar 2013 17:00:00 GMT It happens to everyone: You stay up late one night to finish an assignment, and the next day, you're exhausted. Humans aren't unique in that; all animals need sleep, and if they don't get it, they must make it up. The biological term for that pay-the-piper behavior is "sleep homeostasis," and now, thanks to a research team at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, one of the molecular players in this process has been identified – at least in nematode round worms. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/worm/ Fri, 09 Mar 2013 14:30:00 GMT For the second consecutive year, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center has ranked among the nation's top 100 hospitals, according to the annual study by Truven Health Analytics, formerly the Healthcare business of Thomson Reuters. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/ppmc/ Thur, 07 Mar 2013 23:59:59 GMT The wide consensus that health care spending poses a threat to the nation’s fiscal solvency has led to the championing of “value” as a goal of health care reform efforts. But the divergence of opinions between patients and physicians on the meaning of value presents an obstacle to progress in achieving genuine reform, says Lisa Rosenbaum, MD, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar and cardiologist at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/rosenbaum/ Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:59:59 GMT Addressing on the challenges that accompany transitions between health care settings could be a key strategy for improving clinical outcomes for people living with HIV, according to researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/yehia/ Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:15:00 GMT A team of investigators from nine institutions discovered how ATP – the body's main fuel source– is released as the neurotransmitter from sweet, bitter, and umami, or savory, taste bud cells. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/foskett/ Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:00:00 GMT A multi-institution study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has identified several important risk factors, including a donor's smoking history and recipient obesity, linked to severe primary graft dysfunction (PGD), the major cause of serious illness and death after lung transplantation. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/diamond/ Wed, 06 Mar 2013 17:45:00 GMT Toshinori Hoshi, PhD, professor of Physiology, at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues showed, in two papers out this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, how fish oils help lower blood pressure via vasodilation at ion channels. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/hoshi/ Tue, 05 Mar 2013 19:45:00 GMT A new study led by a researcher at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania adds support to current medical recommendations stating that screening colonoscopy substantially reduces an average-risk adult’s likelihood of being diagnosed with advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) in either the right or left side of the colon. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/doubeni/ Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:00:00 GMT A multi-institution group of researchers has found new candidate disease proteins for neurodegenerative disorders. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/03/shorter/ Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:15:00 GMT Hundreds are gathering this Friday – including this year’s Woman of Courage Award Recipient, Lillian M.J. Dixon and NY Giants linebacker and cancer survivor Mark Herzlich, in support of patients and families facing cancer at Together We Can, a benefit for the Joan Joan Karnell Cancer Center (JKCC) at Pennsylvania Hospital. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/02/twc/ Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:30:00 GMT Using genetic and pharmacological approaches, Penn researchers showed that development of progenitor cells in the lung is specifically regulated by the combined function of two highly related HDACs, HDAC/1 and /2. The researchers published their findings in this week's issue of Developmental Cell. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/02/morrisey/ Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:00:00 GMT Treating human and mouse cells with compounds that modify cell nuclear material called chromatin induced the expression of beta cell genes in alpha cells, according to a new study that appears online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/02/kaestner/ Fri, 22 Feb 2013 19:00:00 GMT According to a new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, patients with Barrett's esophagus and early or pre-cancerous cells have been shown to significantly benefit from minimally invasive therapy delivered through an endoscope – a medical instrument used to look inside an organ or cavity in the body. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/02/barrett/ Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:30:00 GMT The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania announces the creation of the Institute for Biomedical Informatics (IBI). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/02/biomedical/ Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:30:00 GMT The recently published genome sequences of seven well-studied ant species are opening up new vistas for biology and medicine. A detailed look at molecular mechanisms that underlie the complex behavioral differences in two worker castes in the Florida carpenter ant, Camponotus floridanus, has revealed a link to epigenetics. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/02/berger/ Wed, 13 Feb 2013 16:30:00 GMT A recently described master regulator protein may explain the development of aberrant cell growth in the pancreas spurred by inflammation. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/02/rustgi/ Tue, 12 Feb 2013 18:30:00 GMT John B. Jemmott, PhD, professor of Communication in Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine and Kenneth B. Clark Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, has been selected as one of 60 scholars profiled by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/02/jemmott/ Thur, 7 Feb 2013 18:45:00 GMT Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Massachusetts Amherst report in the latest edition of PLOS ONE utilizing a novel statistical tool to analyze existing large databases of genetic information to mine new information about genes that modulate low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and its downstream consequences, heart attack, stroke and death. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/02/reilly/ Thur, 7 Feb 2013 14:45:00 GMT A new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows for the first time that certain nutrients may play an underlying role in short and long sleep duration and that people who report eating a large variety of foods – an indicator of an overall healthy diet – had the healthiest sleep patterns. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/02/grandner/ Wed, 6 Feb 2013 19:15:00 GMT Joseph W. St. Geme, III, M.D., has been named physician-in-chief of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, effective July 1, 2013. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/02/geme/ Tue, 5 Feb 2013 19:15:00 GMT Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, found a key determinant in the balance between two proteins, BRCA1 and 53BP1, in the DNA repair machinery. Breast and ovarian cancer are associated with a breakdown in the repair systems involving these proteins. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/02/greenberg/ Tue, 5 Feb 2013 19:15:00 GMT Advance care directives allow patients to provide instructions about their preferences for the care they would like to receive if they develop an illness or a life-threatening injury and lose the capacity to make decisions for themselves. While many people may assume that patients have strong preferences for the type and aggressiveness of care they wish to receive near life's end, a new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvaniasuggests that for many patients, preferences for end-of-life care are constructed on the spot and heavily influenced by the ways in which the options are presented. Specifically, the investigators found that even when it comes to such seemingly personal decisions as end-of-life care, people tend to accept options that are presented as the default, much as they accept the default in choosing automobile insurance or whether to contribute to 401(k) programs. The research is published in the February 2013 issue of Health Affairs. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/02/Halpern/ Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:15:00 GMT Mounting evidence demonstrates that the pathological proteins linked to the onset and progression of neurodegenerative disorders are capable of spreading from cell-to-cell within the brains of affected individuals and thereby “spread” disease from one interconnected brain region to another. A new study found no evidence to support concerns that these abnormal disease proteins are “infectious” or transmitted from animals to humans or from one person to another. The study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, in conjunction with experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services, appears online in JAMA Neurology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/02/Trojanowski/ Mon, 04 Feb 2013 19:15:00 GMT Most ovarian cancer patients are diagnosed with late stage disease that is unresponsive to existing therapies. In a new study, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine show that a two-step personalized immunotherapy treatment — a dendritic cell vaccine using patients’ own tumor followed by adoptive T cell therapy — triggers anti-tumor immune responses in these type of patients. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/kandalaft/ Thur, 31 Jan 2013 19:15:00 GMT David Artis, Ph.D., associate professor of Microbiology, and Brian Kim, M.D., clinical instructor of Dermatology, from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, have identified a previously unknown critical role for a recently identified immune cell population in the progression of atopic dermatitis. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/artis/ Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:45:00 GMT Benjamin F. Voight, PhD, assistant professor of Pharmacology and Genetics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received an award for over $100,000 from the W.W. Smith Charitable Trust to study the complex patterns of genetic inheritance and environmental factors that underlie cardiovascular disease specifically in type-2 diabetics. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/voight/ Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:00:00 GMT HIV patients who participated in an intervention that helped them identify barriers to taking their drugs properly and develop customized coping strategies took a significantly greater amount of their prescribed doses than those receiving standard care, according to a new study from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/hiv/ Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:15:00 GMT A new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania sought to examine peoples' willingness to be enrolled in trauma studies under the federal provisions that allow patients with time-sensitive illnesses and injuries to be part of clinical trials without their express consent. The study revealed that those surveyed expressed high levels of approval and willingness to be part of these types of trials, both for themselves and their family members and friends. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/trauma/ Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:45:00 GMT The American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.) announced the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP)'s Clinical Nutrition Support Services team as one of the inaugural recipients of its 2012 Clinical Nutrition Team of Distinction award. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/aspen/ Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:30:00 GMT Garret FitzGerald, MD, FRS chair of the Department of Pharmacology and director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, is the recipient of the 2013 Scheele Award. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/fitzgerald/ Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:30:00 GMT New research from the Scheie Eye Institute, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that gene therapy for LCA shows enduring improvement in vision but also advancing degeneration of affected retinal cells, both in LCA patients and animal models of the same condition. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/blindness/ Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:30:00 GMT Psychiatrists who are exposed to conflict-of-interest (COI) policies during their residency are less likely to prescribe brand-name antidepressants after graduation than those who trained in residency programs without such policies, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/coi/ Fri, 18 Jan 2013 14:00:00 GMT One of the most insidious ways that parasitic diseases such as malaria and toxoplasmosis wreak their havoc is by hijacking their host's natural cellular processes, turning self against self. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University, led by Doron Greenbaum, Ph.D., assistant professor of Pharmacology at Penn, have identified the cell signaling pathway used by these parasites to escape from and destroy their host cells and infect new cells. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/greenbaum/ Wed, 16 Jan 2013 18:00:00 GMT By using synthetic fibrils made from pure recombinant protein, Penn researchers provide the first direct and compelling evidence that tau fibrils alone are entirely sufficient to recruit and convert soluble tau within cells into pathological clumps in neurons, followed by transmission of tau pathology to other inter-connected brain regions from a single injection site in an animal model of tau brain disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/lee/ Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:00:00 GMT In the first study to examine discussion of drug side effects on Internet message boards, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that breast cancer survivors taking the commonly prescribed adjuvant therapy known as aromatase inhibitors (AIs) often detailed in these forums troublesome symptoms resulting from the drugs, and they were apt to report discontinuing the treatment or switching to a different drug in the same class. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/mao/ Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:00:00 GMT Penn Medicine will establish the Philadelphia region’s first dedicated center for the treatment and research of blood diseases by combining the expertise of physicians who specialize in the care of blood disorder patients of all ages along with basic science and clinical researchers who are working to advance treatments for these illnesses. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/yang/ Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:30:00 GMT A team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, has identified a class of p53 target genes and regulatory molecules that represent more promising therapeutic candidates. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/yang/ Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:00:00 GMT The Perelman School of Medicine and the department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania announce the creation of the Penn Neurodegenerative Disease Ethics and Policy Program. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/ethics/ Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:30:00 GMT Roughly half of all black and Hispanic patients who enter publicly funded alcohol treatment programs complete treatment, compared to 62 percent of white patients, according to a new study from a team of researchers including the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/healthaffairs/ Mon, 07 Jan 2013 21:00:00 GMT While approximately one in five Parkinson's disease patients experience impulse control disorder symptoms, the disease itself does not increase the risk of gambling, shopping, or other impulsivity symptoms, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. A new study is the first to show in a large sample that people with untreated Parkinson's were no more likely to have an increased impulsivity than people without the disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/weintraub/ Mon, 07 Jan 2013 21:00:00 GMT In the first study of its kind, a team of researchers led by faculty at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Baylor College of Medicine, has analyzed data on the impact of prolonged operational confinement on sleep, performance, and mood in astronauts from a groundbreaking international effort to simulate a 520-day space mission to Mars. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/dinges/ Mon, 07 Jan 2013 20:00:00 GMT Penn researchers discovered that the enzyme activity of HDAC3 requires interaction with a specific region on another protein, which they dubbed the Deacetylase Activating Domain or DAD. This "nuts and bolts" discovery on the epigenetic control of a person's genome has implications for cancer and neurological treatments. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/lazar/ Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:45:00 GMT A team, led by senior author Morris J. Birnbaum, MD, PhD, the Willard and Rhoda Ware Professor of Medicine, with the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, found that the diabetes drug metformin works in a different way than previously understood. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/birnbaum/ Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:45:00 GMT The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) has been recognized by The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) as meeting The Joint Commission's standards for Disease-Specific Care Comprehensive Stroke Center Certification, becoming the first center in Philadelphia and among a select few hospitals in the United States to be named as part of an elite group of providers focused on complex stroke care. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2013/01/stroke/ Thur, 03 Jan 2013 16:00:00 GMT Taking a look back, 2012 has been a year marked by breakthroughs in medical research, system-wide growth, and landmark philanthropic support for Penn Medicine. As we set our sights on the year ahead, we also celebrate the past year's accomplishments and give thanks to the outstanding faculty, staff, and students that are the foundation of Penn Medicine with a sampling of the research, education, and patient care highlights from 2012. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/features/2012-year-in-review/ Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:15:00 GMT When trying to determine the root cause of a person's dementia, using an MRI can effectively and non-invasively screen patients for Alzheimer's disease or Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD), according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/mri/ Wed, 26 Dec 2012 20:00:00 GMT Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvaniashow in an animal model that the enhanced aggressiveness of recurrent tumors may be due to changes in the body's immune response. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/immune/ Wed, 26 Dec 2012 16:45:00 GMT One of the world's most devastating diseases is malaria, responsible for at least a million deaths annually, despite global efforts to combat it. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, working with collaborators from Drexel University, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Johns Hopkins University, have identified a protein in human blood platelets that points to a powerful new weapon against the disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/greenbaum/ Wed, 26 Dec 2012 16:30:00 GMT A team from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the University of California at San Francisco and the Department of Biochemistry and Protein Function Discovery at Queen's University, has developed a unique approach to calpain inhibition by mimicking a natural reaction with a synthesized molecule. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/calpain/ Wed, 26 Dec 2012 16:15:00 GMT Greg Sonnenberg, PhD, research associate in the Division of Gastroenterology and the Institute for Immunology, was chosen for Forbes magazine's second year of publishing a list of the top-30 rising stars in science and health under the age of 30. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/sonnenberg/ Wed, 26 Dec 2012 16:00:00 GMT Robert Siman, PhD, Research Professor of Neurosurgery in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a Zenith Fellows Award from the Alzheimer's Association for his personal commitment to the advancement of Alzheimer's disease research, and his research contributions to better understanding and curing the disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/siman/ Thur, 20 Dec 2012 16:30:00 GMT People with Alzheimer's disease are less likely to participate in a clinical trial if they have non-spouse caregivers, according to a study by a team of researchers including the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/karlawish/ Wed, 19 Dec 2012 16:00:00 GMT The protein kinase Akt is a key regulator of cell growth, proliferation, metabolism, survival, and death. New work on Akt's role in cancer stem cell biology from the lab of senior author Honglin Zhou, MD, PhD and Weihua Li, co-first author, both from the Center for Resuscitation Sciences, Department of Emergency Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Xiaowei Xu, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, appears in Molecular Cell. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/zhou/ Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:30:00 GMT Amita Sehgal, PhD, professor of Neuroscience and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, at the Perleman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a Senior Scholar Award from the Ellison Medical Foundation. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/sehgal/ Tues, 18 Dec 2012 13:00:00 GMT E. John Wherry, PhD, associate professor of Microbiology, has been named the new Director of the Institute for Immunology (IFI), at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/wherry/ Tues, 18 Dec 2012 13:00:00 GMT New research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) reveals that sons of male rats exposed to cocaine are resistant to the rewarding effects of the drug, suggesting that cocaine-induced changes in physiology are passed down from father to son. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/pierce/ Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:30:00 GMT L. Scott Levin, MD, FACS, was recently elected to the American College of Surgeons' (ACS) Board of Regents. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/levin/ Wed, 12 Dec 2012 13:00:00 GMT Carl H. June, MD, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of Translational Research in Penn's Abramson Cancer Center, will be honored as a recipient of the American Society of Hematology's 2012 Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize today at the 54th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/june/ Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:30:00 GMT Nine of twelve leukemia patients who received infusions of their own T cells after the cells had been genetically engineered to attack the patients' tumors responded to the therapy, which was pioneered by scientists in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/tcell/ Sun, 09 Dec 2012 22:00:00 GMT On Friday, December 7, orthopaedic surgeons at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center will provide free total knee replacement to a local Philadelphia resident as part of Operation Walk USA 2012. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/operationwalk/ Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:30:00 GMT Transplant surgeons at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have successfully used a new technique that repairs damaged donated lungs that would have been unusable, allowing for successful transplantation of the reconditioned lungs into a patient. The patient, a 66-year-old man from the Philadelphia suburbs, was transplanted at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) and is the first in the region to receive donated lungs using this new procedure. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/firstexvivo/ Thur, 06 Dec 2012 14:00:00 GMT Marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the program, Penn Medicine physicians have completed their 1000th lifesaving heart transplant at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/transplants/ Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:00:00 GMT In a study of 400 healthy volunteers published online this week in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association, scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, went looking for people who are truly resistant to the benefits of aspirin, such as might result from a particular genetic makeup. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/circulation/ Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:45:00 GMT New research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvaniaand the Philadelphia VA Medical Center indicates that the implementation of protected sleep periods for residents who are assigned to overnight shifts in a hospital represent a viable tool in preventing fatigue and alleviating the physiological and behavioral effects of sleep deprivation among these doctors in training. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/sleep/ Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:00:00 GMT A Penn Medicine team led by Craig Umscheid, MD, MSCE, FACP, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology and director of the Center for Evidence-based Practice, was awarded by the Delaware Valley Healthcare Council and the Health Care Improvement Foundation with the first place 2012 Delaware Valley Patient Safety Award. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/12/umscheid/ Tue, 04 Dec 2012 14:45:00 GMT Five faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/aaas/ Fri, 30 Nov 2012 19:00:00 GMT A new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania uses in-depth interviews with local residents to examine perspectives on how vacant land affects community, physical, and mental health. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/vacant/ Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:15:00 GMT 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 H. Lee Sweeney, Ph.D., the William Maul Measey Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, has been named the inaugural director of Penn’s Center for Orphan Disease Research and Therapy. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/sweeney/ Wed, 28 Nov 2012 20:45:00 GMT In a new paper out this week in Nature Cell Biology, the same Penn-Temple team describe a new protein and its function. Like MICU1, this new protein, MCUR1, interacts physically with MCU, the uniporter calcium ion channel within the mitochondria. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/energy/ Mon, 26 Nov 2012 17:45:00 GMT Parvati Ramchandani, MD, section chief, Genitourinary (GU) Radiology, Professor of Radiology and Surgery, was selected by the American Association for Women Radiologists (AAWR) as the 2012 recipient of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award for outstanding contributions to the field of radiology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/ramchandani/ Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:00:00 GMT Research shows for the first time that the UPR is active in patients with human lymphomas and mice genetically bred to develop lymphomas. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/koumenis/ Wed, 21 Nov 2012 13:15:00 GMT Heat Shock Protein Hsp104 could be developed to eliminate toxic clumps linked with neurodegenerative diseases. http://uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/shorter/ Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:00:00 GMT After several years of incremental study, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania have been able to piece together important steps in how Parkinson's disease (PD) spreads from cell to cell and leads to nerve cell death. http://uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/lee/ Thur, 15 Nov 2012 14:00:00 GMT Now, thanks to some careful detective work by a team of scientists led by Kenneth Zaret, PhD, at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, researchers can better understand just how iPS cells form – and why the Yamanaka process is so inefficient, an important step to work out for regenerative medicine. http://uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/zaret/ Thur, 15 Nov 2012 12:00:00 GMT To help empower residents to shape the future of their communities, and explain the potential consequences associated with asbestos exposure, researchers at the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET), Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, have been awarded a $1.2 million grant to develop an educational program using the communities' history of asbestos products manufacturing and resulting asbestos exposure. http://uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/grant/ Thur, 15 Nov 2012 12:00:00 GMT In recognition of Veteran’s Day this November, Penn Medicine proudly sponsors Joining Forces – a national initiative to heighten awareness about the health needs of our nation’s veterans, service members and families, and elevate the role that medical schools, nursing schools and teaching hospitals play in serving their community. http://uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/combat/ Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:15:00 GMT Using Myc-active neuroblastoma cancer cells, a team led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator M. Celeste Simon, Ph.D., scientific director for the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute (AFCRI), identified the proteins PUMA, NOXA, and TRB3 as executors of the glutamine-starved cells. http://uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/simon/ Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:30:00 GMT James Eberwine, PhD, Elmer Holmes Bobst Professor of Pharmacology in the Perelman School of Medicine, and Junhyong Kim, PhD, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor of Biology in the School of Arts and Sciences, will be studying the role of how messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules vary in their function in individual cells with a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). http://uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/eberwine/ Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:00:00 GMT U.S. Representative Allyson Y. Schwartz, a leading health care reform expert and Pennsylvania’s only female congressional representative, will speak about these and other issues on Friday at the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. http://uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/schwartz/ Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:00:00 GMT In a new Perspective essay appearing in the November 8th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, two physicians from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, discuss unique challenges faced by patients and their families in decisions to undergo major medical and surgical procedures. http://uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/raiten/ Thur, 08 Nov 2012 14:30:00 GMT PHILADELPHIA — As researchers work on reconfiguring cells to take on new regenerative properties, a new review from Penn Medicine plastic surgeons sheds additional light on the potential power of adipose-derived stem cells - or adult stem cells harvested from fatty tissue - in reconstructive and regenerative medicine. http://uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/percec/ Thur, 08 Nov 2012 12:30:00 GMT A crowdsourcing contest that sent hundreds of Philadelphians to locate and catalog the locations of AEDs throughout the nation's fifth largest city led to the identification of more than 1,400 automated external defibrillators in public places, according to a study from researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be presented today at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2012. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/aed/ Sun, 04 Nov 2012 14:30:00 GMT Lance Becker, MD, a professor of Emergency Medicine and director of the Center for Resuscitation Science at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, will receive the American Heart Association's 2012 Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cardiac Resuscitation Science during the organization's annual Scientific Sessions. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/becker/ Sun, 04 Nov 2012 12:15:00 GMT Daniel J. Rader, MD, professor of Medicine and chief, Division of Translational Medicine and Human Genetics, at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been awarded the American Heart Association's (AHA) Clinical Research Prize for developing new methods to identify factors regulating the metabolism of fat particles in the bloodstream and testing their impact on the development of atherosclerosis. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/rader/ Sun, 04 Nov 2012 12:00:00 GMT Penn Medicine announced today plans to begin the second part of an expansion project that will transform and modernize the advanced care services provided at the Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC) campus. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/expansion/ Fri, 02 Nov 2012 16:00:00 GMT An international effort led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has resulted in positive phase 3 clinical trial results for a new medicine to treat patients suffering from a rare and deadly cholesterol disorder. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/lipid/ Fri, 02 Nov 2012 13:00:00 GMT Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Wistar Institute, and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have discovered that the protein apolipoprotein E (apoE) plays a major role in maintaining arterial softness by suppressing production of the extracellular matrix, a network of connective tissue in the body. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/11/arteries/ Thur, 01 Nov 2012 18:00:00 GMT Documenting adverse events improves perceptions of safety and may decrease incidents in multi-site clinical practices, according to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/safety/ Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:00:00 GMT Brian L. Strom, MD, MPH, executive vice dean for Institutional Affairs at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been selected to Chair the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Committee on the Consequences of Sodium Reduction in Populations. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/strom/ Wed, 31 Oct 2012 16:00:00 GMT Rhoda Redulla, DNP, RN, a nursing professional development specialist at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, has been selected as a scholar by the Society of Gastroenterology Nurses and Associates, Inc. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/redulla/ Thur, 25 Oct 2012 20:15:00 GMT PHILADELPHIA — A new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania demonstrates in an animal model that a commonly used inhaled anesthetic drug, isoflurane, works by directly causing sleep-promoting neurons in the brain to activate, thereby hijacking our natural sleep circuitry. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/kelz/ Thur, 25 Oct 2012 16:30:00 GMT Now, Foskett's lab and the lab of co-corresponding author Muniswamy Madesh, PhD, at Temple University, have discovered an essential mechanism that regulates the flow of calcium into mitochondria, described in the October 26 issue of Cell. They demonstrated that the mitochondrial protein MICU1 is required to establish the proper level of calcium uptake under normal conditions. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/foskett/ Thur, 25 Oct 2012 16:00:00 GMT The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) today announced that Raina Merchant, MD, MSHP, and Scott Halpern, MD, PhD, MBE, of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have been selected to receive an inaugural RWJF Young Leader Award. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/rwj/ Thur, 25 Oct 2012 14:00:00 GMT Cutting the expenses associated with “low-value” medical tests and treatments – such as unnecessary imaging tests and antibiotics for viral infections that won’t benefit from them – will require a multi-pronged plan targeting insurance companies, patients, and physicians, according to a JAMA Viewpoint article published this week by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/volpp/ Tue, 23 Oct 2012 20:00:00 GMT A new collaboration between the Basser Research Center for BRCA in the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center and FORCE, a national nonprofit advocacy organization serving people and families facing hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, will strengthen ties between patients dealing with these issues and the Penn researchers and physicians who are devoted to finding new ways to prevent and treat these diseases. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/force/ Tue, 23 Oct 2012 17:30:00 GMT A new project led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania aims to devise programs that help them change these risky behaviors and cut their risk of cancer. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/training/ Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:00:00 GMT PHILADELPHIA — The University of Pennsylvania has received an undisclosed gift from father and son philanthropists Joel and William Smilow to support Penn Medicine’s translational research activities, naming the Smilow Center for Translational Research in the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/smilow/ Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:00:00 GMT PHILADELPHIA — Four professors from the Perelman School of Medicine have been elected members of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the nation's highest honors in biomedicine, with a total of six representing four schools at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/iom/ Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:00:00 GMT The Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics' 7th Annual International Symposium (ITMAT) will be held October 16 and 17 at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. This unique gathering brings together international experts to debate opportunities and hazards in systems pharmacology and translational medicine, or how drugs work on specific pathways, variability in patient response and why many treatments fail. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/itmat/ Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:15:00 GMT A new study from a team of researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the Monell Chemical Senses Center, and the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, reveals that a person’s ability to taste certain bitter flavors is directly related to their ability to fight off upper respiratory tract infections, specifically chronic sinus infections. The new research is published in the latest edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/taste/ Mon, 08 Oct 2012 16:00:00 GMT Nearly 100 years after a British neurologist first mapped the blind spots caused by missile wounds to the brains of soldiers, Perelman School of Medicine researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have perfected his map using modern-day technology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/aguirre/ Thur, 04 Oct 2012 16:00:00 GMT Now, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report in Science Translational Medicine a new mouse model of LAM that does replicate those features, producing a way to study disease etiology and develop drugs. What’s more, two readily available drugs – an antibiotic and a statin – may help to treat, and maybe reverse, symptoms. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/lam/ Wed, 03 Oct 2012 18:00:00 GMT A team of researchers led by Samir Mehta, MD, chief of the Orthopaedic Trauma and Fracture Service at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a $2.5 million grant from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP), provided through the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), to begin Phase 2 human trials of a study that examines the effective treatment of post-surgical orthopedic infections using Microbion Corporation’s topical BisEDT drug. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/10/mehta/ Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:00:00 GMT We often hear that “knowledge is power.” But, that isn’t always the case, especially when the knowledge pertains to the health of an unborn child, with murky implications, at best. A new study, led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, begins to document this exception to the general rule. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/09/chromosome/ Thur, 20 Sep 2012 20:00:00 GMT Enlisting newborn hearing screeners to help identify common ear deformities allows doctors to easily correct the condition without surgery before a baby leaves the hospital, according to a new study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The new study is published online ahead of print in the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/09/ears/ Fri, 14 Sep 2012 23:30:00 GMT A year ago, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania reported that Alzheimer's pathology, as reflected by cerebral spinal fluid biomarkers, might be increased in patients after surgery and anesthesia. However, it is not clear whether the anesthetic drugs or the surgical procedure itself was responsible. To separate these possibilities, the group turned to a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. The results, published online this month in the Annals of Surgery, show that surgery itself, rather than anesthesia, has the more profound impact on a dementia-vulnerable brain. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/09/surgery/ Thur, 13 Sep 2012 19:30:00 GMT This week, a strategic roadmap to help to the nation’s health care system cope with the impending public health crisis caused Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia will be published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/09/plan/ Fri, 07 Sep 2012 13:00:00 GMT Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report in a new study that thickening of the heart's right ventricle is associated with an increased risk of heart failure and cardiovascular death in patients without clinical cardiovascular disease at baseline. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/09/heart/ Thur, 06 Sep 2012 13:00:00 GMT Towards a better understanding of how tissue stiffness drives cancer, in a new paper published in PLoS Bio this week, Michael Pack, MD, associate professor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues, show that epithelial cells lining the intestine of zebrafish that carry an activating mutation of the smooth muscle myosin gene form protrusions called invadopodia that allow the cells to invade surrounding connective tissue. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/09/zebrafish/ Wed, 05 Sep 2012 23:30:00 GMT Stanley Goldfarb, MD, professor of Medicine and associate dean for Curriculum at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been named the 61st president of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/09/goldfarb/ Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:00:00 GMT Twelve different Penn Medicine Clinical Care Associate (CCA) practices received level III certification for efforts to provide coordinated, efficient care through the Patient Centered Medical Home program run by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/09/ncqa/ Tue, 04 Sep 2012 17:00:00 GMT Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine will receive $11.9 million over the next five years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) for the Penn Udall Center for Parkinson's Disease (PD) research. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/08/renewal/ Thur, 30 August 2012 15:30:00 GMT Two Penn Medicine hospitals have received Primary Stroke Center certification from The Joint Commission for efforts to achieve long-term success in improving outcomes for stroke patients. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/08/psc-certification/ Tue, 21 August 2012 13:00:00 GMT Efforts to develop a blood test for Alzheimer's disease are progressing, as a new study co-authored by experts from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) found a group of biomarkers that hold up in statistical analyses in three independent groups of patients.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/08/plasma-biomarkers/ Mon, 20 August 2012 17:00:00 GMT Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC) has earned the Gold Seal of Approval™ from The Joint Commission for its hip and knee joint replacement services. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/08/joint-commission/ Tue, 14 August 2012 13:00:00 GMT A popular class of diabetes drugs increases patients' risk of bladder cancer, according to a new study published online this month in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that patients taking thiazolidinedione (TZDs) drugs – which account for up to 20 percent of the drugs prescribed to diabetics in the United States -- are two to three times more likely to develop bladder cancer than those who took a sulfonylurea drug, another common class of medications for diabetes. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/08/diabetes/ Mon, 13 August 2012 14:00:00 GMT Yvonne Paterson, PhD, professor of Microbiology, at the Perelman School of Medicine, and professor and associate dean, at the School of Nursing, has been awarded an almost $5 million renewal by the National Institute for General Medical Sciences for the University of Pennsylvania Postdoctoral Opportunities in Research and Training, or PENN-PORT, the postdoctoral-training program she leads. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/08/paterson/ Mon, 13 August 2012 11:00:00 GMT Nation's Oldest Medical School Equips New Students with Latest Mobile Technology, Replacing 20,000 Sheets of Paper per Student http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/08/white-coat-ceremony/ Thur, 10 August 2012 19:00:00 GMT The healthy human intestine is colonized with over 100 trillion beneficial, or commensal, bacteria of many different species. In healthy people, these bacteria are limited to the intestinal tissues and have a number of helpful properties, including aiding in the digestion of food and promoting a healthy immune system. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/06/bugs/ Thur, 06 June 2012 18:00:00 GMT On the evening of Thursday, June 7th, Penn Medicine and Penn Athletics will host a Red Carpet premiere of a new film, Head Games, a revealing documentary about the concussion crisis in sports. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/06/head/ Thur, 06 June 2012 14:00:00 GMT Despite being at risk of cardiovascular problems associated with testicular cancer treatment, survivors of the disease -- the most common type of cancer striking young men -- frequently report behaviors such as smoking and risky alcohol use that could further raise their chances of developing those late effects of treatment, according to a study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be presented at the annual meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting on Saturday, June 2. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/cancer/ Thur, 31 May 2012 19:00:00 GMT National data show that currently more than 10 percent of preschoolers in the United States are obese, and an additional 10 percent are overweight. In a recently published article, a researcher from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with peers and colleagues from across the nation, says that effective strategies to target pregnancy, infancy, and toddlers are urgently needed to stop the progression of childhood obesity. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/unreported/ Thur, 31 May 2012 19:00:00 GMT Resources for Media Covering the American Society of Clinical Oncology Meeting June 1-5, 2012. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/asco-2012/ Thur, 31 May 2012 19:00:00 GMT National data show that currently more than 10 percent of preschoolers in the United States are obese, and an additional 10 percent are overweight. In a recently published article, a researcher from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with peers and colleagues from across the nation, says that effective strategies to target pregnancy, infancy, and toddlers are urgently needed to stop the progression of childhood obesity. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/obesity/ Thur, 31 May 2012 13:00:00 GMT Individual use of prescription opioids has increased four-fold since the mid-1990s, in part due to increased awareness of pain control for chronic conditions such as low back pain and fibromyalgia and a Joint Commission mandate that hospitals assess patients' pain as a vital sign along with their blood pressure and temperature. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/monitoring/ Wed, 30 May 2012 21:00:00 GMT The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and School of Dental Medicine, has been designated a national Center of Excellence in Pain Education (CoEPEs) by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/nih/ Wed, 30 May 2012 20:00:00 GMT Among patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, treatment with lung-sparing surgery in combination with photodynamic therapy (PDT) yielded unusually long survival rates, with median survival rates up to two or more years longer than is reported with traditional treatments, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/therapy/ Tue, 29 May 2012 13:00:00 GMT Two teams of employees were selected as winners in Penn Medicine's first employee Your Big Idea Innovation Tournament for projects aimed at improving the patient and caregiver experience at Penn Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/big/ Thur, 24 May 2012 20:00:00 GMT A new study published by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the Broad Institute, and Massachusetts General Hospital, challenges the conventional concept that raising a person's HDL levels (good cholesterol) will always help lower their risk of a heart attack. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/hdl/ Wed, 16 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT A team from the Perelman School of Medicine and the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania found that the FDA-approved drug daclizumab improved the survival of breast cancer patients taking a cancer vaccine by 30 percent, compared to those patients not taking daclizumab. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/fda/ Wed, 16 May 2012 18:00:00 GMT Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania researchers have discovered a mechanism involving the neurotransmitter dopamine that switches fruit fly behavior from being active during the day (diurnal) to nocturnal. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/sundown/ Mon, 14 May 2012 14:00:00 GMT Black cardiac arrest victims who are stricken outside hospitals are less likely to receive bystander CPR and defibrillation on the scene than white patients, according to research that will be presented by a research team from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania today at the annual meeting of Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/cpr/ Fri, 11 May 2012 22:00:00 GMT More than 75 percent of cardiac arrest victims are stricken too far away from an automated external defibrillator for the lifesaving device to be obtained quickly enough to offer the best chance at saving their lives, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be presented today at the annual meeting of Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/devices/ Fri, 11 May 2012 22:00:00 GMT One hundred and thirty-nine Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania students will take the Hippocratic Oath for the first time as new doctors this Sunday, May 13, 2012. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/mothers/ Fri, 11 May 2012 20:00:00 GMT A new electronic medical record tool that tallies patients' previous radiation exposure from CT scans helps reduce potentially unnecessary use of the tests among emergency room patients with abdominal pain, according to a study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be presented today at the annual meeting of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/tool/ Fri, 11 May 2012 19:00:00 GMT The American Heart Association (AHA) announced today that they have made their first investment through the Science and Technology Accelerator Program into CytoVas, LLC. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/aaa/ Wed, 09 May 2012 19:00:00 GMT All cells have the ability to recycle unwanted or damaged proteins and reuse the building blocks as food. But cancer cells have ramped up the system, called autophagy, and rely on it to escape damage in the face of chemotherapy and other treatments. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/block/ Tue, 08 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT A $25 million gift to the University of Pennsylvania from alumni Mindy and Jon Gray will establish a center focused on the treatment and prevention of cancers associated with hereditary BRCA mutations. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/basser/ Tue, 08 May 2012 15:00:00 GMT A Penn research team, led by Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, reports in Nature Medicine that mice in which an enzyme called histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3) was deleted had massively fatty livers, but lower blood sugar, and were thus protected from glucose intolerance and insulin resistance, the hallmark of diabetes. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/liver/ Mon, 07 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT Two Philadelphia-area residents have been named the winners of Penn Medicine's MyHeartMap Challenge, the citywide crowdsourcing contest aimed at locating and mapping all of the lifesaving automated external defibrillators in Philadelphia. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/myheartmap/ Thur, 03 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT Perelman School of Medicine professors Gideon Dreyfuss, PhD, the Isaac Norris Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and Beatrice H. Hahn, MD, professor of Medicine and Microbiology, along with Nancy Bonini, PhD, the Lucille B. Williams Professor of Biology in Penn's School of Arts and Sciences, have been elected members of the National Academy of Sciences, considered one of the highest honors accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/three/ Thur, 03 May 2012 16:00:00 GMT HIV patients treated with genetically modified T cells remain healthy up to 11 years after initial therapy, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report in the new issue of Science Translational Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/t-cell/ Wed, 02 May 2012 18:00:00 GMT After nearly 13 years of study and intense debate, a pair of new papers from the Perelman School of Medicine, at the University of Pennsylvania have confirmed exactly how a once-popular class of anti-inflammatory drugs leads to cardiovascular risk for people taking it. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/risk/ Wed, 02 May 2012 18:00:00 GMT Alan J. Wein, MD, PhD (Hon), has received the Keyes Medal from the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons (AAGUS) for his contributions to the field of urology. Wein is professor and chief of the division of Urology at the Perelman School of Medicine and Director of the Urology Residency Program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/urology/ Wed, 02 May 2012 14:00:00 GMT Arthur H. Rubenstein, MBBCh, was awarded the highest honor of the Association of American Physicians (AAP) the George M. Kober Medal, this week at the annual joint meeting of the AAP and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/05/medal/ Tue, 01 May 2012 15:00:00 GMT Two drugs commonly used to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD) yield similar improvements in vision for patients receiving treatments on a monthly or as-needed basis, according to a study from researchers at the Center for Preventive Ophthalmology and Biostatistics (CPOB) at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/vision/ Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:00:00 GMT More expensive biologic treatments for psoriasis were only marginally more effective than standard treatments, according to a new study led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Researchers found that previously reported response rates from randomized controlled trials were higher than results in a clinical, real-world setting. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/psoriasis/ Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:00:00 GMT Perelman School of Medicine researchers Thomas Curran, PhD, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Gary A. Koretzky, MD, PhD, vice chair for research and chief scientific officer, Department of Medicine, and are among the 220 elected to the 2012 class of members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/academy/ Tue, 24 Apr 2012 18:00:00 GMT A cellular protein called HDAC6, newly characterized as a gatekeeper of steroid biology in the brain, may provide a novel target for treating and preventing stress-linked disorders, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/hdac6/ Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:00:00 GMT Garret FitzGerald, MD, chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, is among the 44 newly elected Fellows and eight newly elected Foreign Members to the Royal Society. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/royal-society/ Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:00:00 GMT In a series of studies being presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Penn researchers demonstrated that, while tests created for AD are effectively diagnosing the condition when it's clear cut, additional tests are needed to address the many cases with mixed pathology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/ftd/ Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:40:00 GMT Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC) has achieved Magnet status – the highest institutional honor awarded for nursing excellence – from the American Nurses Credentialing Center's (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/magnet/ Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:00:00 GMT Two new studies analyzing treatment decisions in late-stage amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients shed light onto treatments aimed to extend the duration and quality of life in this progressively debilitating neuromuscular disorder. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/als/ Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:00:00 GMT Carl June, MD, director of Translational Research for the Abramson Cancer Center and a professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, has been named among the top three winners of the inaugural Clinical Research Forum Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Awards for his work treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia using genetically engineered versions of patients' own T cells, which multiply in the body as "serial killer" cells aimed at cancerous tumors. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/t-cell/ Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:00:00 GMT Last year, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that small amounts of a misfolded brain protein can be taken up by healthy neurons, replicating within them to cause neurodegeneration. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/protein/ Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:00:00 GMT Penn Presbyterian Medical Center has ranked among the nation's top 100 hospitals, according to the annual study by Thompson Reuters. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/reuters/ Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:00:00 GMT Continuing its commitment to underserved communities, Penn Medicine established the CAREs Foundation Grant Program in January 2012 to support and recognize faculty, student, and/or staff efforts to improve the health of the community and increase volunteerism in community-based programs. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/cares/ Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:00:00 GMT More than 60 percent of breast cancer survivors report at least one treatment-related complication even six years after their diagnosis, according to a new study led by a researcher from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/breast-cancer/ Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:00:00 GMT Niacin, or vitamin B3, is the one approved drug that elevates good cholesterol (high density lipoprotein, HDL) while depressing bad cholesterol (low density lipoprotein , LDL), and has thereby attracted much attention from patients and physicians. Niacin keeps fat from breaking down, and so obstructs the availability of LDL building blocks. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/drugs/ Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:00:00 GMT Researchers have long recognized that autism runs in families, suggesting a genetic component. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/dna/ Thur, 05 Apr 2012 13:00:00 GMT The 24-hour internal clock controls many aspects of human behavior and physiology, including sleep, blood pressure, and metabolism. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/clock/ Wed, 04 Apr 2012 20:00:00 GMT The University of Pennsylvania's Jonathan Moreno has been invited to join the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's International Bioethics Committee. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/moreno/ Tue, 03 Apr 2012 18:00:00 GMT The American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) has awarded three-year accreditation to all three Penn Medicine hospitals in recognition of their commitment to the highest level of quality cancer care. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/commission/ Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:00:00 GMT Virginia M.Y. Lee, PhD, MBA, and John Q. Trojanowski, MD, PhD, both professors of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, have been named recipients of the 24th annual Medical Research Award in Neuropsychiatric Disorders by the Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/04/pasarow/ Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:00:00 GMT A Penn- and MIT-led team explained how rapamycin, a drug that extends mouse lifespan, also causes insulin resistance. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/baur/ Thur, 29 Mar 2012 18:00:00 GMT Rajan Jain, MD, cardiovascular fellow, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, has been honored with an American Medical Association (AMA) 2012 Seed Grant Research Program award for his promising research into congenital heart disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/heart-disease/ Thur, 29 Mar 2012 13:00:00 GMT Patients with end-stage liver disease complicated by the most common type of liver cancer – hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) – are less likely to die or become too sick for a transplant while waiting for a new liver than those with other complications of end-stage liver disease, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/waitlist/ Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:00:00 GMT Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine, the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, have received a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study novel approaches to preventing chronic diseases in HIV positive African American men. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/researchers/ Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:00:00 GMT A highly detailed CT scan of the heart can safely and quickly rule out the possibility of a heart attack among many patients who come to hospital emergency rooms with chest pain, according to the results of a study that will be presented by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania today at the American College of Cardiology’s 61st Annual Scientific Session and published concurrently in the New England Journal of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/scan/ Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:00:00 GMT When poet Walt Whitman wrote that we contain multitudes, he was speaking metaphorically, but he was correct in the literal sense. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/allergies/ Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:00:00 GMT Nobel Laureate Peter Agre, MD, professor and director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, Bloomberg School of Public Health, will deliver the address at the Perelman School of Medicine’s commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 13, 2012 in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/agre/ Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:00:00 GMT Steven Brem, MD, professor of Neurosurgery, chief of the division of Neurosurgical Oncology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received the 2012 Joel A. Gingras, Jr. award from the American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/award/ Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:00:00 GMT Insulin resistance in the brain precedes and contributes to cognitive decline above and beyond other known causes of Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/insulin/ Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:00:00 GMT Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have identified an abnormal amount a protein called Prostaglandin D2 in the bald scalp of men with male pattern baldness, a discovery that may lead directly to new treatments for the most common cause of hair loss in men. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/hair/ Wed, 21 Mar 2012 18:00:00 GMT Intervention by peer mentors has a statistically significant effect on improving glucose control in African American veterans with diabetes, according to a study by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia VA Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/mentoring/ Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:00:00 GMT The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) has been accredited for the second time as a Magnet organization - the highest institutional honor granted for nursing excellence - from the American Nurses Credentialing Center's (ANCC) Magnet Recognition Program. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/magnet/ Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:00:00 GMT Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a lifelong set of developmental disorders that often demand significant resources of time and money from families. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/mothers/ Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:00:00 GMT Clifford S. Deutschman, MD, MS, professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care and director of the Sepsis Research Program at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has been named as the President of the Society for Critical Care Medicine (SCCM). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/sccm/ Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:00:00 GMT At the stroke of noon on Friday, March 16, 140 Perelman School of Medicine students (70 women and 70 men) will gather in an emotion-filled ceremony to open their "residency placement" envelopes and learn where they will spend the next few years receiving their advanced medical training. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/match-day/ Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:00:00 GMT A growing body of evidence underscores the importance of human gut bacteria in modulating human health, metabolism, and disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/bushman/ Thur, 15 Mar 2012 01:00:00 GMT OncoLink, a free cancer information website developed by experts at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center has launched a redesigned website based on the search habits and feedback from patients, caregivers and health care providers who use the site. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/redesign/ Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:00:00 GMT A study published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience shows that the compound epothilone D (EpoD) is effective in preventing further neurological damage and improving cognitive performance in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (AD). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/alzheimer/ Tue, 13 Mar 2012 21:00:00 GMT The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (www.med.upenn.edu) has ranked second among the nation's research-oriented medical schools, according to the annual survey by U.S. News and World Report. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/ranking/ Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:00:00 GMT An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (www.med.upenn.edu) and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) (www.chop.edu), including specialists in neurobiology, psychiatry, and biomedical imaging, have received a $3.5 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)* to study how to enhance stress resilience in military personnel. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/darpa/ Wed, 7 Mar 2012 21:00:00 GMT Aggressive treatment for severe traumatic brain injuries costs more than routine care, yet yields significantly better outcomes, improved quality of life, and lower long term care costs, according to a new study by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/brain-injury/ Tue, 6 Mar 2012 17:00:00 GMT Jamie Shuda, EdD, director of life science outreach at the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IRM), and coordinator of life science education at the Netter Center for Community Partnerships also at Penn, along with Steve Farber, PhD, Investigator, Embryology Department, Carnegie Institution for Science, Baltimore, have been awarded the Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize from the Society for Developmental Biology (SBD). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/shuda/ Tue, 6 Mar 2012 15:00:00 GMT Mark A. Lemmon, PhD, chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, is the 2012 recipient of the Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Award by The Protein Society. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/lemmon/ Mon, 5 Mar 2012 21:00:00 GMT Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report this month in Cancer Research a universal approach to personalized cancer therapy based on T cells. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/new-platform/ Mon, 5 Mar 2012 20:00:00 GMT Only about 75 percent of HIV/AIDS patients in the United States remain in care consistently, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania published online this week in AIDS. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/hiv/ Mon, 5 Mar 2012 13:00:00 GMT Aging does not appear to be a factor in poor sleep, a new study by Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/03/sleep/ Thu, 1 Mar 2012 03:00:00 GMT The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has been has been selected as a Regional Center for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's (NHLBI) Heart Failure Clinical Trials Network. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/02/heart-failure/ Wed, 29 Feb 2012 03:00:00 GMT Four University of Pennsylvania faculty members, including two from the Perelman School of Medicine, are among this year's Sloan Fellowship recipients. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/02/sloan/ Mon, 27 Feb 2012 01:00:00 GMT Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have put sleeplessness on the map - literally. The research team, analyzing nationwide data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has produced the first state-by-state sleep maps for the United States, revealing that residents of Southern states suffer from the most sleep disturbances and daytime fatigue, while residents on the West Coast report the least amount of problems. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/02/sleepless/ Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:00:00 GMT Two researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have been awarded a four-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute to conduct breast cancer virtual clinical trials research. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/02/nih-grant/ Thur, 23 Feb 2012 16:00:00 GMT The infamous BRCA genes do not act alone in causing cancer; there is a molecular syndicate at work preventing the way cells normally repair breaks in DNA that is at the root of breast cancer. But finding all of the BRCA molecular collaborators has been elusive. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/02/new-member/ Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:00:00 GMT A team led by researchers from the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism (IDOM) at the erelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, has overturned a "textbook" view of what the body does after a meal. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/02/textbook/ Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT Blocking autophagy -- the process of "self-eating" within cells -- is turning out to be a viable way to enhance the effectiveness of a wide variety of cancer treatments. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/02/new-combo/ Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:00:00 GMT Injecting epilepsy patients with medication via an autoinjector -- similar to the EpiPens used to treat serious allergic reactions -- works more quickly to stop seizures than delivery of a drug via IV on board ambulances, according to a national study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/02/epilepsy/ Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:00:00 GMT Gene therapy for congenital blindness has taken another step forward, as researchers further improved vision in three adult patients previously treated in one eye. After receiving the same treatment in their other eye, the patients became better able to see in dim light, and two were able to navigate obstacles in low-light situations. No adverse effects occurred. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/02/gene-therapy-blindness/ Wed, 8 Feb 2012 04:00:00 GMT The molecular pathway that carries time-of-day signals from the body's internal clock to ultimately guide daily behavior is like a black box, says Amita Sehgal, PhD, the John Herr Musser Professor of Neuroscience and Co-Director, Comprehensive Neuroscience Center, at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/02/internal-clock-black-box/ Mon, 6 Feb 2012 04:00:00 GMT Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania report that a short course of vaccination with an anti-HER2 dendritic cell vaccine made partly from the patient's own cells triggers a complete tumor eradication in nearly 20 percent of women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), an early breast cancer. More than 85 percent of patients treated appear to have a sustained immune response after vaccination, which may reduce their risk of developing a more invasive cancer in the future. The results of the study were published online this month of Cancer and in the January issue of the Journal of Immunotherapy. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/01/cancer-tumors/ Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:00:00 GMT Results were released yesterday from the Pennsylvania Autism Needs Assessment, which includes feedback from 3,500 Pennsylvania caregivers and adults with autism, making it the largest study of its kind in the nation. Among the findings, the study shows that training in social skills has been identified as the most common unmet need for both children and adults with autism. The study also found that more than two-thirds of adults with autism are unemployed or underemployed. The survey was led by the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/01/autism-pa-families/ Fri, 27 Jan 2012 04:00:00 GMT People who suffer from sleep disturbances are at major risk for obesity, diabetes, and coronary artery disease, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. For the first time in such a large and diverse sample, analyzing the data of over 130,000 people, the new research also indicates that general sleep disturbance (difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, and/or sleeping too much) may play a role in the development of cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. The study is published online ahead of print in the Journal of Sleep Research. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/01/sleep-cardio-diabetes-obesity/ Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:00:00 GMT Men are four times more likely to develop liver cancer compared to women, a difference attributed to the sex hormones androgen and estrogen. Although this gender difference has been known for a long time, the molecular mechanisms by which estrogens prevent -- and androgens promote -- liver cancer remain unclear. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/01/liver-cancer-gender/ Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:00:00 GMT TBen Stanger, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and Andrew Rhim, MD, a Gastroenterology Fellow in the Stanger lab, discovered that pancreatic cancer cells in an animal model begin to spread before clinically obvious tumor tissue is detected. What’s more, they showed that inflammation enhances cancer progression in part by facilitating a cellular transformation that leads to entry of cancer cells into the circulation. They report their findings this week in Cell. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/01/cell-tracking-cancer/ Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:00:00 GMT The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is one of six institutions to be named part of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Lung Repair and Regeneration Consortium (LRRC). Each of the institutions will receive $2.5 million over five years. Edward Morrisey, PhD, professor of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology and Scientific Director of the Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine, will lead the Penn consortium. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/01/lung-biologists-award/ Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:00:00 GMT Cancer cells have been long known to have a "sweet tooth," using vast amounts of glucose for energy and for building blocks for cell replication. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/01/cancer-cells-sugar-free/ Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:00:00 GMT A new multi-center study, including neurologists and neurosurgeons from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, reveals that Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) – a treatment for Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with medication-resistant muscle movement impairment or tremors – can improve those symptoms and reduce medications for patients implanted with the device. The study appears Online First in Lancet Neurology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/01/deep-brain-parkinsons/ Thu, 12 Jan 2012 04:00:00 GMT Patients with gout – a painful type of inflammatory arthritis caused by the crystallization of urates in soft tissues – are advised to start treatment that lowers uric acid levels in the blood. Unfortunately, as the long-term medication starts to break down crystals deposited in the joints, many patients experience gout attacks caused by the release of crystals from softened deposits. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/01/gout-rilonacept/ Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:00:00 GMT Patients simultaneously treated for both Type 2 diabetes and depression improve medication compliance and significantly improve blood sugar and depression levels compared to patients receiving usual care, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Of patients receiving integrated care combined with a brief period of intervention to assist with adherence to prescribed medication regimens, more than 60 percent had improved blood sugar test results and 58 percent had reduced depression symptoms, compared to only 36 percent and 31 percent, respectively, of patients receiving usual care. The full results of the study are published in the January/February issue of The Annals of Family Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/01/diabetes-depression/ Mon, 9 Jan 2012 04:00:00 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 Peter LeRoux, MD, FACS, associate professor of Neurosurgery in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, was awarded a 3-year, $250,000 Dana Foundation Clinical Neuroscience grant, to conduct a study using branch chain amino acids to treat concussion in athletes. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2012/01/leroux-award/ Tue, 3 Jan 2012 04:00:00 GMT Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania are in the midst of testing a personalized, dendritic cell vaccine in patients with recurrent ovarian, primary peritoneal or fallopian tube cancer – a group of patients who typically have few treatment options. Now, they have shown they can shorten the time to manufacture this type of anti-cancer vaccine, which reduces costs of manufacturing the treatment while still yielding powerful dendritic cells that may be beneficial for these and a variety of other tumor types. The data is published in the December issue of PLoS ONE. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/personalized-ovarian/ Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT A new measurement tool can identify cognitively normal adults who are at high risk for cognitive decline, according to a new study by collaborators at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Medical School. The study is published in the December 21, 2011, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/meas-brain-thickness// Wed, 21 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT Eydie Miller-Ellis, MD, professor of Clinical Ophthalmology and director of the Glaucoma Division at Scheie Eye Institute, was recently presented with the Women in Ophthalmology's Suzanne Veronneau Troutman Award at the 2011 American Academy of Ophthalmology meeting. The honor recognizes the woman, nominated by the WIO membership, who has done the most over the past year to further women in ophthalmology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/women-ophthalmology/ Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT Penn Medicine has launched myPennMedicine, the Philadelphia region's only online patient-accessible health record. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/my-penn-medicine/ Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT The Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania announces the establishment of the Neuroscience of Behavior Initiative. This new initiative, funded by an anonymous gift, will strengthen Penn programs in basic, translational, clinical, and population research into the areas of addiction, depressive disorders, and neurodegenerative disease. The gift, totaling more than $16.3 million, is the largest to neuroscience at Penn Medicine, and among the largest individual gifts to medical research in the U.S. in 2011. The gift is the first phase of what is anticipated to be a long-term investment by the donors in this initiative. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/neuro-behavior-gift/ Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT James Eberwine, PhD, professor of Pharmacology, at the Perleman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a Senior Scholar Award from the Ellison Medical Foundation. This supports basic biological research in aging, for $600,000 to be disbursed over the next four years. He is one of 20 investigators to receive this award. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/senior-scholar-ellison/ Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT Steve Reiner, MD, professor of Medicine, and Burton Barnett, a doctoral student in the Reiner lab at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, have shown how immune cells, called B lymphocytes, are able to produce daughter cells that are not equal, a finding that might explain how lifelong antibodies are made after vaccination. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/bcells-antibodies/ Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report promising new results from a small clinical trial using an immune-system-based gene therapy for treating advanced stages of a deadly cancer, malignant mesothelioma. The treatment, immuno-gene therapy, transfers just enough genetic material from an existing virus to trigger a patient's innate defenses to destroy cancer cells. The study results, published in the December 15th issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, may lead to earlier interventions for patients using targeted therapies. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/igt-cancer/ Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT Inhibition of Lymphocyte Trafficking Using a CCR5 Antagonist – Final Results of a Phase I/II Study. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/hiv-drug-graft-host/ Tue, 13 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT In efforts to find new treatments for Parkinson’s Disease (PD), researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have directly reprogrammed astrocytes, the most plentiful cell type in the central nervous system, into dopamine-producing neurons. PD is marked by the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain. Dopamine is a brain chemical important in behavior and cognition, voluntary movement, sleep, mood, attention, and memory and learning. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/reprogramming-brain-cells/ Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT A method of classifying brain atrophy patterns in Alzheimer's disease patients using MRIs can also detect cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Researchers also found that higher baseline Alzheimer's patterns of atrophy predicted long-term cognitive decline in cognitively normal Parkinson's patients. The study is published online in Brain. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/cognitive-decline-parkinsons Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT Atrophy in the hippocampus, the region of the brain known for memory formation and storage, is evident in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients with cognitive impairment, including early decline known as mild cognitive impairment (MCI), according to a study by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The study is published in the December issue of the Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/hippocampal-atrophy/ Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT Daniel Sterman, MD, director of Interventional Pulmonology, and associate professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Medicine, has been honored with the Pasquale Ciaglia Memorial Lecture award in Interventional Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/StermanACCP/ Mon, 12 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT A Phase 1 Dose Escalation Study of Infusion of ExVivo CD3/CD28 Costimulated Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived T Cells in Adults Undergoing Transplantation for Advanced Hematologic Malignancies. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/cord-blood-transplant/ Sun, 11 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT Adoptive Immunotherapy with Autologous CD3/CD28-Costimulated T-Cells After Fludarabine-Based Chemotherapy in Patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/leukemia-immune-chemo/ Sun, 11 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT A research team led by Nancy Speck, PhD, professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has discovered a molecular marker for the immediate precursors of hematopoietic (blood) stem cells (HSCs) in the developing embryo, which provides much-needed insights for making these cells from engineered precursors. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/speck-stem-cells/ Thur, 8 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT A group of Penn Medicine researchers is set to save lives with cell phone cameras -- and they are challenging the public to help. The MyHeartMap Challenge, a month-long contest slated to take place beginning in mid January, will send thousands of Philadelphians to the streets and to social media sites to locate as many automated external defibrillators (AEDs) as they can. The contest is just a first step in what the Penn team hopes will grow to become a nationwide, crowd-sourced AED registry project that will put the lifesaving devices in the hands of anyone, anywhere, anytime. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/myheartmap-challenge/ Thur, 8 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT A Decision Analysis of Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy in Women Undergoing Treatment for Sporadic Unilateral Breast Cancer. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/cpm-breast-cancer/ Wed, 7 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT In a study in which researchers posing as mothers attempted to schedule appointments for sick children at specialty clinics, practices affiliated with academic medical centers were less likely to deny appointments to children with Medicaid-CHIP insurance coverage versus children with commercial insurance, according to report from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania published online this week in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/children-medicaid-chip/ Wed, 7 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT Over 140 third and fourth graders from the Penn Alexander School, Saint Francis DeSales School, and Beulah Christian Day School will spend a morning on the Penn campus "judging" hands-on science activities developed by students at Penn, including undergraduate Biological Basis of Behavior program majors and graduate students in neuroscience. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/kids-judge-science/ Thu, 1 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT Write to Fight Cancer Author David Tabatsky is coming to Joan Karnell Cancer Center at Pennsylvania Hospital for the "Write to Fight Cancer" program, a free interactive expressive writing workshop. The event is open to all people affected by cancer (patients, survivors, caregivers, friends, etc.) and it will feature expert advice, writing exercises and discussion. David will help participants transform their thoughts and feelings into words and stories. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/12/write-fight-cancer/ Thu, 1 Dec 2011 04:00:00 GMT The holidays can be difficult for those who have lost a loved one. This week, Penn Medicine will host its annual Light Up a Life ceremonies, to honor and remember family, friends, and loved ones who have passed, by lighting trees in their honor. Penn Wissahickon Hospice, a division of Penn Home Care and Hospice Services and part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, holds the celebration in honor of the people who have brightened and enriched the lives of others. The thousands of lights on the trees are each dedicated in honor or memory of a patient, friend or loved one. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/penn-hospice-lul-events/ Mon, 28 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT Oral antibiotics used to treat acne are linked to symptoms of sore throat, according to a study by researchers with the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, published Online First in the Archives of Dermatology , one of the JAMA/Archives journals. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/acne-throat/ Tue, 22 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT University of Pennsylvania researchers have received a five-year, $7.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to create the Penn Center for Innovation in Personalized Breast Cancer Screening (PCIPS), dedicated to studying emerging methods of breast cancer detection. The NCI funding will allow the team, led by Perelman School of Medicine faculty Katrina Armstrong, MD, MSCE, chief of the division of Internal Medicine and associate director of Outcomes and Delivery in the Abramson Cancer Center, and Mitchell Schnall, MD, PhD, Matthew J. Wilson Professor of Radiology, to use clinical, genomic and imaging information to guide the use of novel, personalized breast cancer screening strategies that will reduce false positive rates to improve outcomes." http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/breast-cancer-screening-nci/ Tue, 22 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT On the quest for safe, reliable and accessible tools to accurately diagnose Alzheimer's disease, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found a new way of diagnosing and tracking Alzheimer's disease, using an innovative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique called Arterial spin labeling (ASL) to measure changes in brain function. The team determined that the ASL-MRI test is a promising alternative to the current standard, a specific PET scan that requires exposure to small amounts of a radioactive glucose analog and costs approximately four-times more than an ASL-MRI. Two studies now appear in Alzheimer's and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association and Neurology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/mri-brain-alz/ Wed, 16 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT Greening of vacant urban land may affect the health and safety of nearby residents, according to a study published online in the American Journal of Epidemiology this week. The team, led by senior author Charles C. Branas, PhD, associate professor of Epidemiology at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, found in a decade-long comparison of vacant lots and improved vacant lots, that greening was linked to significant reductions in gun assaults across most of Philadelphia and significant reductions in vandalism in one section of the city. Vacant lot greening was also associated with residents in certain sections of the city reporting significantly less stress and more exercise. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/more-green-crime/ Wed, 16 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT Supervised exercise improves walking ability as good as, if not better than, stents in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD), according to research released at the 2011 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. The study is a joint collaboration from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Minnesota Medical School, Rhode Island Hospital, and 13 other academic institutions and medical centers. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/exercise-wallking-pad/ Wed, 16 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT Collaborative research from Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has shown that psoriasis patients have an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular death, especially if the psoriasis is moderate to severe. Now, Penn researchers have discovered the potential underlying mechanism by which the inflammatory skin disease impacts cardiovascular health. In two new studies presented at the 2011 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, Penn researchers show that the systemic inflammatory impact of psoriasis may alter both the makeup of cholesterol particles and numbers, as well as impair the function of high density lipoprotein (HDL), the "good" cholesterol. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/psoriasis-hdl/ Wed, 16 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT New research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has shown for the first time that pneumonia is the most common serious infection after heart surgery. The new study, presented at the 2011 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, also revealed that most infections occur about two weeks after surgery, not one week as physicians previously thought. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/pneumonia-heart-surgery/ Tue, 15 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT Just 30 percent the nation's state police agencies reported that they equip their vehicles with automated external defibrillators, and of those, nearly 60 percent of said only a minority of their fleet have the lifesaving devices on board, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be presented today at the American Heart Association's annual Scientific Sessions (Abstract #10721). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/aed-cars/ Tue, 15 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig''s disease, is a universally fatal neurodegenerative disease. Mutations in two related proteins, TDP-43 and FUS, cause some forms of ALS. Specifically, these two proteins are RNA-binding proteins that connect to RNA to regulate the translation of proteins and other cellular functions such as RNA splicing and editing. In a new study, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania discovered additional human genes with properties similar to TDP-43 and FUS that might also contribute to ALS. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/genetic-screening-yeast/ Mon, 14 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT Can a visit to your primary care doctor help you lose weight? Primary care physicians, working with medical assistants in their practices, helped one group of their obese patients lose an average of 10.1 lb during a two-year lifestyle intervention, according to a new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Their 10 lb weight loss was associated, over the two years, with improvements in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, including waist circumference and HDL cholesterol levels. The results of the POWER-UP (Practice-based Opportunities for Weight Reduction at the University of Pennsylvania) trial were reported in the latest edition of the New England Journal of Medicine and at the American Heart Association annual meeting today. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/obese-power-up/ Mon, 14 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT A new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and collaborators at various institutions, presented at the 2011 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, shows that a novel, non-invasive measurement of arterial wave reflections may be able to predict who is most at risk for heart failure. The authors presented data from an ancillary study of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/ni-meas-heart-failure/ Mon, 14 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT Physicians may be making premature predictions about which patients are not likely to survive following cardiac arrest – and even withdrawing care -- before the window in which comatose patients who have received therapeutic hypothermia are most likely to wake up, according to two new studies from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The research helps to better define the proper timeframe and manner in which doctors may be able to predict which patients will regain consciousness after the use of therapeutic hypothermia, which preserves brain and other organ function following cardiac arrest. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/cardiac-arrest-hypothermia/ Mon, 14 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT By studying tumor biology at the molecular level, researchers are gaining a deeper understanding of drug resistance - and how to avoid it by designing pediatric cancer treatments tailored to specific mutations in a child"s DNA. In a fruitful collaboration, pediatric oncologists and biochemists are targeting neuroblastoma, an often-deadly childhood cancer of the peripheral nervous system. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/childhood-cancer-treatments/ Mon, 14 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT A team of researchers co-led by the University of Pennsylvania has developed and tested a new high-resolution, ultra-thin device capable of recording brain activity from the cortical surface without having to use penetrating electrodes. The device could make possible a whole new generation of brain-computer interfaces for treating neurological and psychiatric illness and research. The work was published in Nature Neuroscience. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/brain-map-device/ Sun, 13 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT Discussion about cardiac arrest on Twitter is common and represents a new opportunity to provide lifesaving information to the public, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The Penn investigators will present two studies (ReSS Abstracts #52 and #53) examining cardiac arrest-information exchange on the social media site today at the American Heart Association's annual Scientific Sessions. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/twitter-save-lives/ Sat, 12 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT Even members of the lay public who have received CPR training are confused about how to perform the lifesaving skill and say they don't have confidence in their ability to do it properly, according to a study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania which will be presented today at the American Heart Association's annual Scientific Sessions (Abstract #65). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/save-lives-cpr/ Sat, 12 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT Good Shepherd Penn Partners (GSPP) today officially opened its 10th outpatient site, GSPP Penn Therapy and Fitness-Rittenhouse, at 1800 Lombard Street in Philadelphia. The 11,000-square-foot facility located on the first floor of Penn Medicine at Rittenhouse, offers orthopedic or sports medicine rehabilitation and specialized services for people with neurological issues such as stroke, brain injury, spinal cord injury and MS. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/gspp-10th-site/ Thu, 10 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT The lining of the intestine regenerates itself every few days as compared to say red blood cells that turn over every four months. The cells that help to absorb food and liquid that humans consume are constantly being produced. The various cell types that do this come from stem cells that reside deep in the inner recesses of the accordion-like folds of the intestines, called villi and crypts. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/gut-cell-regen/ Thu, 10 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT Resources for News Media Covering the 2011 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, November 12 – 16, 2011 http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/american-heart-assn/ Thu, 10 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT Doctors should consider the use of narrative -- in the form of patient stories and testimonials -- as a powerful tool for translating and communicating evidence-based policies to the public to buoy buy-in on important health issues such as cancer screenings and vaccination mandates, according to two physicians from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania writing this week in JAMA. They suggest two strategies: The use of so-called "counternarratives," which can play a role in neutralizing personal stories – often promoted by celebrities via the news media -- that support disproven theories, and narratives about the process of scientific study and discovery, to unmask the often hidden work of researchers and guidelines committees. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/story-behind-science/ Tue, 8 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT Scientists at Penn's Perelman School of Medicine Center for Research in FOP and Related Disorders have developed a new genetic approach to specifically block the damaged copy of the gene for a rare bone disease, while leaving the normal copy untouched. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/rare-bone-disease/ Fri, 4 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT A research group at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, led by John Lynch, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, has received a National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant to establish a Barrett's esophagus translational research network (BETRNet) with Columbia University (led by Dr. Timothy Wang) and the Mayo Clinic (led by Dr. Kenneth Wang). The award is for nearly $8 million across all sites. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/barrett-esophagus/ Wed, 2 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT For the first time in the Delaware Valley Region, a patient has undergone a complex and intricate bilateral hand transplant that could significantly enhance the quality-of-life for persons with multiple limb loss. The procedure was performed by Penn's Hand Transplant Program which operates under the leadership of the Penn Transplant Institute and in collaboration with Gift of Life Donor Program, the nonprofit organ and tissue donor program which serves the eastern half of Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. The highly-trained team's first bilateral hand transplant was performed in September. At this time, the patient is progressing well and both the patient and donor family wish to remain anonymous. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/11/hand-transplant-pressconf/ Tue, 1 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT For the first time in the Delaware Valley Region, a patient has undergone a complex and intricate transplant procedure that could significantly enhance the quality-of-life for persons with multiple limb loss. In September, a highly-skilled, specially-trained team from the newly established Penn Hand Transplant Program at the Penn Transplant Institute performed its first bilateral hand transplant. Working closely with its partner, Gift of Life Donor Program, a team of 30 members – 12 surgeons, three anesthesiologists and 15 nurses – performed the 11-and-a-half hour double transplant procedure – a Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation – that involved experts in solid organ transplantation, orthopaedic surgery, plastic surgery, reconstructive microsurgery and anesthesia. Details of this history-making procedure will be forthcoming a press conference tomorrow at 10 am at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/bilateral-hand-transplant/ Mon, 31 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT The most common form of heritable cognitive impairment is Fragile X Syndrome, caused by mutation or malfunction of the FMR1 gene. Loss of FMR1 function is also the most common genetic cause of autism. Understanding how this gene works is vital to finding new treatments to help Fragile X patients and others. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/fragilex-syndrome/ Mon, 31 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT It will be lights, camera, fashion, and passion for a cure during the Abramson Cancer Center's Focus On Women's Cancers Conference on Friday, October 28th. Penn Medicine cancer physicians, patients, and survivors will take to the runway modeling clothes by fashion designer and philanthropist Tory Burch to cap off the daylong conference, which includes educational sessions for women undergoing treatment for or at risk of breast, ovarian and other gynecologic cancers. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/hope-tory-burch/ Fri, 28 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT The pigmented cells called melanocytes aren't just for making freckles and tans. Melanocytes absorb ultraviolet light, protecting the skin from the harmful effects of the sun. They also are the cells that go haywire in melanoma, as well as in more common conditions as vitiligo and albinism. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/skin-cells/ Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT Obesity and insulin resistance are almost inevitably associated with increases in lipid accumulation in the liver, a serious disease that can deteriorate to hepatitis and liver failure. A real paradox in understanding insulin resistance is figuring out why insulin-resistant livers make more fat. Insulin resistance occurs when the body does a poor job of lowering blood sugars. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/insulin-paradox/ Mon, 24 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT Embarking on one the largest capital projects in the history of Pennsylvania Hospital, Penn Medicine will celebrate the official groundbreaking of its new Penn Medicine Washington Square (PMWS) facility. The new facility, to be located at 8th and Walnut Streets in Philadelphia's historic Society Hill section, will house outpatient services for Pennsylvania Hospital (PAH) – the nation's first, founded in 1751 by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/washington-square/ Mon, 24 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT In the nearly four decades since the performance of the first human heart transplant in 1967, heart transplantation has changed from an experimental operation to an established treatment for advanced heart disease. Thanks to the persistence of pioneers in cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, and transplant medicine, including experts at Penn Medicine, thousands of heart transplant patients in the U.S. are living longer and healthier lives than ever before. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/mars-venus/ Thur, 20 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT Three professors from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have been elected members of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the nation's highest honors in biomedicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/institute-of-medicine-elects-three/ Thur, 20 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT Smith Apisarnthanarax, MD, Assistant Professor and Associate Residency Program Director, Department of Radiation Oncology, was named Educator of the Year by the Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology (ARRO), in partnership with the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/smith_apisarnthanarax_award Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT Can a bird have a heart attack? A recent paper published by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania suggests that cardiovascular disease may be an unfortunate consequence of mammalian evolution. The study, published in a recent issue of the journal Blood, demonstrates that the same features of blood platelets that may have provided an evolutionary advantage to early mammals now predispose humans to cardiovascular disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/cardio_disease_evol/ Mon, 17 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT Recent studies have identified many genes that may put people with schizophrenia at risk for the disease. But, what links genetic differences to changes in altered brain activity in schizophrenia is not clear. Now, three labs at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have come together using electrophysiological, anatomical, and immunohistochemical approaches - along with a unique high-speed imaging technique - to understand how schizophrenia works at the cellular level, especially in identifying how changes in the interaction between different types of nerve cells leads to symptoms of the disease. The findings are reported this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/schizophrenia-genetics/ Fri, 07 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT A unique gathering of international experts will be charting the unfolding landscape of how to bring personalized medicines to the consumer. Thought leaders from academic medical centers, government, and industry will identify opportunities and hazards about using personal genomic information to develop new treatments and cures. Held at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania on October 18 and 19, the 6th Annual Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT) International Symposium, Translational Strategies in Contemporary Science, brings together a distinguished faculty of over two dozen international thought leaders who will discuss the present and future of translational medicine, including personalized genomics and disease risk; nature vs. nurture and epigenetics in personalized medicine; and recent drug-development models that work. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/6th_tm_symposium/ Fri, 07 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT Research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has found that small amounts of misshapened brain proteins can be taken up by healthy neurons and replicated within them to cause neurodegeneration. The research, published in Neuron, shows a way that Parkinson's disease (PD) can spread in the brain and provides a model for discovering therapeutics targeting PD neurodegeneration. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/parkinson-disease/ Thurs, 06 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT Daniel J. Rader, MD, chief, Division of Translational Medicine and Human Genetics, and Edward Morrisey, PhD, professor of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine, and Scientific Director at the Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin received a five-year, $9 million grant for stem cell research from the National Institutes of Health’s National Human Genome Research (NHGRI) and the National Heart Lung and Blood (NHLBI) Institutes. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/nih-genevariants-cardio/ Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT Cognitive therapy has dynamically improved the most neurologically impaired, poorly functioning schizophrenic patients. For the first time, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that a psychosocial treatment can significantly improve daily functioning and quality of life in the lowest-functioning cases of schizophrenia. The study appears in the October 3 edition of Archives of General Psychiatry. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/schizophrenia/ Mon, 03 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT A new multimedia informed consent tool accessed via the Internet may make it easier for cancer patients to understand and feel comfortable enrolling in clinical trials, according a study conducted by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s (ASTRO) 53rd Annual Meeting. The research group points to the tool as a potential way to buoy the low percentage of adult cancer patients who participate in clinical trials, which hovers between 2 and 4 percent nationwide. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/astro-consent-tool/ Mon, 03 Oct 2011 02:00:00 GMT There’s more than one way to mop up after a flu infection. Now, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report this week in Nature Immunology that a previously unrecognized population of lung immune cells orchestrate the body’s repair response following flu infection. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/immune-cells/ Mon, 03 Oct 2011 02:00:00 GMT In the ongoing quest to find the exact way that anesthetics interact with the central nervous system, anesthesiology researchers have been examining whether the state induced by anesthetics resembles natural sleep. One way to measure this is to determine whether undergoing general anesthesia results in a sleep debt for patients. Previous research has shown that the injected anesthetic propofol does not cause a sleep deficit. Now, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown in animal models that another group of anesthetics, commonly used in the operating room, do not substitute for natural sleep and may cause complications for surgery patients already at-risk for sleep-related issues. The new research is published in the October 2011 issue of the journal Anesthesiology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/natural_sleep/ Sat, 01 Oct 2011 02:00:00 GMT The possibility that anesthesia and surgery produces lasting cognitive losses has gained attention over past decades, but direct evidence has remained ambiguous and controversial. Now, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania provide further evidence that Alzheimer's pathology may be increased in patients after surgery. The new research is published in the October 2011 issue of the journal Anesthesiology. http://uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/10/alzheimer_biomarkers/ Sat, 01 Oct 2011 02:00:00 GMT Patients being treated for chronic hepatitis C become less likely to take their medications over time, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Since the study also showed better response to the drugs when they're taken correctly, the researchers say the findings should prompt clinicians to assess patients for barriers to medication adherence throughout their treatment, and develop strategies to help them stay on track. The study is published online this month in Annals of Internal Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/hep-c-falter/ Fri, 30 Sep 2011 02:00:00 GMT The 10th Annual Keep the Beat Event Held in Memory of HUP Heart Transplant Recipient Mickey Gallaher and to Promote Organ Donor Awareness http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/10th-keep-the-beat/ Fri, 30 Sep 2011 02:00:00 GMT Jun Mao, MD, MSCE assistant professor of Family Medicine and Community Health in the Perelman School of Medicine, and director of Integrative Medicine, recently received a 1.5 million dollar National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant to study the way in which genetic variations in estrogen synthesis affect women with breast cancer who are taking aromatase inhibitors, which are typically used to prevent recurrence. The drugs help post-menopausal women to further suppress their body's production of estrogen. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/jun_mao_grant/ Thur, 29 Sep 2011 02:00:00 GMT The longevity revolution in Philadelphia continues. Super-centenarian Ms. Willie Lassiter will be celebrating her 111th birthday in style on Friday, in the company of family, friends, and Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/3rd_oldest_pa/ Wed, 28 Sep 2011 02:00:00 GMT Three labs from the University of Pennsylvania have received $12.5 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as part of its $143.8 million national grant program to challenge the scientific status quo with innovative ideas that have the potential to speed the translation of medical research into improved health for the American public. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/national-institutes-of-health-nih/ Wed, 28 Sep 2011 02:00:00 GMT Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients of different sexes and races may respond differently to treatment with commonly used medications for the disease, says a new study from researchers at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/women-pulmonary-arterial-hypertension/ Tue, 27 Sep 2011 02:00:00 GMT Despite what Hollywood would have you believe, not all epidemics involve people suffering from zombie-like symptoms--some can only be uncovered through door-to-door epidemiology and advanced mathematics. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/parasite-peru/ Tue, 27 Sep 2011 02:00:00 GMT Mitral regurgitation is a common heart valve disorder, where blood flows backwards through the mitral valve when the heart contracts and reduces the amount of blood that is pumped out to the body. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/atrial-fibrillation/ Wed, 21 Sep 2011 02:00:00 GMT Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Monash University, and Virginia Tech have used a set of novel inhibitors to analyze how the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, uses enzymes to chew up human hemoglobin from host red blood cells as a food source. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/greenbaum-anti-malaria-drugs/ Tue, 20 Sep 2011 02:00:00 GMT Trevor Penning, PhD, professor of Pharmacology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues have received a 2011 Prostate Cancer Foundation Challenge Award. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/penning-pcf-grant/ Fri, 16 Sep 2011 02:00:00 GMT Three years ago, preliminary but encouraging results were announced regarding the safety and success of gene therapy in a small cohort of patients with an inherited form of blindness known as Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/gene-therapy-inherited-retinal-disease/ Fri, 16 Sep 2011 02:00:00 GMT The changing tide of Alzheimer's diagnosis presents new challenges to the public, physicians and lawmakers: if you could find out your Alzheimer's risk, would you want to know? How should doctors tell you your risk? http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/safeguards/ Thur, 15 Sep 2011 02:00:00 GMT The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) has received the Get With The Guidelines®–Heart Failure Gold Quality Achievement Award from the American Heart Association. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/gold-quality/ Thur, 15 Sep 2011 02:00:00 GMT It's no secret that a high-fat diet isn't healthy. Now researchers have discovered a molecular clue as to precisely why that is. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/heart-disease/ Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:00:00 GMT The Alzheimer's Disease Core Center (ADCC) at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has received a renewal grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at NIH. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/renewal-award/ Thur, 08 Sep 2011 15:00:00 GMT Mark L. Kahn, MD, professor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, received a five-year, $6 million grant from Paris-based Fondation Leducq to study lymphatic vascular defects and their contribution to common human cardiovascular diseases. Kahn and his lab team, including Zhiying Zou, Paul Hess, Zoltan Jakus, and Patty Mericko, lead the North American contingent of an international group that includes two other American and three European academic institutions. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/penn-researcher/ Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:00:00 GMT Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have been awarded another five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue the programs of the Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/musculoskeletal/ Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:00:00 GMT The digestive system is home to a myriad of viruses, but how they are involved in health and disease is poorly understood. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/human-gut/ Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:00:00 GMT The Instituto Paulo Gontijo International Medicine PG Award for the best ALS research by a young investigator was given to Aaron Gitler, PhD, assistant professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/award-als-research/ Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:00:00 GMT "You are what you eat" is familiar enough, but how deep do the implications go? An interdisciplinary group of investigators from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have found an association between long-term dietary patterns and the bacteria of the human gut. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/09/gut-microbe/ Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:00:00 GMT A sideline visual test effectively detected concussions in collegiate athletes, according to a team of researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Concussed athletes scored an average of 5.9 seconds slower (worse) than the best baseline scores in healthy controls on the timed test, in which athletes read a series of numbers on cards and are scored on time and accuracy. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/visual-test/ Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:00:00 GMT A new study by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows that declines in hearing ability may accelerate gray mater atrophy in auditory areas of the brain and increase the listening effort necessary for older adults to successfully comprehend speech. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/mild-hearing/ Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:00:00 GMT As always, Penn Medicine puts the safety of our patients and staff first. With an eye toward the possibility of severe weather conditions associated with Hurricane Irene this weekend, hospital officials are meeting continuously to ensure smooth operations and full staffing for all four hospitals in the health system: the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Pennsylvania Hospital and Penn Medicine at Rittenhouse. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/hurricane/ Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:00:00 GMT On July 29, 2011, Edna Foa, PhD, received the inaugural International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation Outstanding Career Achievement Award. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/edna-foa/ Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:00:00 GMT A $10 million grant from the National Cancer Institute will fund a new center at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania focusing on the relationship between exercise, weight loss, and improving the length and quality of life for the nation’s 12 million cancer survivors. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/nci/ Thur, 18 Aug 2011 20:00:00 GMT Stacey Rentschler, MD, PhD, cardiovascular instructor, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), has received the Burroughs Wellcome Fund's Career Award for Medical Scientists. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/wellcome-fund/ Thur, 18 Aug 2011 19:00:00 GMT The University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) is partnering with the Leonard Davis Institute Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics of the University of Pennsylvania on a new initiative to be called the UPHS Center for Innovations in Health Care Financing. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/new-center/ Thur, 18 Aug 2011 16:00:00 GMT Patients with uveitis, the fifth leading cause of vision loss in the United States, treated with either systemic anti-inflammatory medicine or with a time-release implant surgically placed inside the eye experienced a similar degree of visual improvement over two years, according to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Wisconsin. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/eye-condition/ Thur, 18 Aug 2011 15:00:00 GMT A three-pronged immunotherapy approach nearly doubles five-year survival among patients with rare leukemic form of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, reports a new study by dermatologists from the Abramson Cancer Center and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/triple-therapy-regime/ Mon, 15 Aug 2011 20:00:00 GMT A pandemic of ailments called the 'allergic march' -- the gradual acquisition of overlapping allergic diseases that commonly begins in early childhood -- has frustrated both parents and physicians. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/allergic-march/ Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:00:00 GMT On Friday, August 12, J. Larry Jameson, M.D., Ph.D., the newly inaugurated executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and dean of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (www.med.upenn.edu), will help launch the medical careers of 170 first-year students at Perelman School of Medicine, as they don their first white coats and mark the beginning of their journey into the art and science of healing. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/white-coat/ Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:00:00 GMT In a cancer treatment breakthrough 20 years in the making, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center and Perelman School of Medicine have shown sustained remissions of up to a year among a small group of advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients treated with genetically engineered versions of their own T cells. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/t-cells/ Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:00:00 GMT Flax has been part of human history for well over 30,000 years, used for weaving cloth, feeding people and animals, and even making paint. Now, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that it might have a new use for the 21st century: protecting healthy tissues and organs from the harmful effects of radiation. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/ancient-crop/ Tue, 9 Aug 2011 16:00:00 GMT Mariusz A. Wasik, MD, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Qian Zhang, MD, PhD, research assistant professor, both from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and their colleagues, found that a cancer-causing fusion protein works by silencing the tumor suppressor gene IL-2R common gamma-chain. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/lymphoma/ Tue, 9 Aug 2011 15:00:00 GMT In the latest issue of Nature, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania clarify the role of two proteins key to T-cell development. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/key-molecule/ Mon, 8 Aug 2011 14:00:00 GMT In a recent issue of Cancer Research, Daniel J. Powell, Jr., PhD, a research assistant professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, showed for the first time that engineered human T cells can eradicate deadly human ovarian cancer in immune-deficient mice. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/ovarian-cancer/ Fri, 5 Aug 2011 15:00:00 GMT The Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT) of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania received a $55 million renewal from the NIH in recognition for their success during the first five years of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/itmat/ Tue, 2 Aug 2011 15:00:00 GMT Research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine shows that a brain chemical (or neurotransmitter) called Substance P appears to amplify the formation of the extraskeletal bone. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/08/substance-p/ Mon, 1 Aug 2011 17:00:00 GMT A new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania indicates that post-menopausal women with coronary artery disease and other risk factors are at an increased risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/07/coronary-artery-disease/ Fri, 29 July 2011 17:00:00 GMT Junko Takeshita, M.D, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow and instructor of Dermatology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, received a one-year, $40,000 fellowship grant from the National Psoriasis Foundation. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/07/dermatologist/ Thur, 28 July 2011 18:00:00 GMT Social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare may be an important key to improving the public health system's ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters, according to a New England Journal of Medicine "Perspective" article from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania to be published this week. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/07/social-media/ Wed, 27 July 2011 21:00:00 GMT The Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania announces the launching of a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary center focused on discovering novel treatments for orphan diseases. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/07/orphan/ Tue, 26 July 2011 18:00:00 GMT For the fourth consecutive year, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) has been ranked among the top 10 hospitals in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/07/top-ten/ Fri, 22 July 2011 17:00:00 GMT Years after a single traumatic brain injury (TBI), survivors still show changes in their brains. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/07/brain-injury/ Tue, 19 July 2011 13:00:00 GMT Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have identified a gene for endurance, or more precisely, a negative regulator of it. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/07/animal-study/ Mon, 18 July 2011 16:00:00 GMT Two Penn Medicine studies were released this week by the Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/07/archives-of-neurology/ Wed, 13 July 2011 19:00:00 GMT Targeted therapies that are designed to suppress the formation of new blood vessels in tumors, such as Avastin (bevacizumab), have slowed cancer growth in some patients. However, they have not produced the dramatic responses researchers initially thought they might. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/07/tumors/ Wed, 13 July 2011 17:00:00 GMT Jill M. Baren, MD, has been named chair of the department of Emergency Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, effective July 1, 2011. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/07/jill-baren/ Wed, 13 July 2011 14:00:00 GMT Penn's Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET), is part of a consortium that has been awarded $7.85 million from National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to determine seafood safety following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/07/seafood-safety/ Mon, 11 July 2011 19:00:00 GMT For the past decade, researchers have tried to reprogram the identity of all kinds of cell types. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/07/heart-cells/ Fri, 8 July 2011 19:00:00 GMT High stakes life and death decisions are made every day by doctors and nurses in critical care units, but increasingly critical care clinicians are also tasked with containing costs and managing scarce resources in light of rising demands for and costs of care they provide. Physicians are often asked to consider limiting services for their patients to benefit society more broadly. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/07/rescue/ Fri, 8 July 2011 16:00:00 GMT Rahul M. Kohli, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine and Biochemistry & Biophysics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a $500,000 grant from the Rita Allen Foundation. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/grant/ Wed, 29 June 2011 16:00:00 GMT An estimated 18 American military veterans take their own lives every day -- thousands each year -- and those numbers are steadily increasing. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/veterans/ Tue, 28 June 2011 18:00:00 GMT More than 200,000 people are treated for cardiac arrest in United States hospitals each year, a rate that may be on the rise. The findings are reported online this week in Critical Care Medicine in a University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine-led study. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/cardiac-arrest/ Tue, 28 June 2011 14:00:00 GMT Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD, a renowned cancer biologist and hematologist-oncologist, has been appointed director of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, effective September 1, 2011. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/dang/ Tue, 28 June 2011 14:00:00 GMT Increasingly, researchers are suggesting that amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles may be relatively late manifestations in the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/mistaken-identity/ Mon, 27 June 2011 15:00:00 GMT Inspired by earlier successes using gene therapy to correct an inherited type of blindness, investigators from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, are poised to extend their approach to other types of blinding disorders. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/gene-therapy/ Wed, 22 June 2011 18:00:00 GMT There are new genetic clues on risk factors and biological causes of a rare neurodegenerative disease called progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), according to a new study from an international genetics team led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/brain-disease/ Sun, 19 June 2011 18:00:00 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 Sixty-six percent of publicly-insured children were unable to get a doctor's appointment for medical conditions requiring outpatient specialty care including diabetes and seizures, while children with identical symptoms and private insurance were turned away only 11 percent of the time, according to an audit study of 273 specialty physician practices in Cook County, Ill. conducted by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine and the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/specialty-physicians/ Wed, 16 June 2011 15:00:00 GMT Scott D. Halpern, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been selected for AcademyHealth’s 2011 Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/new-marker/ Wed, 15 June 2011 17:00:00 GMT Scott D. Halpern, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been selected for AcademyHealth’s 2011 Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/academy-health/ Tue, 14 June 2011 18:00:00 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 Bioengineers are using molecules and individual atoms as building blocks to make nanoscale structures inspired by natural viruses. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/self-assembling-proteins/ Wed, 8 June 2011 13:00:00 GMT Dieticians will tell you it isn't healthy to eat late at night: it's a recipe for weight gain. In fruit flies, at least, there's another consequence: reduced fertility. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/wrong-time-eating/ Wed, 8 June 2011 13:00:00 GMT Researchers at the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that the size and pumping ability of the right side of the heart differs by age, gender and racial/ethnic groups. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/hearts-right-side/ Tue, 6 June 2011 20:00:00 GMT ASCO Abstract 6128: Appointment access for new cancer patients http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/oncology-appointments/ Fri, 3 June 2011 01:00:00 GMT Abstract 8501: Tumor genetic analyses of patients with metastatic melanoma treated with the BRAF inhibitor GSK2118436 (GSK436) http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/advanced-melanoma/ Fri, 3 June 2011 01:00:00 GMT ASCO Abstract 1501: Is hormone replacement therapy (HRT) following risk-reducing salpingo-oophorectomy (RRSO) in BRCA1 (B1)- and BRCA2 (B2)-mutation carriers associated with an increased risk of breast cancer? http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/hormone-replacement-therapy/ Fri, 3 June 2011 01:00:00 GMT Resources for Media Covering the American Society of Clinical Oncology Meeting June 3-7, 2011 http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/asco-2011/ Thur, 2 June 2011 01:00:00 GMT Pleural mesothelioma patients who undergo lung-sparing surgery in combination with photodynamic therapy (PDT) show superior overall survival than patient treated using the conventional therapy of extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) (or en bloc removal of the lung and surrounding tissue) with PDT, indicates new research from the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The research is published in the June 2011 issue of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/asbestos/ Thur, 2 June 2011 16:00:00 GMT Emergency department patients who have recently been hospitalized are more than twice as likely to be admitted as those who have not recently been in the hospital, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania which will be presented this week at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s annual meeting. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/06/readmission-rates/ Wed, 1 June 2011 16:00:00 GMT Less than 40 percent of children who are insured via Medicaid/Children's Health Insurance Programs are able to obtain care for a dental emergency, compared to 95 percent of those with private insurance, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania published online this week in the journal Pediatrics. Even among dental providers who were participants in the state Medicaid/CHIP program, nearly a third studied denied appointment access to children with that type of coverage – unless parents offered to pay in cash. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/emergency-care/ Tue, 24 May 2011 15:00:00 GMT A physician panel in the primary care specialty of internal medicine has identified common clinical activities where changes in practice could lead to higher quality care and better use of finite clinical resources. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/top-5/ Tue, 24 May 2011 13:00:00 GMT Penn scientists collaborating with researchers at the University of Minnesota describe in Science Translational Medicine how immune cells engineered at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania can be replicated by the tens of millions in several weeks. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/immunity-boosting-cells/ Thur, 19 May 2011 18:00:00 GMT Discovering the step-by-step details of the path embryonic cells take to develop into their final tissue type is the clinical goal of many stem cell biologists. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/personalized-cells/ Thur, 19 May 2011 18:00:00 GMT Despite their beneficial effects in heart disease, neither aspirin nor simvastatin appear to offer benefit to patients suffering from pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/heart-drugs/ Wed, 18 May 2011 18:00:00 GMT Nearly everyone who has tried to quit smoking says it's incredibly difficult, and the struggle is due in part to genetic factors. Now, a new study from the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania sheds light on how one specific genetic risk for smoking relapse may work: Some of the difficulties may be due to how many receptors, called "mu opioid" receptors, a smoker has in his or her brain. The results, published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, may lead to the development of new treatments that target these receptors and help smokers increase their chances of success when they try to quit. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/genetic-variation/ Tue, 17 May 2011 15:00:00 GMT Despite recent concerns that medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) could increase the risk of cardiovascular events in children and adolescents, an observational study conducted by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and HealthCore Inc. finds they are no more likely to die from a severe cardiovascular event than those who do not take the drugs. The findings, published online in the journal Pediatrics, provide the first analysis of such events in a large population of children and adolescents receiving ADHD medications compared to non-users. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/cardiovascular-events/ Mon, 16 May 2011 13:00:00 GMT One hundred and forty seven Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania students will take the Hippocratic Oath for the first time as new doctors this Sunday, as Arthur H. Rubenstein, MBBCh, Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine, recites the oath for the last time as Dean. Dr. Rubenstein will also be giving the commencement address, focusing on the critical need to preserve the doctor-patient relationship in 21st century medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/graduates/ Fri, 13 May 2011 16:00:00 GMT The University of Pennsylvania has received a $225 million gift - the largest single gift in its history - from philanthropist Raymond G. Perelman and his wife, Ruth, to benefit Penn’s world-renowned School of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/perelman-donate-225-million-to-school-of-medicine/ Wed, 11 May 2011 07:00:00 GMT According to U.S. Census Reports, nearly 16,000 children in the Philadelphia area have suffered the loss of a parent. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/camp_erin_philadelphia_2011/ Tue, 10 May 2011 13:00:00 GMT Penn's Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research (CNDR) will partner with Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development, L.L.C., (J&JPRD) to develop algorithms that can identify changes in biomarkers related to disease diagnosis and for monitoring disease progression. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/alzheimers-disease-monitoring/ Thur, 06 May 2011 13:00:00 GMT At menopause, many women begin to notice a decline in their attention, organization, and short-term memory. These cognitive symptoms can lead to professional and personal challenges and unwarranted fears of early-onset dementia. A small study by Penn Medicine and Yale researchers, published in the journal Menopause, found that a drug typically given to children and adults with ADHD improved attention and concentration in menopausal women, providing the first potential treatment for menopause-related cognition deficits. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/menopause/ Thur, 05 May 2011 17:00:00 GMT Jonathan A. Epstein, M.D., Katherine High, M.D. and Amita Sehgal, Ph.D. have been elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/american-academy/ Thur, 05 May 2011 14:00:00 GMT New research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine shows a substantial decrease in one type of revascularization procedure, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, while rates of utilization of the other form, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), have remained unchanged. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/coronary-artery-bypass-surgery/ Tue, 03 May 2011 20:00:00 GMT (Nicholas) Kenji Taylor, a first-year year student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has been named one of 15 Philadelphia Schweitzer Fellows for 2011-2012. Schweitzer Fellows partner with community-based organizations to develop and implement yearlong, mentored service projects that sustainably address the social determinants of health—all on top of their regular graduate school responsibilities. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/05/hypertension-african-american-men/ Mon, 02 May 2011 19:00:00 GMT Black cardiac arrest victims are more likely to die when they’re treated in hospitals that care for a large black population than when they’re brought to hospitals with a greater proportion of white patients, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The study is published in the April issue of the American Heart Journal. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/black-populations-cardiac-arrest-survival/ Fri, 29 Apr 2011 19:00:00 GMT Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease that damages the retina and can destroy central vision, affects approximately 1.6 million Americans. For the past five years, there has been active debate over treatment options for AMD patients because ophthalmologists have not had accurate data regarding the true efficacy of the most commonly used medication. Now a new national study designed and analyzed by Penn Medicine’s Center for Preventive Ophthalmology and Biostatistics, has determined that two medications commonly used to treat AMD are equally effective in treating this potentially debilitating disease. These results, from the Comparison of AMD Treatments Trials (CATT) study, were published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/catt-macular-degeneration-drug-comparison/ Thu, 28 Apr 2011 17:00:00 GMT Several genes have been linked to ALS, with one of the most recent called FUS. Two new studies examined FUS biology in yeast and found that defects in RNA biology may be central to how FUS contributes to ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. These findings point to new targets for developing drugs. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/als-protein-fus/ Tue, 26 Apr 2011 22:00:00 GMT A new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that interventions to promote healthy behaviors, including eating more fruits and vegetables, increasing physical activity, and participating in cancer screenings appear beneficial for African-American couples who are at high risk for chronic diseases, especially if one of the individuals is living with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/chronic-disease-prevention-hiv/ Mon, 25 Apr 2011 21:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine are delving into the details of the complex structure at the ends of chromosomes. Recent work describes how these structures, called telomeres, can be protected by caps made up of specialized proteins and stacks of DNA called G-quadruplexes, or "G4 DNA." Telomere caps are like a knot at the end of each chromosome "string," with the knot's role preventing the string from unraveling. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/telomere-caps/ Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:00:00 GMT David B. Roth, MD, PhD has been appointed chair of Penn Medicine's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, effective July 1, 2011. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/david-b-roth-chair/ Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:00:00 GMT Squamous cell cancers of the oral cavity and esophagus are common throughout the world, with over 650,000 cases of oral cancer each year and esophageal cancer representing the sixth most common cause of cancer death in men. Research by University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine investigators has shown that a protein that helps cells stick together is frequently absent or out of place in these cancers, but it’s unclear if its loss causes the tumors. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/cell-adhesion-protein-cancers/ Tue, 12 Apr 2011 16:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have devised a totally new and far more efficient way of generating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), immature cells that are able to develop into several different types of cells or tissues in the body. The researchers used fibroblast cells, which are easily obtained from skin biopsies, and could be used to generate patient-specific iPSCs for drug screening and tissue regeneration. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/efficient-reprogrammed-stem-cells/ Thu, 07 Apr 2011 17:00:00 GMT Two reports by addiction researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the National Institute on Drug Abuse show a drastic shift in prescribing patterns impacting the magnitude of opioid substance abuse in America. The reports, published in JAMA, recommend a comprehensive effort to reduce public health risks while improving patient care, including better training for prescribers, pain management treatment assessment, personal responsibility and public education. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/opioid-prescriptions/ Tue, 05 Apr 2011 20:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine may have found a way to turn an adaptive cellular response into a liability for cancer cells. When normal cells are starved for food, they chew up existing proteins and membranes to stay alive. Cancer cells have corrupted that process, called autophagy, using it to survive when they run out of nutrients and to evade death after damage from chemotherapy and other sources. When the Penn investigators treated a group of patients with several different types of advanced cancers with temsirolimus, a molecularly targeted cancer drug that blocks nutrient uptake, plus hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that inhibits autophagy, they saw that tumors stopped growing in two-thirds of the patients. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/advanced-cancer-drug-combination/ Tue, 05 Apr 2011 17:00:00 GMT Each year, more than 100,000 patients in the U.S. undergo implantation of a new implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) for heart rhythm abnormalities. This number constitutes a 20-fold increase over the last 15 years. Current medical guidelines advocate discussion of end of life care of these medical devices, including deactivation, but many patients may not understand their options. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine say that discussions should also address post-mortem donation of ICDs for product improvement or reuse overseas as pacemakers, to help reduce global health disparities. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/icd-survey/ Tue, 05 Apr 2011 15:00:00 GMT Psoriasis is a common inflammatory skin disease, and if severe, has been demonstrated to be a risk factor for cardiovascular (CV) disease. However, the degree to which psoriasis is associated with major adverse cardiac events (MACE), such as heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular death has not been defined. Now, new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has revealed an increased incidence of MACE in patients with severe psoriasis. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/psoriasis-major-adverse-cardiac-events/ Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:00:00 GMT Just released data from a clinical trial shows continued promise for a new minimally invasive treatment option for patients with severe aortic stenosis. New research presented at the 2011 American College of Cardiology (ACC) Scientific Sessions shows that transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is as good as traditional open heart surgery for high-risk, but operable patients. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) is a participating site for the trial. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/tavi-minimally-invasive-heart-surgery/ Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:10:00 GMT Current research supports the notion that lifestyle choices influence cardiovascular health, but to what extent specific emotions play is undefined. Now, new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has revealed the role that guilt may play as a motivational tool for cardiovascular patients. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/heart-health-guilt-motivation/ Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:00:00 GMT In the largest study of its kind, researchers from a consortium led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the University of Miami, and the Boston University School of Medicine, identified four new genes linked to Alzheimer's disease. Each gene individually adds to the risk of having this common form of dementia later in life. These new genes offer a portal into what causes Alzheimer's disease and is a major advance in the field. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/alzheimers-tau-acetylation/ Sun, 03 Apr 2011 18:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have determined that a well-known chemical process called acetylation has a previously unrecognized association with one of the biological processes associated with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. The findings were published in the latest issue of Nature Communications. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/04/alzheimers-tau-acetylation/ Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:00:00 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 A new analysis by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine of recent cardiology clinical practice guidelines has found that more than half of the experts involved in the development of these guidelines reported a conflict of interest (COI). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/cardiovascular-guidelines-coi/ Mon, 28 Mar 2011 21:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center have discovered a novel way of treating pancreatic cancer by activating the immune system to destroy the cancer's scaffolding. The strategy was tested in a small cohort of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, several of whose tumors shrank substantially. The team believes their findings -- and the novel way in which they uncovered them -- could lead to quicker, less expensive cancer drug development. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/mathematical-sequence-brain-imaging/ Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center have discovered a novel way of treating pancreatic cancer by activating the immune system to destroy the cancer’s scaffolding. The strategy was tested in a small cohort of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, several of whose tumors shrank substantially. The team believes their findings -- and the novel way in which they uncovered them -- could lead to quicker, less expensive cancer drug development. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/pancreatic-cancer-immunotherapy/ Thu, 24 Mar 2011 23:00:00 GMT Patients in Guatemala will have a better chance of getting the right diagnosis and treatment now that the University of Pennsylvania Libraries has received funding for a project using smart phones and other mobile technologies to improve physicians’ access to clinical information in Guatemala. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/penn-guatemala-technology-training/ Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:00:00 GMT Patients who’ve been hurt in car or bike crashes, been shot or stabbed, or suffered other injuries are more likely to live if they arrive at the hospital on the weekend than during the week, according to new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research published in the March 21 issue of Archives of Surgery. The findings, which also showed that trauma patients who present to the hospital on weeknights are no more likely to die than those who presented during the day, contrast with previous studies showing a so-called "weekend effect" in which patients with emergent illnesses such as heart attacks and strokes fare worse when they’re hospitalized at night or on weekends. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/no-trauma-weekend-effect/ Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:00:00 GMT Alan J. Wein, MD, PhD(hon), has been selected to receive the Ferdinand C. Valentine Award in Urology from the New York Academy of Medicine’s Section on Urology. Wein is professor and chief of the division of Urology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Director of the Urology Residency Program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/wein-valentine-urology-award/ Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:00:00 GMT It all comes down to this – Match Day. Today, 147 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine medical students take the next step in their medical journey into residency. Participating students have been sharing their perspectives - in their own written words and on video - throughout the week. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/features/match-day/ Thu, 17 Mar 2011 15:00:00 GMT A Penn Medicine study of a process called mobile polling -- where election officials register voters onsite, then bring voting ballots to long term care residents and provide voter assistance as needed -- found that nursing home residents, staff and election officials all agreed that mobile polling is better than current voting methods. Not only did the mobile polling efforts guarantee residents their right to vote, but according to the nursing home staff, it also brought dignity to residents. The study appears in the current issue of the Election Law Journal. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/mobile-polling-for-senior-voters/ Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT More than three quarters of domestic violence victims who report the incidents to police seek health care in emergency rooms, but most of them are never identified as being victims of abuse during their hospital visit. These findings, from a new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study, point to a missed opportunity to intervene and offer help to women who suffer violence at the hands of an intimate partner. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/emergency-room-domestic-violence-identification/ Wed, 16 Mar 2011 17:00:00 GMT For the second consecutive year, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine ranks #2 among research-oriented medical schools in the United States, according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual survey. The survey also places Penn in the top ten in the specialty areas of pediatrics, internal medicine, drug and alcohol abuse, and women’s health. Penn also ranked in the top ten among medical schools focused on primary care. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/best-medical-schools-2012/ Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:30:00 GMT New Penn research blending electrophysiological, biochemical, and behavioral experiments demonstrated that neurons in the noses of mice mature after birth -- an indication that, for rodent pups, bonding with mom isn’t hard-wired in the womb. It develops over the first few weeks of life, which is achieved by their maturing sense of smell, possibly allowing these mammals a survival advantage by learning to identify mother, siblings, and home. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/mouse-nose-neuron-maturation/ Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT Investigators have known for decades that fat production by the liver runs on a 24-hour cycle, the circadian rhythm, and is similar to the sleep-wake cycle. A research team led by Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has discovered molecules that act as "shift workers" to maintain the daily rhythm of fat metabolism. When those molecules do not do their jobs, the liver dramatically fills with fat. These findings are reported in this week’s issue of Science. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/circadian-liver-fat-metabolism/ Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:00:00 GMT When Medicare hospice eligibility criteria expand in 2011 as part of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, efforts to test whether palliative care and aggressive treatment provided concurrently will be judged based on costs. But a new JAMA article by David Casarett, MD, MA, Associate Professor in the Division of Geriatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, argues that the three-year Concurrent Care Demonstration Project should also examine the impact of new eligibility criteria on hospice access, quality and survival improvements. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/evaluating-medicare-hospice-eligibility-criteria/ Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:00:00 GMT Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania explain how a class of RNA molecules is able to target the genetic building blocks that guide the functioning of a specific part of the nerve cell. Abnormalities at this site are in involved in epilepsy, neurodegenerative disease, and cognitive disorders. Their results are published this week in the journal Neuron.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/targeted-rna-protein-synthesis/ Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:00:00 GMT Judd E. Hollander, MD, professor and director of clinical research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has been selected to receive the 2011 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Leadership Award. The award recognizes a SAEM member who has made exceptional contributions to emergency medicine through leadership in the field’s organizations and publications, research productivity, and advancement of the discipline of emergency medicine regionally, nationally or internationally. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/hollander-saem-leadership-award/ Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:45:00 GMT An international analysis of 14 genome-wide association studies involving over 100,000 patients has identified 13 new genetic risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD). Muredach P. Reilly, MBBCH, MSCE, associate professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and colleagues played a central organizing role in the international consortium, CARDIoGRAM (Coronary Artery Disease Genome-wide Replication and Meta-analysis), that combined and analyzed data from all currently published genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on heart attack and CAD, as well as some unpublished data. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/heart-disease-genetic-components/ Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:30:00 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 Jeffrey O’Neill, AIA, ACHA, senior project manager for the University of Pennsylvania Health System, has been appointed to the International Code Council (ICC) Ad Hoc Committee on Healthcare. The 15-person committee includes six other representatives from healthcare organizations, 2 architects, and six building and fire officials from across the United States. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/oneill-icc-healthcare-building-codes/ Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:30:00 GMT David W. Kennedy, MD, professor of Rhinology, Department of Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has been selected to receive Castle Connolly Medical Ltd.’s "Clinical Excellence Award." The award is designed to recognize physicians who exemplify excellence in clinical medical practice and is part of their National Physician of the Year Award honors. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/kennedy-clinical-excellence-award/ Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:30:00 GMT The gene for the protein p53 is the most frequently mutated in human cancer. It encodes a tumor suppressor, and traditionally researchers have assumed that it acts primarily as a regulator of how genes are made into proteins. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine show that the protein has at least one other biochemical activity: controlling the metabolism of the sugar glucose, one of body's main sources of fuel. These new insights on a well-studied protein may be used to develop new cancer therapies. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/03/p53-tumor-suppressor-regulates-metabolism/ Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:30:00 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 Scientists at The Wistar Institute and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered protein markers that could provide physicians with the first reliable blood test to predict ectopic pregnancies. Their findings are published in the February 16th on-line issue of the Journal of Proteome Research. In a related study of clinical samples, published recently in the journal Fertility and Sterility, the researchers found that one of the proteins – ADAM12 – showed a nearly 97 percent correlation with ectopic pregnancy. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/02/ectopic-pregnancy-biomarker/ Thu, 24 Feb 2011 22:00:00 GMT How would you like your car to be fixed by someone who had no knowledge of what it was like to drive? That's the dilemma facing medical students whose training is focused on learning about medicine in medical school, but spend practically no class time learning about the real life obstacle course of the health care system which every one of their patients must learn to navigate. An internal medicine resident at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, addresses this issue in a new column in the New England Journal of Medicine calling for a standardized core health policy curriculum to be collectively adopted by schools throughout the country. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/02/teaching-health-policy-in-medical-school/ Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:00:00 GMT Penn Medicine cardiologists are leaders in a new cardiology subspecialty, Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology. Seven of the nine Heart Failure and Transplant doctors at Penn are now certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) in the new Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology specialty. Only 225 doctors are certified world-wide. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/02/advanced-heart-failure-transplant-cardiology-certification/ Fri, 18 Feb 2011 16:00:00 GMT As many as 70% of certain cases of healthcare-acquired infections may be preventable with current evidence-based strategies according to a new Penn study. Healthcare-acquired infections are infections that occur during a hospitalization and that are not present prior to hospital admission. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/02/preventable-healthcare-acquired-infections/ Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:00:00 GMT In a study published in JAMIA, the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Penn researchers found that computerized alerts inserted within an electronic progress note program could reduce the use of commonly confused abbreviations, ultimately enhancing patient safety. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/02/computerized-alerts-for-medication-safety/ Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:35:00 GMT Penn researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs have found that a restrictive federal reimbursement policy did not reduce opportunities for disadvantaged Medicare populations to benefit from an innovative device that keeps clogged arteries open. The policy was aimed at limiting the adoption of the technology by hospitals that weren’t well prepared to provide it while still maintaining equitable availability of the technology. This approach might hold promise for future decisions aimed at improving the quality of care received by Medicare beneficiaries. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/02/stent-availability-to-disadvantaged-patients/ Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:30:00 GMT John Lambris, PhD, the Dr. Ralph and Sallie Weaver Professor of Research Medicine in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has been awarded a $2 million grant from the National Eye Institute to test a new class of drugs called complement inhibitors in a primate model of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/02/macular-degeneration-complement-inhibitors/ Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:00:00 GMT Deb Staples has been named Chief Operating Officer of Pennsylvania Hospital, effective immediately. Deb has been an integral member of the Pennsylvania Hospital leadership team, most recently as Vice President, Allied Health and Professional Services. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/02/deb-staples-pennsylvania-hospital-coo/ Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:00:00 GMT Penn researchers have identified an immune cell population that acts as the body’s border patrol with the outside world. They discovered that these lymphoid tissue inducer cells maintain immunity in the intestine of mice. The research appeared in the most recent online issue of Immunity. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/02/immune-cell-border-patrol/ Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:00:00 GMT A simple test performed at the sideline of sporting events can accurately detect concussions in athletes, according to study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Current sideline tests can leave a wide amount a brain function untested following concussion. Penn researchers showed that this simple test adds to current methods and accurately and reliably identified athletes with head trauma. The study appears online now in Neurology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/02/sideline-test-detects-concussions/ Wed, 02 Feb 2011 21:00:00 GMT The launch of the International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project (IGAP) -- a collaboration formed to discover and map the genes that contribute to Alzheimer's disease -- was announced today by a multi-national group of researchers. The collaborative effort, spanning universities from both Europe and the United States, will combine the knowledge, staff and resources of four consortia that conduct research on Alzheimer's disease genetics. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/02/international-alzheimers-genetics-consortium/ Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:00:00 GMT Three faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Two of them are professors in the School of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/01/aaas-fellows/ Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:15:00 GMT The Abramson Cancer Center’s Rena Rowan Breast Center and the Integrated Breast Center at the Joan Karnell Cancer Center recently earned a three-year, full accreditation by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC). Conducted by the American College of Surgeons, NAPBC accreditation is granted to centers that have voluntarily committed to provide the highest level of quality breast care and that undergo a rigorous evaluation process and review of their performance. A breast center that achieves NAPBC accreditation has demonstrated a firm commitment to offer its patients every significant advantage in their battle against breast disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/01/breast-centers-accreditation/ Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:45:00 GMT Peri-menopausal and postmenopausal women who took the antidepressant medication escitalopram -- brand name Lexapro -- experienced a reduction in the frequency and severity of hot flashes as compared to women who received placebo according to a new study led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The study was published in the January 19th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/01/antidepressant-reduces-hot-flashes/ Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:15:00 GMT Nearly five million Americans live with heart failure, with as many as 700,000 new cases diagnosed each year. In addition to lifestyle factors, scientists have shown that heart failure has a strong heritable component, but identifying the responsible genes has been a major challenge. Now, new research has identified a common genetic risk factor for heart failure in Caucasians. The study, a collaboration between the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, and other institutions, was published this week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/01/heart-failure-gene/ Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:30:00 GMT A new study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine shows that certain genetic profiles increase risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) while others uniquely increase risk of heart attacks in those with CAD. The findings, published online first today and in an upcoming edition of The Lancet, are the results of the analysis of two genome-wide association studies (GWAS) -- an examination of all or most of the genes (the genome) of different individuals to identify common genetic factors that influence disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/01/heart-attack-genetic-risk/ Fri, 14 Jan 2011 23:30:00 GMT Recent findings have called into question the notion that pharmacologic increases in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the "good cholesterol") are necessarily beneficial to patients. Now, a new study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that a different metric, a measure of HDL function called cholesterol efflux capacity, is more closely associated with protection against heart disease than HDL cholesterol levels themselves. Findings from the study could lead to new therapeutic interventions in the fight against heart disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/01/efflux-capacity-heart-health-indicator/ Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:00:00 GMT Given the amount of angst over male pattern balding, surprisingly little is known about its cause at the cellular level. In a new study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, a team led by George Cotsarelis, MD, chair of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has found that stem cells play an unexpected role in explaining what happens in bald scalp. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/01/male-pattern-balding-stem-cell-inactivation/ Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:00:00 GMT Lou Gehrig’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) are characterized by protein clumps in brain and spinal-cord cells that include an RNA-binding protein called TDP-43. This protein is the major building block of the lesions formed by these clumps. In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, a team led by Virginia M.-Y. Lee, PhD, director of Penn’s Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, describes the first direct evidence of how mutated TDP-43 can cause neurons to die. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/01/tdp43-nerve-cell-death/ Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:00:00 GMT Penn Medicine has been selected as one of seven adult field trial sites to test proposed diagnostic criteria for the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Used by health professionals around the world, DSM is the manual that provides descriptions, symptoms and other criteria for diagnosing mental disorders. Penn Medicine is participating in field trials to help assess the practical use of proposed DSM-5 criteria in real-world clinical settings. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/01/penn-testing-dsm5-criteria/ Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:50:00 GMT An international team of researchers led by Daniel J. Rader, MD, associate director of Penn Medicine’s Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, has received a $6 million grant from the Paris-based Fondation Leducq to study the molecular genetics of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2011/01/heart-disease-genetics-grant/ Mon, 03 Jan 2011 16:30:00 GMT A team from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Utrecht University has deciphered a key step in an evolutionarily old branch of the immune response. This system, called complement, comprises a network of proteins that "complement" the work of antibodies in destroying foreign invaders. It serves as a rapid defense mechanism in most species from primitive sponges to humans. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/12/complement-protein-structures/ Thu, 23 Dec 2010 19:00:00 GMT Penn researchers report that a protein called P-Rex1 is crucial for signal transmission from ErbB receptors -- the receptors that drugs like Herceptin are designed to block. What's more, they found that P-Rex1 is overexpressed in nearly 60 percent of breast cancer samples tested and patients whose tumors express P-Rex1 were more likely to develop metastasis, compared with those whose tumors did not express P-Rex1. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/12/p-rex1-breast-cancer-therapy-target/ Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:00:00 GMT Helen Pettinati, Ph.D., Director of the Addiction Treatment Research and Medication Development Division, Center for the Studies of Addiction, was recently honored by the Butler Center for Research at Hazelden with the Dan Anderson Research Award, for her randomized clinical trial examining the effects treating alcohol dependence and depression concurrently. The award is for a single published article by a researcher who has advanced the scientific knowledge of addiction treatment and recovery. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/12/addiction-research-award/ Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:00:00 GMT The Penn Transplant Institute, the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Division of Plastic Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) have collaborated to form the Penn Hand Transplant Program. The Program will operate under the leadership of the Penn Transplant Institute and in collaboration with the Gift of Life Donor Program, the nonprofit organ and tissue donor program which serves the eastern half of Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/12/hand-transplant-program/ Tue, 14 Dec 2010 14:00:00 GMT A new report details the experiences and response system used in Haiti by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine’s Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care in the weeks following that country's devastating earthquake in January. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/12/haiti-relief-anesthesia-care-report/ Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:00:00 GMT Weightlifting may play a key role in a program to prevent the painful limb-swelling condition lymphedema following breast cancer treatment, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Combined with the team’s previous findings that the exercise limits a worsening of symptoms among women who already have lymphedema, the new data cements the reversal of long-running advice that breast cancer survivors should avoid lifting anything heavier than five pounds after they finish treatment. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/12/weight-lifting-prevents-lymphedema/ Thu, 09 Dec 2010 00:00:00 GMT A personalized vaccine is a powerful therapy to prevent recurrence among certain follicular lymphoma patients, according to the latest results of ongoing research led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The new findings show that when these patients -- whose tumors are marked by a specific protein that may be present in up to half of people with this type of cancer -- receive a vaccine made from their own tumor cells, disease-free survival is improved by nearly two years, compared with patients who receive a placebo. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/12/personalized-lymphoma-vaccine/ Mon, 06 Dec 2010 20:00:00 GMT In a study published in the journal Developmental Cell, Penn researchers demonstrate that a pair of enzymes called HDACs are critical to the proper formation of mammalian skin. The findings not only provide information about the molecular processes underlying skin development, they also suggest a potential anticancer strategy. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/12/skin-formation-process/ Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine’s Udall Center for Parkinson's Research have developed the first blood-based biomarker test to predict cognitive decline in Parkinson’s disease (PD). If results can be replicated and standardized in other Parkinson patients, by other investigators, the test could be a useful tool to use in selecting patients for the development of new drugs that can slow or prevent this complication of the disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/11/parkinsons-cognitive-impairment-blood-test/ Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:00:00 GMT Mimicking the reflective iridescence of a butterfly's wing, Penn investigators have developed a color-changing patch that could be worn on soldiers' helmets and uniforms to indicate the strength of exposure to blasts from explosives in the field. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/11/blast-badge-indicates-brain-injury-risk/ Mon, 29 Nov 2010 14:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School and School of Dental Medicine have found that the mutation that causes a rare genetic disorder of bone formation (fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, or FOP) can reset an internal program to change cell fate, driving it back into an adult stem-cell stage. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/11/fop-disease-process-stem-cell-creation/ Mon, 22 Nov 2010 19:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have documented a novel form of splicing in the cytoplasm of a nerve cell, which dictates a special form of a potassium channel protein in the outer membrane. The channel protein is found in the dendrites of hippocampus cells -- the seat of memory, learning, and spatial navigation -- and is involved in coordinating the electrical firing of nerve cells. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/11/neuron-cytoplasm-protein-splicing/ Wed, 17 Nov 2010 19:00:00 GMT CPR quality is worse during in-hospital cardiac arrests occurring overnight than those that happen during the day, according to a new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study that presented at the American Heart Association's annual Scientific Sessions on November 14. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/11/hospital-cpr-worse-at-night/ Sun, 14 Nov 2010 14:00:00 GMT Second-generation antipsychotic drugs have been thought to be associated with improved quality of life for people with schizophrenia. But questions remained as to whether an indicator of heart arrhythmias associated with the drug ziprasidone would translate into increased mortality for the patients using it. A study published online this month in the American Journal of Psychiatry showed no difference in nonsuicide mortality between people taking ziprasidone and another second-generation anti-psychotic in real-world use. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/11/antipsychotic-drug-mortality-risk-comparison/ Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:00:00 GMT Gone are the days when a doctor’s only way of helping patients is by treating the disease after symptoms have started. Instead, a new approach to medicine, called "Desktop Medicine" is emerging, in which the emphasis shifts from diagnosing diseases and treating symptoms to identifying risk-factors for medical conditions such as hypertension and osteoporosis, and intervening before they develop. A commentary about the phenomenon, authored by a Penn physician, appears in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/11/desktop-medicine-transforming-care/ Wed, 10 Nov 2010 16:00:00 GMT Arthur L. Caplan, Ph.D. has been selected to receive the Patricia Price Browne Prize in Biomedical Ethics, administered by the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. The $10,000 prize, given every two years, was established to honor the Oklahoma City community leader Patricia Price Browne. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/11/caplan-biomedical-ethics-prize/ Tue, 09 Nov 2010 19:00:00 GMT A third of breast cancer survivors who received the breast-conserving treatments lumpectomy and radiation rate the appearance of their post-treatment breast as only "fair" or "poor" in comparison to their untreated breast, according to a new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/11/cosmetic-changes-after-breast-cancer/ Tue, 02 Nov 2010 19:00:00 GMT A recently identified immune cell that directs other cells to fight infection plays a critical role in regulating the immune system in both health and disease. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered how a stimulatory molecule and a protein found on the membrane of another immune cell make these T helper 17 cells multi-taskers of sorts: They protect the body against infection and cancer, but are also culprits in some autoimmune diseases and out-of-control, cancerous cell growth. This new understanding suggests that targeting or inhibiting the involved protein pathways might be a new way to treat cancer, chronic infection, and some autoimmune diseases.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/10/two-sided-immune-cell-could-shrink-tumors/ Wed, 27 Oct 2010 19:00:00 GMT Healthy sleepers who carry a specific gene variant are more likely to have disrupted sleep, according to University of Pennsylvania study published in the October 26, 2010 issue of Neurology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/10/sleepiness-genetic-variant/ Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:00:00 GMT Prostate cancer patients who receive intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) are less apt to suffer serious gastrointestinal complications following their treatment than those who receive three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (CRT), according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/10/imrt-minimizes-gi-side-effects/ Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:00:00 GMT Penn researchers report that one of the components in cells' RNA splicing machinery has an unexpected role in gene expression: To enable gene sequences to be read out into their RNA transcripts in their entirety, rather than have that process prematurely stopped. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/10/rna-molecular-guardian/ Fri, 22 Oct 2010 20:00:00 GMT A school-based, six-session program targeting sexual risk behaviors has proven effective in reducing rates of self-reported unprotected sex and sex with multiple partners among South African sixth-graders, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/10/teen-sexual-behavior-risk-reduction/ Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:00:00 GMT Taking a cue from the world of business-performance experts and baseball talent scouts, Penn Medicine translational medicine researchers are among the first to find a way to measure the productivity of collaborations in a young, emerging institute. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/10/measuring-research-collaboration/ Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:10:00 GMT Finding a drug that can cross the blood-brain barrier is the bane of drug development for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders of the brain. A new Penn study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, has found and tested in an animal model of Alzheimer’s disease a class of drug that is able to enter the brain, where it stabilizes degenerating neurons and improves memory and learning. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/10/alzheimers-drug-stabilizes-neurons/ Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:00:01 GMT How a T cell decides to make protein X, Y, or Z can have profound effects for fighting foreign invaders or staving off dire autoimmune reactions. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified the steps that control how different forms of an immune cell protein called CD45, which is critical for activating the immune system when faced with pathogens, are controlled in the arc of a body’s immune response.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/10/protein-variations-immune-response/ Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:00:01 GMT The University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center has been rated as "exceptional" by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) during a competitive research funding review by the government agency. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/10/abramson-cancer-center-nci-rated-exceptional/ Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:00:01 GMT Four professors from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have been elected members of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the nation's highest honors in biomedicine. Three of the four new inductees are women. The new members bring Penn's total to 76, out of a total active membership of 1,649. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/10/institute-of-medicine-elects-four/ Mon, 11 Oct 2010 15:00:01 GMT The Institute of Medicine today awarded the 2010 Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health to Charles P. O'Brien, MD, PhD, of Penn, and Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, of Mount Sinai, for their complementary achievements in addiction science. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/10/obrien-sarnat-prize-mental-health/ Mon, 11 Oct 2010 15:00:00 GMT A team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine describe the interconnections between three-molecules that control fetal, heart-muscle-cell proliferation in a mouse model that will help cardiologists better understand the natural repair process after heart attacks and help scientists learn how to expand cardiac stem cells for regenerative therapies. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/10/heart-muscle-regeneration/ Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:10:00 GMT University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine investigators are among the 20 recipients nationwide of an NIH grant that encourages investigators to submit proposals for risky ideas. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will award up to $64 million over five years for his year’s NIH Director’s Transformative Research Projects (T-R01). The T-R01 awards program encourages exploration of exceptionally innovative and original research ideas that have the potential for extraordinary impact, addressing either basic science or clinical challenges. It sidesteps conventional stumbling blocks, such as the need for preliminary data or a restriction on the amount of funds that can be requested that investigators sometimes face when applying for funding for high-risk research.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/10/nih-transformative-research-grants/ Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:00:00 GMT Patrick Seale, PhD, assistant professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Ritesh Agarwal, PhD, assistant professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, have received the New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), providing $1.5 million to each over five years to support their research. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/nih-new-innovator-awards/ Tue, 05 Oct 2010 19:30:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Immunocore Limited, Oxford, UK, today announced that a targeted agent that may have a role in treating advanced metastatic melanoma in the future has received Investigational New Drug (IND) approval and is opening enrollment for clinical trials in the UK and USA. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/child-ptsd-early-intervention/ Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:30:00 GMT A new approach that helps improve communication between child and caregiver, such as recognizing and managing traumatic stress symptoms and teach coping skills, was able to prevent chronic and sub-clinical PTSD in 73 percent of children. The intervention, called the Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention (CFTSI) also reduced PTSD symptoms in children and promoted recovery more quickly than a comparison intervention. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/child-ptsd-early-intervention/ Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:30:00 GMT The Penn Medicine Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center announced that it is one of 18 official study sites for the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), a landmark observational clinical study sponsored by The Michael J. Fox Foundation, which will use a combination of advanced imaging, biologics sampling and behavioral assessments to identify biomarkers of Parkinson’s disease progression. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/ppmi-parkinsons-biomarker-study/ Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:00:00 GMT The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has renewed its funding to the Paul D. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The new grant totals over $8 million for the next five years. The Center was established in 2005 to support muscular dystrophy research and is principally funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) and co-funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. (NHLBI). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/muscular-dystrophy-research-center/ Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:00:00 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 Just released data from a clinical trial shows promise for a new minimally invasive treatment option for patients with severe aortic stenosis who are too sick for traditional forms of open-heart surgery. As compared to standard medical therapy, the new procedure, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), significantly reduced mortality rates in patients who received the new valve. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/transcatheter-aortic-valve-implantation/ Wed, 22 Sep 2010 22:00:00 GMT Penn researchers have found a possible new target for fighting cystic fibrosis (CF) that could compensate for the lack of a functioning ion channel in affected CF-related cells. Their finding appears in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/cystic-fibrosis-ion-channel/ Fri, 17 Sep 2010 21:00:00 GMT Steven M. Albelda, M.D.,vice chief, Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Division, director of Lung Research and director, Thoracic Oncology Laboratories at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has received the prestigious Wagner Medal for Excellence in Mesothelioma Research from the International Mesothelioma Interest Group (IMIG). The award was presented at the 2010 IMIG International Conference in Kyoto, Japan. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/albelda-wagner-medal/ Thu, 16 Sep 2010 21:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine have defined the structure of a key molecule that plays a central role in how DNA is duplicated and then moved correctly and equally into two daughter cells to produce two exact copies of the mother cell. Without this molecule, entire chromosomes could be lost during cell division. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/centromere-molecule-structure/ Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:00:00 GMT Chang-Gyu Hahn, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine is one of 42 innovative researchers awarded NARSAD 2010 Independent Investigator grants for mental illness research. Dr. Hahn seeks to determine the molecular and biochemical basis for the hypofunctioning of the N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is well documented in schizophrenic individuals. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/mental-illness-research-narsad-award/ Wed, 15 Sep 2010 19:00:00 GMT Earlier this summer, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine received close to $13 million in stimulus funds -- the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 -- to construct additional research space in the $370 million Smilow Center for Translational Research (SCTR), which is scheduled to open its first phase in early 2011. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/stimulus-funds-translational-research-center/ Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:00:00 GMT The Fogarty International Center, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded $1.1 million to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine over five years to combat the growing epidemic of chronic diseases in the developing world. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/developing-world-chronic-diseases/ Mon, 13 Sep 2010 20:00:00 GMT The protein EGFR, which is the target of several cancer drugs, has a split personality at the cell surface, with two different classes (high-affinity and low-affinity), whose origins have been a mystery since the 1970s. Now, a new paper by Penn researchers published in Cell explains the difference between these two classes. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/egfr-structure/ Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:00:00 GMT Trevor Penning, PhD, director of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, was named to the 2010 class of American Chemical Society (ACS) Fellows, an honor bestowed upon 192 scientists who have demonstrated outstanding accomplishments in chemistry and made important contributions to ACS, the world’s largest scientific society. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/penning-acs-fellow/ Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:00:00 GMT A team of researchers led by Caryn Lerman, PhD, professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Annenberg Public Policy Center, has received a $12 million five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the pharmacogenetics of nicotine addiction treatment. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/personalized-smoking-cessation-research/ Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:00:00 GMT J. Larry Jameson, M.D., Ph.D., has been named the next executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and dean of Penn's School of Medicine, effective July 1, 2011. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/dr-j-larry-jameson-to-lead-penn-medicine/ Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:00:00 GMT Patients with asthma who are exposed to violence in their community are at an increased risk for an asthma-related hospitalization and emergency room visits for asthma or any cause, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/09/asthma-violence/ Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:00:00 GMT Women who have inherited mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes have substantially elevated risks of developing breast and ovarian cancer. A study in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports that women with these inherited mutations who have had a prophylactic mastectomy or salpingo-oophorectomy (removal of the fallopian tubes and ovaries) had an associated decreased risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/08/preventive-surgery-reduces-cancer-risk/ Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:00:00 GMT Penn Medicine today announced the appointment of R. Michael Buckley, MD, as Executive Director of Pennsylvania Hospital, effective November 1. He will take over for Kathleen Kinslow, CRNA, EdD, MBA, who has been appointed President and CEO of Aria Health System.   http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/08/buckley-pennsylvania-hospital-executive-director/ Mon, 30 Aug 2010 17:00:00 GMT Today, electrophysiologists from Penn Medicine implanted the region’s first subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) for sudden cardiac arrest, a potentially fatal electrical malfunction of the heart. The patient, a young athletic male in his 20s, had the new system implanted during an outpatient procedure at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP).  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/08/subcutaneous-defibrillator/ Fri, 27 Aug 2010 22:00:00 GMT By comparing two species of ants, Shelley Berger, PhD, the Daniel S. Och University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues Danny Reinberg, PhD, New York University, and Juergen Liebig, PhD, Arizona State University, have established an important new avenue of research for epigenetics -- the study of how the expression or suppression of particular genes affects an organism's characteristics, development, and even behavior.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/08/ant-epigenetics/ Thu, 26 Aug 2010 19:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have established in animal models that the brain comes in and out of a state of induced unconsciousness through different processes. The findings may help researchers better understand serious sleep disorders and states of impaired consciousness such as comas.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/08/anesthesia-sleep-wake-transition/ Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:30:00 GMT An international study led by biologists and neuroscientists from the University of Pennsylvania has identified a new genetic risk factor for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/08/als-genetic-risk-factor/ Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:00:00 GMT Researchers used a yeast model to map epigenetic processes-- those that influence gene expression -- in cells as they undergo sperm formation. Understanding the process can help explain how it goes awry in cases of human male infertility. They found several sites on proteins that may be important epigenetic regulators of sperm and egg formation: Novel chemical changes key to gamete formation could be potential biomarkers of human male infertility. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/08/sperm-formation-epigenetics/ Mon, 23 Aug 2010 20:00:00 GMT Individuals with psoriasis appear to have an increased risk of depression, anxiety and suicidality, according to a report by Penn Medicine dermatologists. The study appears in the August issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/08/psoriasis-depression/ Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:50:00 GMT A study found that maternal exposure to C8, a chemical used in the manufacture of non-stick surfaces, was not associated with an increased risk of birth defects and pregnancy complications. These findings are based on an examination of the vital records of babies and mothers residing in Little Hocking, Ohio, who were exposed to significant amounts of C8 through residential drinking water. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/08/c8-pregnancy-risk/ Thu, 19 Aug 2010 21:00:00 GMT A new study provides additional evidence that a biomarker test can be used to reliably determine an Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis. The diagnostic biomarker test is able to detect the presence of known Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers found in cerebral spinal fluid (CSF). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/08/alzheimers-spinal-fluid-test/ Mon, 09 Aug 2010 21:00:00 GMT Researchers have shown that a gene linked to a disease trait by genome wide association studies (GWAS) can be clinically relevant and an important determinant of disease risk. In a study published this week in Nature, a team of investigators describes how a region on chromosome 1 previously found by GWAS to be associated with both low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C, the "bad" cholesterol) and myocardial infarction (MI) regulates LDL-C levels.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/08/cholesterol-heart-disease-gene/ Wed, 04 Aug 2010 18:00:00 GMT University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers have described a previously unknown biological mechanism in cells that prevents them from cannibalizing themselves for fuel. The mechanism involves the fuel used by cells under normal conditions and relies on an ongoing transfer of calcium between two cell components via an ion channel. Without this transfer, cells start consuming themselves as a way of to get enough energy. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/07/calcium-transfer/ Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:00:00 GMT For the third consecutive year, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) has been ranked among the top 10 hospitals in the nation in U.S.News & World Report’s rankings of the best hospitals in America. The publication’s annual ranking of hospitals placed HUP 9th out of the more than 4,800 facilities surveyed. HUP is the only hospital in the Philadelphia region, and one of only 14 hospitals nationwide, to be placed on the publication’s "Honor Roll" list in recognition of excellence in multiple specialties. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/07/best-hospitals/ Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:01:00 GMT R. Nick Bryan, MD, PhD, professor and chair of Radiology and John Detre, MD, professor of Neurology and Radiology, both of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, participated in a panel which recently released new guidelines recommending that doctors use a diffusion MRI scan to diagnose stroke instead of a CT scan. According to the guidelines, diffusion MRI should be considered more useful than a CT scan for diagnosing acute ischemic stroke within 12 hours of a person’s first stroke symptom. In one large study that was reviewed for the guideline, stroke was accurately detected 83 percent of the time by MRI versus 26 percent of the time by CT. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/07/couples-focused-hiv-prevention/ Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:00:06 GMT Research by John B. Jemmott III, PhD, professor in Penn's School of Medicine and Annenberg School for Communication, and colleagues found that a couples-based sexual risk reduction intervention increased rates of condom use and reduced rates of unprotected sex among African American couples. The multi-center site studied couples in which one person was HIV positive and the other person was not, to see if an intervention could effectively minimize risky behavior. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/07/couples-focused-hiv-prevention/ Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:00:05 GMT Researchers have discovered that AMP-activated protein kinase, or AMPK, a master regulator protein of metabolism, works not only by activating genes, but also via an epigenetic mechanism to slow down or stop cell growth. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/07/cell-metabolism-master-regulator/ Thu, 15 Jul 2010 19:00:00 GMT Investigators have found that fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) males -- in which the activity of an Alzheimer’s disease protein is reduced by 50 percent -- show impairments in learning and memory as they age. What’s more, the researchers were able to prevent the age-related deficits by treating the flies with drugs such as lithium, or by genetic manipulations that reduced nerve-cell signaling. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/07/fruit-flies-alzheimers/ Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:00:00 GMT Soccer referees may have an unconscious bias towards calling fouls based on a play’s direction of motion, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that soccer experts made more foul calls when action moved right-to-left, or leftward, compared to rightward action, suggesting that two referees watching the same play from different vantage points may be inclined to make a different call. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/07/soccer-referees-directional-bias/ Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:00:00 GMT New biomolecular archaeological evidence backed up by increasingly sophisticated scientific testing techniques are uncovering medicinal remedies discovered, tested, and sometimes lost, throughout millennia of human history. Over the past two years, Penn researchers have been testing compounds found in ancient fermented beverages from China and Egypt for their anticancer properties. They have identified several which showed promising and positive test tube activity against lung and colon cancers. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/07/ancient-medicinal-remedies/ Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:00:00 GMT A novel therapy designed to attack tumors in patients with a genetic mutation in either BRCA1 or BRCA2, slowed tumor growth in 85 percent of advanced breast cancer patients treated in a small study, researchers report in the July 6 issue of The Lancet. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/07/brca-genetic-targeted-cancer-treatment/ Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:00:00 GMT The Pew Charitable Trusts named Zhaolan (Joe) Zhou, PhD, assistant professor of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, as a 2010 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences. The program enables scientists to take calculated risks, expand their research and explore unanticipated leads. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/07/zhou-pew-scholar/ Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:00:00 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 The interaction of the drug compstatin with two ancient, co-evolved human systems points to new ways for reducing clotting during dialysis for end-stage kidney disease and multiple organ failure due to sepsis, a dangerous whole-body inflammatory response to infection. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/06/action-of-modern-drug/ Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:00:00 GMT Shiriki Kumanyika, PhD, MPH, professor of Epidemiology, has received an individual recognition award by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, section on Public Health and Preventive Medicine, for her leadership role in shaping Healthy People 2020. Since 1979, Healthy People (HP) has set and monitored national health objectives to meet a broad range of health needs, engage people across the nation to work together, guide individuals toward making informed health decisions, and measure the impact of prevention activity. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/06/penn-epidemiology-professor-award/ Mon, 14 Jun 2010 19:00:00 GMT Gerard Schellenberg, PhD, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, is among the genetic experts involved in a study revealing new genetic targets in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), which may broaden targets available for potential genetic testing or therapeutic intervention. The study, published in Nature, provides strong support for the involvement of multiple rare genetic variants, both genome-wide and at specific loci, in ASD. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/06/autism-genetic-targets/ Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:00:00 GMT In a JAMA study released today, Jeremy Kahn, MD, MS, assistant professor of Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and colleagues highlight the increasing use of long-term acute care facilities. From 1997 to 2006, the number of long-term acute care hospitals doubled, the number of Medicare patients who were transferred to a long-term acute care hospital after a critical illness tripled, and the 1 year survival for these high-risk patients was poor. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/06/long-term-acute-care/ Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:00:00 GMT David Dinges, PhD, chief of the division of Chronobiology and professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at Penn Medicine, will lead a U.S. scientific team as part of a simulated 520-day Mars mission simulation. The researchers will be monitoring the six crew members’ rest-activity cycles, performance and psychological responses to determine the extent to which sleep loss, fatigue, stress, mood changes and conflicts occur during the mission. The 520-day mission is broken into 250 days for the trip to Mars, 30 days on the surface, and 240 days for the return to Earth. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/06/mars-mission-sleep-study/ Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:00:00 GMT Patients who received deep brain stimulation (DBS) experienced comparable benefits for the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease when DBS was delivered at either of two sites in the brain, contrary to the current belief that DBS has different motor effects when delivered at either of the two sites. The findings are reported in the June 3, 2010 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/06/parkinsons-dbs-motor-function-effects/ Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:00:00 GMT Although congenital heart disease represents the most common major birth defect, scientists have not previously identified common genetic variants that give rise to it. Now genetics and cardiac researchers, two of them brothers, have discovered a genetic variant on chromosome 5 that strongly raises the risk of congenital heart disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/06/common-gene-congenital-heart-disease/ Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:00:00 GMT Using high-throughput sequencing to map the locations of a common type of jumping gene within a person’s entire genome, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found extensive variation in these locations among the individuals they studied, further underscoring the role of these errant genes in maintaining genetic diversity. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/06/jumping-genes-evolution/ Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:30:00 GMT Cancer patients who’ve been told to rest and avoid exercise can – and should – find ways to be physically active both during and after treatment, according to new national guidelines. Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, MPH, an associate professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and a member of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, will present these guidelines at an educational session at the 2010 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, aimed at making cancer exercise rehabilitation programs as common as those offered to people who have had heart attacks or undergone cardiac surgery. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/05/cancer-exercise-guidelines/ Fri, 28 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT Aromatase inhibitor-associated arthralgia (AIAA) is a major side effect in breast cancer survivors, producing joint pain so severe that as many as ten percent of women discontinue their therapy prematurely while undergoing treatment with these lifesaving drugs. New research presented by investigators from the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center at the 2010 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology reveals a possible genetic basis for why these side effects occur and shows promise for treating these symptoms without interfering with the drugs’ efficacy. Additional research will also be presented shedding light on the physical and psychological factors that influence women’s decisions to stop taking the drugs. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/05/cancer-drug-joint-pain-genetic-influence/ Thu, 27 May 2010 21:00:00 GMT Early trials using targeted monoclonal antibodies in combination with existing therapies show promise in treating pancreatic cancer and metastatic breast cancer, according to research that will be presented by investigators from the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center at the 2010 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology June 4 through 8. One study uses an antibody to enhance the effectiveness of a breast cancer vaccine developed at Penn to treat women with advanced breast cancer, while a pancreatic cancer trial uses an immune-enhancing antibody to increase the effectiveness of a current standard drug used to treat pancreatic cancer. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/05/targeted-immunotherapy-cancer-treatment/ Thu, 27 May 2010 21:00:00 GMT Carrie Sims MD, MS, FACS, assistant professor of Surgery in the division of Traumatology and Surgical Critical Care at Penn Medicine, is the recipient of a $125,000 research grant from the National Trauma Institute (NTI). Sims’ study is one of seven awarded grants this month by NTI, a non-profit organization dedicated to funding trauma research in the United States. Sims will investigate the impact of using vasopressin vs. normal saline during the resuscitation of severely injured trauma patients. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/05/vasopressin-trauma-research-grant/ Tue, 25 May 2010 17:00:00 GMT A University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researcher has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by James Shorter, MA, PhD, assistant professor of Biochemistry & Biophysics, titled "Unleashing Protein Disaggregases to Prevent HIV Infection." http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/05/gates-foundation-hiv-research-grant/ Thu, 20 May 2010 20:40:00 GMT The National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has renewed its funding to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine’s Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/05/ceet-nih-grant/ Thu, 20 May 2010 20:30:00 GMT In the most comprehensive study to date, neurologists have clearly identified significant differences in the ways that Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects patients with and without a known genetic risk factor for the neurodegenerative disease, the apolipoprotein E ε4 gene (APOE ε4), using a combination of cognitive and neuroanatomic measures. The study found that this gene influences the way the disease manifests, even at its mildest clinical stages. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/05/alzheimers-gene-effects/ Mon, 17 May 2010 20:00:00 GMT Getting from point A to B may sound simple, but not so in the formation of fat cells. In a finding with potential drug-development implications, Penn researchers report the discovery of an intermediate state between early-stage fat cells and fully mature ones that is only present transiently during the fat-cell formation process. This intermediate state is induced by hormones related to cortisol, which are known to contribute to obesity and metabolic disturbances in people. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/05/fat-cell-formation/ Mon, 17 May 2010 14:00:00 GMT Certain types of Parkinson’s disease medications are linked to impulse control disorders, such as pathological gambling, compulsive shopping and binge eating, according to a study of more than 3,000 Parkinson’s disease patients by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/05/parkinsons-medication-compulsive-behavior/ Mon, 10 May 2010 21:30:00 GMT A team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine demonstrate how mutations in the STRAD-alpha gene can cause a disease called PMSE (polyhydramnios, megalencephaly, and symptomatic epilepsy) syndrome, found in a handful of Amish children. PMSE is characterized by an abnormally large brain, cognitive disability, and severe, treatment-resistant epilepsy. The finding provides insights into how a signaling pathway involved in PSME may be associated with other neurological disorders. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/05/psme-neurological-disorders/ Mon, 10 May 2010 16:00:00 GMT TIME magazine has named Edna Foa, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry at Penn, one of the 100 most influential people in the world in its annual TIME 100 list. Dr. Foa is the director of the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety. Her career has been devoted to the understanding of the psychopathology of anxiety disorders, including obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the development of short-term, evidenced-based treatments for these disorders. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/04/ptsd-researcher-most-influential-time-magazine/ Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:30:00 GMT Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the Philadelphia chromosome, Peter C. Nowell, MD is being honored with the Franklin Institute’s Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science and an honorary doctor of science degree from Penn. The relationship between chromosome alterations and cancer had been debated for more than one hundred years before the first direct link between chromosomal abnormalities to any malignancy came with the discovery of the Philadelphia chromosome in 1960 by Penn's Peter Nowell and the late David Hungerford from the Fox Chase Cancer Center’s Institute for Cancer Research. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/features/philadelphia-chromosome/ Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:00:00 GMT Garret FitzGerald, MD, director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania, is the recipient of the 2010 Pharmacia-ASPET Award for Experimental Therapeutics. The Pharmacia-ASPET Award for Experimental Therapeutics is given annually to recognize and stimulate outstanding research in pharmacology and experimental therapeutics—basic laboratory or clinical research that has had, or potentially will have, a major impact on the pharmacological treatment of disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/04/fitzgerald-pharmacia-aspet-award/ Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:00:00 GMT The inner regions of tumors have a low-oxygen content and often contain inflammatory cells called macrophages, which researchers suspect promote tumor growth. Now, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers show that this is the case: Tumor cells in this low-oxygen area actively recruit macrophages and blocking their recruitment reduces tumor growth and aggressiveness in mouse models. The results suggest new targets for cancer drug development. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/04/low-oxygen-tumor-growth/ Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:00:00 GMT It is frequently reported that less than one-third of ovarian cancers overexpress the HER-2 protein, which is the molecular target of trastuzumab (Herceptin). However, with more sensitive detection methods, Penn researchers found that virtually all ovarian cancers express HER-2. The novel findings suggest that therapy targeting HER-2 may have a role in ovarian cancer treatment in the future, and may improve the outcome for women with ovarian cancer the way it has for women with HER-2 expressing breast cancer. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/04/ovarian-cancers-express-her-2/ Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:00:00 GMT Quitting smoking is a hard task for anyone, but tailored cessation therapy may increase an individual's chance of success, according to Penn researchers. Over the last several years, they have found that individuals who metabolize nicotine relatively slowly benefit from nicotine patch therapy more than people who metabolize it quickly. Now, in a randomized blinded clinical trial, they found that slow metabolizers benefit from extended treatment with the patch, according to findings presented at the American Association of Cancer Research meeting this week. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/04/extended-nicotine-patch-slow-metabolizers/ Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:00:00 GMT Penn Medicine scientists and colleagues have developed a brain implant that essentially melts into place, snugly fitting to the brain’s surface. The technology could pave the way for better devices to monitor and control seizures, and to transmit signals from the brain past damaged parts of the spinal cord. The ultrathin flexible implants, made partly from silk, can record brain activity more faithfully than thicker implants embedded with similar electronics. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/04/silk-based-brain-implants/ Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:00:00 GMT Using a three-dimensional tissue culture system that mimics esophageal tissue growth of the particularly aggressive type of tumors known as ESCC (esophageal squamous cell cancer), Penn researchers have discovered molecular cross talk between two oncogenes and the tumor suppressor gene p53. The results highlight a targeted therapy that may hold promise for treating ESCC. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/04/esophageal-oncogene-crosstalk/ Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:00:00 GMT The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has been ranked #2 among the nation's research-oriented medical schools, according to the annual survey by U.S.News & World Report, rising from #3 in last year's survey. Penn also was placed among the nation's top five medical schools in four areas of specialty training, including Pediatrics (#2), Women's Health (#3), Internal Medicine (#4), and Drug/Alcohol Abuse (#4). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/04/best-medical-schools-2011/ Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:00:00 GMT Two students at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have been selected as 2010-11 Greater Philadelphia Schweitzer Fellows. Over the next year, these two emerging professionals will join approximately 200 other 2010-11 Schweitzer Fellows across the country (including two from Penn School of Dental Medicine) in conceptualizing and carrying out service projects that address the unmet health-related needs of underserved individuals and communities. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/04/schweitzer-fellows-community-service-project/ Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:00:00 GMT A new study by addiction experts at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that patients who suffer from both depression and alcohol dependence benefitted more from a medication combination of an antidepressant, sertraline, and naltrexone, an FDA-approved treatment for heavy drinking, compared to either medication alone or placebo. During a 14-week treatment trial, the medication combination produced high abstinence rates as well as reduction in depressive symptoms.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/04/combined-treatment-alcohol-depression/ Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:00:00 GMT An approach designed to reduce HIV/STDs previously used exclusively by academic researchers has successfully been implemented by community-based organizations (CBOs), an important component in national strategies to curtail the spread of HIV, meaning far more "at risk" youths can be reached. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/04/community-based-hiv-std-risk-reduction/ Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:30:00 GMT Patricia Sullivan, PhD, Vice President of Clinical Development at the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) since 2003, has been promoted to Vice President, Quality and Patient Safety. In her current position, Sullivan is responsible for efforts to reduce clinical risks – a key UPHS initiative – as well as improving the process of patient care across Penn Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/04/sullivan-named-vp-quality-patient-safety/ Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:00:00 GMT A new rapid blood test to rule out appendicitis among the 8 million patients who come to U.S. emergency rooms with abdominal pain each year may save patients from unnecessary radiation from a diagnostic CT scan, eliminate extra tests and hours of hospital observation, and cut costs in the process. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/04/appendicitis-blood-test/ Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:00:00 GMT A team of cardiologists, materials scientists, and bioengineers have created and tested a new type of implantable device for measuring the heart’s electrical output that they say is a vast improvement over current devices. The new device represents the first use of flexible silicon technology for a medical application. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/03/flexible-silicon-device/ Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:00:00 GMT More than 250 people are expected to attend Penn Medicine’s 4th annual "Focus on Gastrointestinal Cancers" conference. The event is offered to those at risk or in treatment for colon, liver or pancreatic cancer, as well as survivors, family members, caregivers and health care professionals. Gayle Jackson, mother of Philadelphia Eagles’ wide receiver DeSean Jackson – whose father died of pancreatic cancer in 2009 – will give an inspirational keynote address titled "A Caregiver’s Story." The conference, sponsored by the Abramson Cancer Center, is free of charge. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/03/gastrointestinal-cancer-conference/ Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:59:00 GMT The University of Pennsylvania and AstraZeneca today announced a new collaborative research agreement to make use of their respective talents and resources in an effort to bridge the transition from drug discovery to development.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/03/alzheimers-research-collaboration/ Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:00:00 GMT Penn researchers have made a surprising discovery regarding the molecular basis underlying spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), an often fatal neurodegenerative disease and the most common genetic cause of childhood mortality. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/03/spinal-muscular-atrophy/ Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:00:00 GMT In the first empirical study of how Americans might make decisions if offered financial incentives for kidney donation while alive, Penn researchers found that the offer of payment did not cloud a person’s judgment of the risks associated with live kidney donation, motivate poorer persons to sell a kidney, or "crowd out" a person’s altruistic incentives to donate. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/03/kidney-donation-incentives/ Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:00:00 GMT News coverage of aggressive cancer treatments may give the public unrealistic hope that these treatments actually work. Additionally, news about treatment failure, adverse events, and end-of-life care are covered far less by the news media. These are some of the findings of a study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania. The team looked at news stories about cancer that were reported in major news magazines and large city daily newspapers. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/03/cancer-news-study/ Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:00:00 GMT Time to try Atkins again? Not so fast. A new report from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine showed that people who followed a low-carbohydrate diet lost more weight in the first year, but tended to regain most of the weight during the next two years. In contrast, people who stuck to a low-fat diet maintained their weight loss over three years. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/03/low-fat-diet-outlasts-low-carb/ Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:00:00 GMT Louis J. Soslowsky, Ph.D. Fairhill professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and professor of Bioengineering, director of the McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory and Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, was named the 2010 winner of the Ann Doner Vaughan Kappa Delta Award by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/03/orthopaedic-surgery-award/ Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:00:00 GMT Gene therapy for a severe inherited blindness, which produced dramatic improvements last year in 12 children and young adults who received the treatment in a clinical trial, has cleared another hurdle. The same research team that conducted the human trial now reports that a study in animals has shown that a second injection of genes into the opposite, previously untreated eye is safe and effective, with no signs of interference from unwanted immune reactions following the earlier injection. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/03/gene-therapy-safety-in-two-eyes/ Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:00:00 GMT Research shows that only one-third of people who have been trained in CPR will actually perform CPR in an emergency – the other two-thirds do nothing. Bystanders frequently state that they don't act because they believe they don't know how to perform CPR correctly, and some say they're worried they will do more harm than good. New University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research shows that CPR coaching through a cell phone audio recording is one way to help bystanders overcome their fears and save lives in real time. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/03/cell-phone-cpr-instruction/ Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:30:00 GMT Researchers have found that one particularly aggressive type of blood cancer, mixed lineage leukemia (MLL), has an unusual way to keep the molecular motors running. The cancer cells rely on the normal version of an associated protein to stay alive. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/mixed-lineage-leukemia/ Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:00:00 GMT A surge in volunteers following a major disaster can overwhelm a response system, and without overall coordination, can actually make a situation worse instead of better. The outpouring of medical volunteers who responded to the devastating earthquake that rocked Haiti in January provides a roadmap for health care providers during future disasters, say the authors of a New England Journal of Medicine "Perspectives" piece authored by a Penn physician and colleagues. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/disaster-medical-response-guidance/ Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:00:00 GMT When stroke strikes, choking off blood supply to the brain, every minute counts: Nearly 2 million neurons die each minute a stroke is left untreated, making it a race to recognize symptoms so that lifesaving "clot-busting" drugs can be administered. Forty-five percent of Americans – 135 million people – are more than an hour away from primary stroke centers, the facilities that are best equipped to care for them if they are stricken by the condition, according to new research led by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/stroke-center-access/ Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:00:00 GMT A new Penn study found that multidisciplinary care teams can reduce the risk of dying in intensive care units, a noteworthy finding given the nationwide shortage of specially trained intensivist physicians, whose presence is also associated with reduced mortaility risk. The study appears in the February 22 edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/multidisciplinary-team-icu/ Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:00:00 GMT Building on his research indicating that the brain during sleep is fundamentally different from the brain during wakefulness, Marcos Frank, PhD, has found that cellular changes in the sleeping brain may promote the formation of memories. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/sleep-brain-development/ Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:00:00 GMT Douglas J. Wiebe, PhD, assistant professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, presented portions of an ongoing study on the daily activities of youth and their risk of being violently injured this week at the 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in San Diego. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/geography-of-violence/ Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:30:00 GMT Although mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), better known as concussion, affects over 1 million people each year in the United States, it is generally ignored as a major health issue. However, this "mild" form of injury induces persisting neurological and cognitive problems in many of these patients, exacting an enormous emotional and financial toll on society. Penn's Douglas Smith, MD, presented on this topic at the 2010 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/mild-traumatic-brain-injury/ Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:00:00 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 Made from 75,000 interconnected cable zip-ties, "Branching Morphogenesis" simulates the predicted network generated by human lung cells as they interact with an extracellular matrix in three-dimensional space and time. The installation, designed and produced by the SabinJones LabStudio at Penn, allows visitors to walk through a giant three-dimensional "datascape," encapsulating the way in which human endothelial cells interact with surrounding connective tissue. It has won the 2010 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge award, co-sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Science Foundation. An image of "Branching Morphogenesis" appears on the cover of the February 19th issue of Science. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/branching-morphogenesis-visualization/ Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:00:00 GMT Although leukemia is one of the best studied cancers, the cause of some types is still poorly understood. Now, a newly found mutation in acute myeloid leukemia patients could account for half of the remaining cases of adult acute leukemia with an unknown origin. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/leukemia-genetics/ Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:00:00 GMT Examining brain tissue from over 500 individuals in 11 countries, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and colleagues found a new risk factor for the second-most-common cause of early-onset dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/dementia-risk-factor/ Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:00:00 GMT The PENN CMU Roybal Center, which opened in September 2009, is designed to research ways to translate behavior economic approaches to improve health-promoting behaviors and health care delivery in older adults. The center has been awarded 1.8 million dollars over five years from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institues of Health. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/roybal-center-aging/ Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:00:00 GMT For the first time, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that three different degenerative brain disorders are linked by a toxic form of the same protein. The protein, called Elk-1, was found in clumps of misshaped proteins that are the hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/toxic-protein-brain-diseases/ Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:00:00 GMT New research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine may help more smokers keep their New Year’s resolution by helping them quit smoking. Extended use of a nicotine patch – 24 weeks versus the standard eight weeks recommended by manufacturers – boosts the number of smokers who maintain their cigarette abstinence and helps more of those who backslide into the habit while wearing the patch, according to a study which will be published in the February 2 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/extended-nicotine-patch/ Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:00:00 GMT A new Penn study weighs in on the controversy over sex education, finding that an abstinence-only intervention for pre-teens was more successful in delaying the onset of sexual activity than a health-promotion control intervention. After two years, one-third of the abstinence-only group reported having sex, compared to one-half of the control group. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/02/theory-based-abstinence-education/ Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:00:00 GMT "Penn Medicine Team One" – the first medical team from Penn Medicine to fly to Haiti to provide expert medical care to earthquake survivors – departed January 25 for a medical relief mission expected to last for approximately two weeks. The nine-member team includes orthopaedic and trauma surgeons, anesthesiologists, critical medical and surgical care nurses, OR and peri-operative nurses, and OR technical specialists. Ongoing updates and reports from the team in Haiti are available in our special Penn Medicine in Haiti feature section. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/features/haiti/ Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:00:00 GMT A University of Pennsylania School of Medicine-Monell Chemical Senses Center collaborative study found that body fluid odors can be used to identify animals with lung cancer tumors. The findings set the stage for studies to identify potential diagnostic biomarkers in the urine of human lung cancer patients. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/01/lung-cancer-odor-screening/ Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT At approximately 2:30 pm on Monday, January 25th "Penn Medicine Team One" – the first medical team from Penn Medicine to fly to Haiti to provide expert medical care – departed from the Philadelphia International Airport. The nine-member team was bid farewell by fellow colleagues shortly before boarding a bus for the airport. The team included orthopaedic and trauma surgeons, anesthesiologists, critical medical and surgical care nurses, OR and peri-operative nurses, and OR technical specialists. The team expects to be in Haiti for approximately two weeks. Over 150 Penn Medicine faculty and staff have volunteered for the relief effort to date. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/01/penn-medicine-haiti-relief/ Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:00:00 GMT Scientists have long pondered the seeming contradiction that taking broad-spectrum antibiotics over a long period of time can lead to severe secondary bacterial infections. Now researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine may have figured out why. The investigators show that "good" bacteria in the gut keep the immune system primed to more effectively fight infection from invading pathogenic bacteria. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/01/good-bacteria-prime-immune-system/ Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:00:00 GMT People who are in car crashes or suffer serious falls, gunshot or knife wounds and other injuries at nights or on weekends do not appear to be affected by the same medical care disparities as patients who suffer heart attacks, strokes, cardiac arrests and other time-sensitive illnesses during those "off hours," according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/01/emergency-care-weekend-effect/ Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:00:00 GMT Trevor M. Penning, Ph.D., director of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, will receive The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) 2010 Distinguished Service Award at the NPA’s 8th Annual Meeting, to be held March 12-14 in Philadelphia. Dr. Penning is recognized in the postdoctoral community as a longtime advocate on behalf of postdoctoral scholars, both on the home and national fronts. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2010/01/penning-postdoctoral-association-award/ Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:00:00 GMT A multi-disciplinary team of Penn researchers, including diabetes, weight loss and bariatric surgery experts, are conducting a study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to determine if bariatric surgery, either gastric bypass or adjustable gastric banding surgery, is more effective than lifestyle modification to reduce weight and ultimately treat Type 2 diabetes.This study will also test whether people with a lower body mass index (BMI) may benefit from surgery to treat type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or other significant health problems. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/12/diabetes-weight-loss-study/ Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:00:00 GMT A minimally invasive surgical approach developed by head and neck surgeons at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicinehas been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The da Vinci Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Sunnyvale, California) has been cleared for TransOral otolaryngologic surgical procedures to treat benign tumors and select malignant tumors in adults. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/12/tors-robotic-head-neck-surgery/ Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:00:00 GMT The upcoming issue of TIME magazine includes research from a team of Penn Medicine and CHOP autism genetics experts among it’s Top Ten Medical Breakthroughs of 2009. The team first reported that multiple gene variants, both common and rare, may raise the risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in the journal Nature in April. The first study suggested that a particular genetic variation, found on a cluster between CDH10 and CDH9 on chromosome 5, is found in about 15 percent of children with autism, according to co-senior author Gerard Schellenberg, PhD, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The second study identified missing or duplicated stretches of DNA along two crucial gene pathways. Both studies detected genes implicated in the development of brain circuitry in early childhood. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/12/autism-genetics-top-breakthrough/ Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:30:00 GMT Neurology researchers have shown that feeding amino acids to brain-injured animals restores their cognitive abilities and may set the stage for the first effective treatment for cognitive impairments suffered by people with traumatic brain injuries. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/12/brain-injury-amino-acid-diet/ Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:00:00 GMT Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have developed a new model of skin cancer based on the knowledge that a common cancer-related molecule called Src kinase is activated in human skin-cancer samples.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/12/new-skin-cancer-model/ Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:00:00 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 Garret FitzGerald, MD, McNeil Professor in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Chair of the Department of Pharmacology; and Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics received the J. Allyn Taylor International Prize in Medicine last month. Supported by the Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario, the award annually recognizes the world’s leading medical researcher. FitzGerald was recognized for his contributions to the development of low-dose aspirin for the prevention of heart disease and being the first investigator to predict and explain the cardiovascular hazard from nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/12/cardiovascular-research-taylor-prize/ Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:25:00 GMT Rita Balice-Gordon, PhD, professor of Neuroscience, and Josep Dalmau, MD, PhD, professor of Neurology, both of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, have been awarded the McKnight Neuroscience of Brain Disorders Award for 2010. Balice-Gordon and Dalmau discovered that some diseases, which patients have been told have no cure, can be attributed to disorders of the immune system. They were recognized for their research project, Cellular, Synaptic and Circuit Mechanisms of Autoimmune anti-Glutamate Receptor Disorders of Memory and Cognition. The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience provides grants to projects exploring the biology of neurological and psychiatric diseases. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/12/neuroscience-brain-disorders-award/ Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:20:00 GMT Chronic wounds, including venous leg ulcers which are caused by poor circulation in the veins of the legs, are difficult and expensive to treat. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have developed the first targeted, short-term delivery method using gene transfer technology to effectively treat venous leg ulcers. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/12/leg-ulcer-healing/ Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:30:00 GMT The American College of Psychiatrists has selected Dwight L. Evans, MD as the 44th President of the organization for 2009-2010. As President, he will oversee the College’s governance and chair its Annual Meeting "Translating Scientific Advances into Psychiatric Practice", in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, February 24-28, 2010. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/11/evans-american-college-psychiatrists/ Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:40:00 GMT During the busy holiday season, four Penn Medicine locations will pause to honor friends, family and loved ones by lighting trees. Penn Wissahickon Hospice, a division of the Penn Home Care & Hospice Service and part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, holds the Light Up a Life ceremony annually to honor the people who have brightened and enriched the lives of others. Each light on the tree is dedicated in honor or memory of a patient, friend or loved one. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/11/hospice-light-up-a-life/ Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:30:00 GMT Aaron Temkin Beck, MD, the father of Cognitive Therapy, has been presented with the Anna-Monika Prize, awarded once every two years by the Anna-Monika Foundation, for advancing knowledge of the biological structure and functional disturbances of depression. The privately funded Anna-Monika Foundation, established in 1964 and based in Berlin, Germany, promotes experimental research on the causes of depression. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/11/beck-anna-monika-award/ Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:30:00 GMT Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered that a dietary antioxidant found in such vegetables as broccoli and cauliflower protects cells from damage caused by chemicals generated during the body’s inflammatory response to infection and injury. The finding has implications for such inflammation-based disorders as cystic fibrosis (CF), diabetes, heart disease, and neurodegeneration. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/11/antioxidant-cystic-fibrosis/ Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMT An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, is taking the first step in developing a treatment for a rare genetic disorder called fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), in which the body’s skeletal muscles and soft connective tissue turns to bone, immobilizing patients over a lifetime with a second skeleton. Their latest study provides the first clear glimpse of how FOP might develop at a cellular level in the human body. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/11/bmp-signals-fop-bone-growth/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:00:00 GMT David A. Asch, MD, MBA, the Robert D. Eilers Professor of Medicine and Health Care Management and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Wharton School, was presented with the Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award by the Association American of Medical Colleges (AAMC). http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/11/asch-aamc-award/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:00:00 GMT Among eligible Medicare beneficiaries, increased use of carotid arterial stenting (CAS) procedures to treat carotid stenosis—the narrowing of the carotid artery—is associated with higher rates of mortality and adverse clinical outcomes, including heart attack and stroke, according to researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/11/carotid-artery-stent-outcomes/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:00:00 GMT Arthur H. Rubenstein, MBBCh, Executive Vice President of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System, and Dean, School of Medicine, will receive the Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The award will be presented on Saturday, Nov. 7, during the association’s annual meeting in Boston.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/11/rubenstein-aamc-flexner-award/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:00:00 GMT In addition to building muscle, weightlifting is also a prescription for self-esteem among breast cancer survivors, according to new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research. Breast cancer survivors who lift weights regularly feel better about bodies and their appearance and are more satisfied with their intimate relationships compared with survivors who do not lift weights, according to a new study published in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/11/cancer-survivors-self-esteem/ Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:30:00 GMT Penn Medicine will lead a new clinical trial at 12 sites across the nation to test whether testosterone therapy can favorably affect certain conditions affecting older men. Low serum testosterone may contribute to a number of problems affecting older men, including decreased ability to walk, loss of muscle mass and strength, decreased vitality, decreased sexual function, impaired cognition, cardiovascular disease and anemia. While testosterone normally decreases with age, in some men, low levels of testosterone may contribute to these debilitating conditions. The Testosterone Trial will involve 800 men age 65 and older with low testosterone levels. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/11/testosterone-therapy-study/ Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:31:00 GMT While studying how the heart is formed, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine serendipitously found a novel cellular source of atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common type of abnormal heart beat. Jonathan Epstein, MD, William Wikoff Smith Professor, and Chair, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, and Vickas Patel, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, have identified a population of cells in the atria of the heart and pulmonary veins of humans and mice that appear to be the seat of AF. The finding may lead to a more precise way to treat AF, with reduced side effects. Their findings appear online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/11/atrial-fibrillation-cellular-source/ Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:30:00 GMT Heat, lack of nutrients, oxygen radicals – all can wreak havoc on the delicate internal components of a cell. Proteins called HSPs (heat shock proteins) allow cells to survive stress-induced damage. Scientists have long studied how HSPs work in order to harness their therapeutic potential. Penn Medicine researchers, in collaboration with Fox Chase Cancer Center, have now identified a small molecule that inhibits the heat shock protein HSP70. They also showed that the HSP inhibitor could stop tumor formation and significantly extend survival of mice. They describe their findings in this month’s issue of Molecular Cell. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/10/hsp-inhibitor-stops-tumors/ Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:00:00 GMT Chronic tinnitus, noise or ringing in the ears, is a symptom associated with many forms of hearing loss or other health problems. There are no effective treatments for this condition, which can become so severe that it may be difficult to hear, work, or even sleep. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are now testing a non-invasive treatment – transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) – to target overactive areas in the brain responsible for tinnitus. TMS was recently approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of depression and has been extensively tested in Europe for tinnitus. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/10/tms-tinnitus-trial/ Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:00:00 GMT Enrolling in a weight loss program with a family member or friend appears to enhance weight loss among African Americans, but only if the involved partner attends sessions frequently or also loses weight, according to a report in the October 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. Obesity and its cardiovascular complications affect many African Americans, according to background information in the article. Standard behavioral treatments for obesity appear to be less successful in African Americans than in whites. Cultural modifications to these standard programs-such as the inclusion of family members and support networks-may enhance their effectiveness. Shiriki K. Kumanyika, PhD, MPH, professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Tom Wadden, PhD, Penn Medicine professor of Psychology in Psychiatry and Director of the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders, and colleagues, conducted a two-year trial of a culturally specific weight loss program among 344 African American men and women. The goal was to achieve and maintain a 5 percent to 10 percent weight loss. Components of the program included counseling that encouraged self-monitoring of food intake and physical activity, distribution of pedometers, group sessions involving weight and activity checks and skill building, and community-based field workshops such as cooking demonstrations and gym visits. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/10/partners-in-weight-loss/ Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:30:00 GMT After a single injection of genes that produce light-sensitive pigments in the back of his eye, a nine-year-old boy born with a retinal disease that made him legally blind, and would eventually leave him totally sightless, now participates in class without extra help. In the playground, he joins his classmates in playing his first game of softball. His treatment represents the next step toward medical science’s goal of using gene therapy to cure disease. Extending a preliminary study published last year on three young adults, the full study reports successful, sustained results that showed notable improvement in children with congenital blindness. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/10/gene-therapy-restores-sight/ Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:00:00 GMT The presence of a gene can predict when a traumatic brain injury (TBI) will lead to early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study from neuroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Amyloid plaque deposits, known primarily for their role in Alzheimer’s disease, are found in nearly one third of people who die from acute TBI, within just hours of a brain injury and in people of all ages. This build up of Alzheimer’s-like deposits can be predicted by a variation in the gene that codes for the amyloid-busting enzyme, neprilsyin. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/brain-injury-alzheimers-genetic-risk/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:00:00 GMT University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers, along with colleagues at the University of Washington and the University of Toronto, have received $8 million for stem-cell research. The Penn group is one of nine research hubs awarded $170 million over the next seven years by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to develop the high-potential field of stem- and progenitor-cell tools and therapies. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/10/progenitor-cell-research/ Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:00:00 GMT University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine investigators are among the 42 recipients of a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) award that encourages investigators to challenge the status quo with innovative ideas. NIH expects to make competing awards totaling $30 million to the recipients of the new NIH Director’s Transformative R01 (T-R01) Awards. Co-investigators Frank S. Lee, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, and Stephen Master, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, will receive $1.97 million in total costs over the next five years. Robert B. Wilson, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, will receive $1.57 million over the next four years. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/10/transformative-research-awards/ Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:30:00 GMT The day-to-day maintenance required to keep proliferative tissues like skin and intestines functional is about more than just regeneration, a stem cell-based process that forms the basis of tissue renewal. It's also about housekeeping, the clearing away of damaged cells. So indicates a study published in the October issue of Nature Genetics, which demonstrates that loss of the tumor-suppressor protein p53, coupled with elimination of the DNA-maintenance protein ATR, severely disrupts tissue maintenance in mice. As a result, tissues deteriorate rapidly, which is generally fatal in these animals. In addition, the study provides supportive evidence for the use of inhibitors of ATR in cancer therapy. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/10/tissue-maintenance/ Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:00:00 GMT Four professors from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have been elected as members of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the nation's highest honors in biomedicine. The new members bring Penn's total to 72, out of a total active membership of 1,610. Overall, the IOM named 65 new members this year and five foreign associates. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/10/institute-of-medicine/ Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:00:00 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 In a first-of its-kind study, epidemiologists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that, on average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. The study estimated that people with a gun were 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not possessing a gun. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/09/gun-possession-safety/ Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:00:00 GMT Aromatase inhibitors, the same drugs that have buoyed long-term survival rates among breast cancer patients, also carry side effects including joint pain so severe that many patients discontinue these lifesaving medicines. New University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research, however, has identified patterns that may help clinicians identify and help women at risk of these symptoms sooner in order to increase their chances of sticking with their treatment regimen. In a study published recently in the journal Cancer, researchers at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center found that estrogen withdrawal may play a role in the onset of joint pain, also known as arthralgia, during treatment: Women who stopped getting their menstrual periods less than five years before starting breast cancer treatment were three times more likely to experience these pains than those who reached menopause more than a decade earlier. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/09/reducing-breast-cancer-drug-side-effects/ Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:00:00 GMT University of Pennsylvania geneticist Sarah A. Tishkoff, PhD is among 18 recipients of the 2009 National Institutes of Health’s Pioneer Award. Tishkoff, the David and Lyn Silfen University Associate Professor and a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor, is a leading global expert in human genetics. The Pioneer Award provides $500,000 in funding each year for five years, totaling $2.5 million in support of a small number of investigators of exceptional creativity who propose bold and highly innovative new research approaches that have the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important problems in biomedical and behavioral research. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/09/tishkoff-pioneer-award/ Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:30:00 GMT While scientists have known for several years that our body’s internal clock helps regulate many biological processes, researchers have found that the reverse is also true: Many common biological processes – including insulin metabolism – regulate the clock, according to a new study by investigators at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, and the University of California at San Diego. The new data, published online in Cell this week, suggest that someday physicians may be able to use small molecules that inhibit or stimulate these biological processes in order to influence a person’s clock when it gets out of sync due to jetlag or shift work. Researchers may also be able to find new ways to treat metabolic disorders that are intimately tied to the body’s daily cycles. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/09/body-clock-communication/ Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:00:00 GMT Best known as the oxygen-carrying component of hemoglobin, the protein that makes blood red, heme also plays a role in chemical detoxification and energy metabolism within the cell. Heme levels are tightly maintained, and with good reason: Too little heme prevents cell growth and division; excessive amounts of heme are toxic. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have now discovered a molecular circuit involving heme that helps maintain proper metabolism in the body, providing new insights into metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/09/heme-control/ Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:00:00 GMT Penn Medicine and the Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia announce the opening on September 16 at 6PM of an exhibition of contemporary sculpture in the atrium of the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. The exhibition, Interplay: Art ● Audience ● Architecture is the first in a series highlighting the role that the arts can play in health care. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/09/sculpture-exhibit/ Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:00:00 GMT Carolyn Vachani, RN, MSN, AOCN, is being honored for her leading role in the creation of OncoLink’s Cancer Survivorship Care Plan. This free service allows cancer survivors, their families and health care providers to create an individualized plan of care including information on potential aftereffects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, fertility guidance and recommended screening guidelines. In conjunction with its 40th Biennial Convention in late October, the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) will present Vachani with its prestigious 2009 Computer-Based Public Education Technology Award. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/08/fulbright-grant-research/ Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:00:00 GMT Shirin Karsan, a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine’s Masters of Bioethics program, has been awarded a Fulbright Grant for the 2009-2010 academic year. The Fulbright Program, established in 1946, is an international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government designed to improve understanding and relationships between U.S. citizens and residents of other countries. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/08/fulbright-grant-research/ Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:00:00 GMT James Shorter, PhD, assistant professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics has received a 2009 Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar Award in Aging. New Scholar candidates are investigators who are nominated by U.S. medical institutions and universities for their outstanding promise in aging research. The award provides funding up to $100,000 per year for a four year period to a maximum of 25 scholars. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/08/shorter-ellison-medical-foundation/ Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:00:00 GMT The nation’s home foreclosure epidemic may be taking its toll on Americans’ health as well as their wallets. Nearly half of people studied while undergoing foreclosure reported depressive symptoms, and 37 percent met screening criteria for major depression, according to new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research published online this week in the American Journal of Public Health. Many also reported an inability to afford prescription drugs, and skipping meals. The authors say their findings should serve as a call for policy makers to tie health interventions into their response to the nation’s ongoing housing crisis. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/08/foreclosure-health-risks/ Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:00:00 GMT A tissue-repair-and-regeneration pathway in the human body, including wound healing, is essential for the early lung to develop properly. Genetically engineered mice fail to develop lungs when two molecules in this pathway, Wnt2 and Wnt2b, are knocked out. The findings are described this week in Developmental Cell. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/08/lung-development/ Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:00:01 GMT "A biologist, a physicist, and a nanotechnologist walk into a ..." sounds like the start of a joke. Instead, it was the start of a collaboration that has helped to decipher a critical, but so far largely unstudied, phase of how cells divide. Errors in cell division can cause mutations that lead to cancer, and this study could shed light on the role of chromosome abnormalities in uncontrolled cell replication. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/08/cell-division-mechanism/ Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:00:00 GMT Breast cancer survivors who lift weights are less likely than their non-weightlifting peers to experience worsening symptoms of lymphedema, the arm- and hand-swelling condition that plagues many women following surgery for their disease, according to new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research published in the August 13 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The findings challenge the advice commonly given to lymphedema sufferers, who may worry that weight training or even carrying children or bags of groceries will exacerbate their symptoms. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/08/weight-lifting-eases-lymphedema-symptoms/ Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:00:01 GMT One year after a trio of young adults received gene therapy for an inherited form of blindness, researchers have documented that the patients are still experiencing the same level of remarkable vision improvements previously measured within weeks. This is the first study to report one-year gene therapy safety and efficacy results in treating young adults with Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), a hereditary condition that causes severe vision impairment in infants and children. The findings are published in Human Gene Therapy, now online, and in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) this week. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/08/gene-therapy-vision-improvement-maintained/ Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:00:00 GMT Jeffrey Thomas Tokazewski, MD, has been named a Top Physician by South Jersey Magazine in its yearly review of doctors. Thirteen doctors were featured in the category of Family Practice in the August issue. To qualify, Top Doctors must receive the highest scores on the HealthGrades patient experience survey. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/08/top-physician-south-jersey/ Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:00:00 GMT A new class of molecules capable of blocking the formation of specific protein clumps that are believed to contribute to the dementia of Alzheimer’s disease patients has been discovered by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the NIH Chemical Genomics Center. By assaying close to 300,000 compounds, the team has identified drug-like inhibitors of AD tau protein clumping, as reported in the journal Biochemistry. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/08/tau-protein-inhibitors/ Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:00:00 GMT Fibrin, the chief ingredient of blood clots, is a remarkably versatile polymer. On one hand, it forms a network of fibers -- a blood clot -- that stems the loss of blood at an injury site while remaining pliable and flexible. On the other hand, fibrin provides a scaffold for thrombi, clots that block blood vessels and cause tissue damage, leading to myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and other cardiovascular diseases. How does fibrin manage to be so strong and yet so extensible under the stresses of healing and blood flow? http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/08/fibrin-blood-clot-structure/ Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:00:00 GMT A brain-preserving cooling treatment called therapeutic hypothermia is a cost-effective way to improve outcomes after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, which claims the lives of more than 300,000 people each year in the United States and leaves thousands of others neurologically devastated. The treatment, which lowers body temperature to prevent damage to the brain and other major organs when blood flow is restored to the body following cardiac arrest, is considered a "good value" when compared to many other accepted and widely utilized medical treatments, including dialysis for kidney failure or complex heart surgeries, according to new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research published this week in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/08/cooling-treatment-cost-effective/ Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:50:00 GMT Jill M. Baren, MD, MBE, an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has been selected as a 2009-2010 fellow in the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women at Drexel University’s College of Medicine. ELAM is the only national program dedicated to preparing senior women faculty for leadership at academic health centers. Baren, who this year became president of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, is among 53 elite medical leaders who were named to the program’s 15th class. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/08/baren-fellow-elam/ Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:20:00 GMT In a post-recession America, even though as a nation income levels may rise, middle class families still won’t be shielded from the crushing burden of health care costs and will watch their standards of living continue to erode, according to a study published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) by Daniel Polsky, Ph.D., and David Grande, M.D., M.P.A, of the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/07/health-care-costs/ Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:00:00 GMT The accepted dogma has been that bone-forming cells, derived from the body’s connective tissue, are the only cells able to form the skeleton. However, new research shows that specialized cells in the blood share a common origin with white blood cells derived from the bone marrow and that these bloodstream cells are capable of forming bone at sites distant from the original skeleton. This work, published online this month in the journal Stem Cells, represents the first example of how circulating cells may contribute to abnormal bone formation. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/07/bone-from-blood/ Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:00:00 GMT Thomas Cappola, MD, ScM, an assistant professor in the division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has been honored with a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. The award, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding early-career scientists and engineers, recognizes Cappola’s outstanding achievements in research on causes and treatment for heart failure, which is the leading cause of hospitalization among adults in the United States. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/07/cappola-presidential-award/ Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:30:00 GMT Jason Karlawish, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and colleagues presented findings at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) from a survey of American Academy of Neurology (AAN) members that assessed how neurologists are diagnosing and treating patients with mild cognitive symptoms. Results show that neurologists regularly see and treat people with MCI, despite the fact that the medications they are prescribing are not FDA-approved for this particular diagnostic category. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/07/mild-cognitive-impairment/ Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:45:00 GMT The Alzheimer's Association recognized four scientists for their extraordinary achievements in advancing Alzheimer's research at its 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna, Austria. The 2009 Khalid Iqbal Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Virginia M.-Y. Lee, Ph.D., M.B.A., director of Penn’s Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research. Dr. Lee's research focus includes determining the genesis and roles of various normal and abnormal brain proteins (amyloid, tau, etc.) thought to be the keys to the cause and progression of numerous brain diseases, including Alzheimer's. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/07/virginia-lee-alzheimers-lifetime-achievement-award/ Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:40:00 GMT For years researchers have been searching for a way to treat diabetics by reactivating their insulin-producing beta cells, to no avail. Now, they may be one step closer. A protein, whose role in pancreatic development has long been recognized, has been discovered to play an additional and previously unknown regulatory role in the development of cells in the immature endocrine system. These cells ultimately give rise to pancreatic islet cells, which include beta cells. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/07/pdx1-endocrine-development/ Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:00:00 GMT A film with roots at Penn Medicine, Alzheimer’s Disease: Facing the Facts, won a 2009 Emmy for Documentary Program at the 32nd Boston/New England Emmy Award Ceremony of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The one-hour documentary examines the personal and societal impact of Alzheimer’s disease, powerfully juxtaposing vignettes of families devastated by Alzheimer’s with medical experts on a quest to understand, treat and prevent the disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/07/alzheimers-film-emmy/ Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:50:00 GMT Mehret Mandefro, MD, MSc, has been appointed as a 2009-2010 White House Fellow. She is a Senior Fellow at Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar. As a public health trained physician, her primary research interests are the connections between human rights and health, HIV prevention program development, and translation efforts targeting marginalized communities. Mandefro also works as an anthropologist who uses film as a medium of ethnography. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/07/mandefro-white-house-fellow/ Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:50:00 GMT More pieces in the complex autism inheritance puzzle are emerging in the latest study from a research team including geneticists from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and several collaborating institutions. This study identified 27 different genetic regions where rare copy number variations – missing or extra copies of DNA segments – were found in the genes of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), but not in the healthy controls. The complex combination of missing or extra copies of certain genes is thought to interfere with gene function, which can disrupt the production of proteins necessary for normal neurological development. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/06/autism-gene-mutations/ Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:00:00 GMT Understanding the molecular signals that guide early cells in the embryo to develop into different organs provides insight into ways that tissues regenerate and how stem cells can be used for new therapies. With regenerated cells, researchers hope to one day fill the acute shortage in pancreatic and liver tissue available for transplantation in cases of type I diabetes and acute liver failure. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/06/liver-pancreas-cell-development/ Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:00:00 GMT University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine scientists have been awarded $6.7 million from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to investigate the role of molecular motors in cell biology. With this grant, the researchers will continue their studies of cytoskeletal motors that function in cellular processes of medical importance, including those implicated in neurological disorders and diabetes. Cytoskeletal motors are nano-scale molecular machines that drive the movements of components within cells. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/06/molecular-motors/ Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:30:00 GMT Older women suffering from clinical frailty stand to benefit from the first potential medical treatment for the condition, according to a study presented last week by Penn Medicine researchers at ENDO, The Endocrine Society’s 91st Annual Meeting. Ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite, was administered to older women diagnosed with frailty, a common geriatric syndrome characterized by unintentional weight loss, weakness, exhaustion and low levels of anabolic hormones which increases risk of falls, hospitalizations, disability, and death. Those who received ghrelin infusions consumed 51 percent more calories than the placebo group, with an increase in carbohydrate and protein intake, not fat. Their growth hormone levels were also higher throughout the ghrelin infusion. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/06/hormonal-frailty-treatment.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:15:00 GMT Researchers have determined the structure of C3 convertase and of the C3b fragment in complex with factor H. These new structures, both involving a central component of an enzyme important to the complement system of the immune response, reveal how this system fights invading microbes while avoiding problems of the body attacking itself. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/06/complement-system-protein-structures.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:10:00 GMT A special public health seminar at Pennsylvania Hospital invites women to discover the latest research, diagnostic and treatment strategies to help them better negotiate two of the most serious personal challenges they face throughout their lives: heart and breast health. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/06/womens-health-seminar.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:00:00 GMT Jumping genes do most of their jumping, not during the development of sperm and egg cells, but during the development of the embryo itself. The research, published this month in Genes and Development, "challenges standard assumptions on the timing of when mobile DNA, so-called jumping genes, insert into the human genome," says senior author Haig H. Kazazian Jr., MD, Seymour Gray Professor of Molecular Medicine in Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/06/jumping-genes-embryonic-development.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:45:00 GMT In a study comparing two strains of mice, one susceptible to developing cancer and the other not, researchers found that a high-fat diet predisposed the cancer-susceptible strain to liver cancer, and that by switching to a low-fat diet early in the experiment, the same high-risk mice avoided the malignancy. The switched mice were lean rather than obese and had healthy livers at the end of the study. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/06/diet-liver-cancer.html Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:00:00 GMT Karen Glanz, a globally influential public-health scholar, has been named the ninth Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Glanz’s appointment will be shared between the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing, and she will lead a new center focused on research and training in health behaviors. http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=1665 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:00:00 GMT After a vaccination or an infection, the human immune system remembers to keep protecting against invaders it has already encountered, with the aid of specialized B-cells and T-cells. Immunological memory has long been the subject of intense study, but the underlying cellular mechanisms regulating the generation and persistence of long-lived memory T cells remain largely undefined. Now, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers have found that a common anti-diabetic drug might enhance the effectiveness of vaccines. The findings are described this week in an advanced online publication of Nature. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/06/boosting-immune-memory.html Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:20:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have uncovered variation around two genes that are associated with an increased risk of testicular cancer. Testicular cancer is the most common cancer among young men, and its incidence among non-Hispanic Caucasian men has doubled in the last 40 years -- it now affects seven out of 100,000 white men in the United States each year. The discovery, published in the May 31, 2009 online issue of Nature Genetics, is the first step toward understanding which men are at high risk of disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/06/testicular-cancer-gene.html Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:30:00 GMT In what researchers are calling a breakthrough, patients with thyroid cancer that is resistant to radioactive iodine therapy were found to respond well to sorafenib, a University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researcher reported today at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). The phase II clinical trial data highlight an intensive effort at the Abramson Cancer Center to develop effective, personalized therapies for these patients, who have previously had few options for treatment. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/06/new-thyroid-cancer-treatment.html Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:45:00 GMT Although the majority of patients with follicular lymphoma initially respond to chemotherapy, the disease frequently recurs, eventually becoming resistant to available therapies. Patients treated with traditional chemotherapy followed by a personalized vaccine were found to have a 44 percent increase in progression-free survival compared with patients who responded to chemotherapy but received a control vaccine, according to research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/06/personalized-cancer-vaccine.html Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:00:00 GMT An increasing number of cancer patients who receive chemotherapy now do so at home, with the click of a pill bottle each day rather than the drip of an IV medicine that must be delivered in a doctor’s office or hospital. Though the growing shift toward oral chemotherapy agents offers cancer patients greater freedom and independence during their treatment, physicians say use of the new medications also poses more chances for patients to skip doses, miss prescription refills, and take their drugs in a dangerous way. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/06/oral-chemotherapy-compliance.html Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:59:00 GMT Abramson Cancer Center Director Craig Thompson, MD, PhD, has been selected to lead a research "Dream Team" for Stand Up To Cancer, the groundbreaking partnership between the nation’s entertainment industry and the cancer research community. Armed with $18 million in funding, Thompson’s team is poised to lead the nation’s most innovative pancreatic cancer research project, which will discover more about what metabolic nutrients pancreatic tumors rely on to grow and develop new therapies designed to cut off that essential fuel. Despite the myriad advances in treating other cancers, people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer still face a grim prognosis – as many as 80 percent of patients who get the news die within a year. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/05/stand-up-to-cancer-pancreatic-dream-team.html Wed, 27 May 2009 20:10:00 GMT The Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) and Penn Medicine announced today a four-year partnership to further develop and disseminate the LIVESTRONG Care Plan Powered by Penn Medicine’s OncoLink. This free service gives cancer survivors, their families and physicians the ability to create an individualized plan of care using up-to-date treatment information based on Institute of Medicine recommendations, as well educating them about their options to maintain optimal health once they are out of treatment. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/05/livestrong-cancer-survivorship.html Wed, 27 May 2009 20:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine will receive $7.5 million over the next five years from the National Cancer Institute to find new ways to treat esophageal cancer, in addition to traditional chemoradiation. This research is a continuation of the group's previous findings, which made substantial progress in deciphering the molecular and cellular biology underlying esophageal cancer, with broad applications to other related cancers in the lung, head/neck and skin. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/05/esophageal-cancer-research.html Tue, 26 May 2009 17:30:00 GMT Since 2000, nearly 1,000 "retail clinics" – offering routine care like sports physicals and immunizations and treatment for minor illnesses like strep throat – have opened their doors inside pharmacies and grocery stores across the United States. Retail chain operators proposed that the new clinics would improve access to medical care among uninsured or underserved populations. However, these clinics have been opened more often in higher-income areas that are less likely to be classified as medically underserved, according to a new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine published in the May 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/05/retail-clinic-disparities.html Tue, 26 May 2009 14:30:00 GMT The University of Pennsylvania was honored by The American Society for Microbiology last Friday with a plaque dedication ceremony celebrating the designation of its third Milestones in Microbiology site. Formerly known as the Laboratory of Hygiene, the current Vagelos Laboratories resides on the University of Pennsylvania campus. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/05/milestones-in-microbiology.html Fri, 22 May 2009 16:15:00 GMT Women with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) who exhibit an overexpression of the protein HER2/neu have a six-fold increase in risk of invasive breast cancer, according to a new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The results, published in the May issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, may help clinicians distinguish between DCIS that requires minimal treatment and DCIS that should be treated more aggressively. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/05/dcis-her2-breast-cancer-risk.html Fri, 22 May 2009 14:30:00 GMT L. Scott Levin, MD, FACS, has been appointed the new Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery of Penn Medicine, effective July 1, 2009. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/05/levin-ortho-surgery.html Tue, 19 May 2009 15:30:00 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 School of Medicine will receive $2 million over the next four years from the American Heart Association and the Jon Holden DeHaan Foundation to study how heart muscle cell regeneration can help improve outcomes for heart attack and heart failure patients. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/05/heart-muscle-cell-regeneration.html Mon, 18 May 2009 16:00:00 GMT Women with chest pain are less likely than male patients to receive recommended, proven therapies while en route to the hospital, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Despite evidence showing that the drugs aspirin and nitroglycerin are important early interventions for people who may be having a heart attack, women don’t get them as often as men with the same types of symptoms, says a new study that was presented last week at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s annual conference. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/05/gender-disparities-chest-pain.html Mon, 18 May 2009 14:20:00 GMT The first long-term study following a large number of chest pain patients who are screened with coronary computerized tomographic angiography (CTA) confirms that the test is a safe, effective way to rule out serious cardiovascular disease in patients who come to hospital emergency rooms with chest pain, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine which was presented last week at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s annual conference. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/05/ct-scan-chest-pain-diagnosis.html Mon, 18 May 2009 14:20:00 GMT Jill M. Baren, MD, MBE, an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, will today become president of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, the nation’s largest organization devoted to research and education in the specialty. An expert in emergency care, the subspecialty of pediatric emergency medicine and medical ethics, Baren will lead 5,000 national and international members at a time when emergency physicians face new challenges in caring for the growing elderly and uninsured populations in emergency rooms where staff and resources are strained by crowding. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/05/baren-saem-president.html Thu, 14 May 2009 16:00:00 GMT African, American, and European researchers working in a 10-year collaboration have released the largest-ever study of African genetic data — more than 4 million genotypes — providing a library of new information on the continent which is thought to be the source of the oldest settlements of modern humans. "This is the largest study to date of African genetic diversity in the nuclear genome," said lead author Sarah Tishkoff, PhD, a geneticist with joint appointments in the School of Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences. "This long term collaboration, involving an international team of researchers and years of research expeditions to collect samples from populations living in remote regions of Africa, has resulted in novel insights about levels and patterns of genetic diversity in Africa, a region that has been underrepresented in human genetic studies." A slide show of the team's fieldwork, with audio, is available at www.sas.upenn.edu/home/SASFrontiers/tishkoff.html. http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/article.php?id=1628 Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:15:00 GMT Researchers have made an important step forward in understanding the complex genetic structure of autism spectrum disorders. A researcher collaboration, including geneticists from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), have detected variations along a genetic pathway that is responsible for neurological development, learning and memory, which appears to play a significant role in the genetic risk of autism. Their findings were published in the journal Nature. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/04/autism-genetics.html Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:00:00 GMT The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine is among the top three research-oriented medical schools in the nation, according to an annual survey of the best graduate schools by U.S.News & World Report. Penn is ranked #3 in the prestigious survey. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/04/best-medical-schools.html Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and colleagues have discovered that a type of prostaglandin – one of a family of fatty compounds key to the cardiovscular system – may play the role of increasing blood pressure and accelerating atherosclerosis, at least in mice. Mice that lack the receptor for the type of prostaglandin studied, PGF2a, have lower blood pressure and less atherosclerosis than their non-mutant brethren. The results suggest that targeting this pathway could represent a novel therapeutic approach to cardiovascular disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/04/new-blood-pressure-control-target.html Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:00:00 GMT The circadian clock coordinates physiological and behavioral processes on a 24-hour rhythm, allowing animals to anticipate changes in their environment and prepare accordingly. Scientists already know that some genes are controlled by the clock and are turned on only one time during each 24-hour cycle. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies found that some genes are switched on once every 12 or 8 hours, indicating that shorter cycles of the circadian rhythm are also biologically encoded. Using a novel time-sampling approach in which the investigators looked at gene activity in the mouse liver every hour for 48 hours, they also found 10-fold more genes controlled by the 24-hour clock than previously reported. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/04/8-12-hour-biological-rhythms.html Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:30:00 GMT In a finding that helps resolve a long-standing question in developmental biology, Klaus H. Kaestner, PhD, Professor of Genetics, and colleagues report in the journal Developmental Cell this week about how the mammalian gut forms. Mice were genetically engineered to lack the protein Cdx2 in the cells that normally go on to form the stomach and intestine. The mutant animals – which invariably die either before or just after birth – have an esophagus where these missing organs should be. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/04/gut-development-cdx2.html Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:00:00 GMT An online tool that provides cancer survivors and their family members with an easy-to-follow roadmap for managing their health as they finish treatment and transition to life as a survivor got high marks from users, according to new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine research. Ninety-seven percent of people who used OncoLife, the first online cancer survivorship care plan tool – developed by physicians and nurses from Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center – rated their experience with the tool as 'good' to 'excellent,' and 84 percent said they planned to share their plan with their health care team. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/04/cancer-survivorship-plans.html Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:00:00 GMT Donald O’Rourke, MD, associate professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and colleagues were able to accurately predict the specific genetic mutation that caused brain cancer in a group of patients studied using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The researchers presented their findings this week at the American Association for Cancer Research 100th Annual Meeting 2009. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/04/mutation-prediction-by-mri.html Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:00:00 GMT For the past decade, researchers have tried to tweak cells at the gene and nucleus level to reprogram their identity. Now, working on the idea that the signature of a cell is defined by molecules called messenger RNAs, which contain the chemical blueprint for how to make a protein, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, School of Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering have found another way to change one cell type into another. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/04/rna-cell-reprogramming.html Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:00:00 GMT Gerard Schellenberg, PhD, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has received an $18.3 million five-year grant from the National Institute on Aging, a division of the National Institutes of Health, to lead a genome-wide association (GWA) study to identify genes that may affect risk of Alzheimer’s disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/04/alzheimers-genetic-markers.html Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:50:00 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 A collaboration of University of Pennsylvania and University of Wisconsin chemists and anesthesiologists have identified a fluorescent anesthetic compound that will assist researchers in obtaining more precise information about how anesthetics work in the body and will provide a means to more rapidly test new anesthetic compounds in the search for safer and more effective drugs. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/04/fluorescent-anesthetic.html Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:50:00 GMT A new federally funded University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study aims to learn whether women at high risk of breast cancer can use exercise to meaningfully reduce their risk of getting the disease. Building on evidence that reducing estrogen in the body reduces cancer risk, and that elite female athletes experience a drop in estrogen levels that often cause them to stop ovulating and menstruating, the WISER Sister trial will investigate two different levels of regular treadmill exercise as a possible intervention for breast cancer risk reduction. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/04/exercise-breast-cancer-prevention-trial.html Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:40:00 GMT Even when their products are implicated in harm to patients, manufacturers of healthcare information technology (HIT) currently enjoy wide contractual and legal protection that renders them virtually 'liability-free,' writes Ross Koppel, Ph.D., of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, in the March 25th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.The current system needs to be changed so that all liability does not rest entirely with physicians, nurses, hospitals, and clinics, even when these users of faulty HIT scrupulously follow vendor instructions, according to Dr. Koppel's piece, co-authored with David Kreda, a software designer. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/hit-liability.html Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:00:00 GMT Using design and engineering principles learned from nature, a team of biochemists from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have built – from scratch – a completely new type of protein. This protein can transport oxygen, akin to human neuroglobin, a molecule that carries oxygen in the brain and peripheral nervous system. Some day this approach could be used to make artificial blood for use on the battle field or by emergency-care professionals. Their findings appear in the most recent issue of Nature. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/proteins-by-design.html Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:30:00 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 Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have engineered transplantable living nerve tissue that encourages and guides regeneration in an animal model. About 300,000 Americans suffer peripheral nerve injuries every year, in many cases resulting in permanent loss of motor function, sensory function, or both. But there are insufficient means for repair, according to neurosurgeons. "We have created a three-dimensional neural network, a living conduit in culture, which can be transplanted en masse to an injury site," explains senior author Douglas H. Smith, MD, Professor, Department of Neurosurgery and Director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at Penn. Smith and colleagues have successfully grown, transplanted, and integrated axon bundles that act as ‘jumper cables’ to the host tissue in order to bridge a damaged section of nerve. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/nerve-regeneration.html Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:10:00 GMT Within the crowd of 144 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine medical students, spouses, and children eager to learn where they have been accepted for their residency program on Match Day, the next generation of medical leaders is already emerging. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/match-day.html Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:00:00 GMT For years, researchers have known that under normal conditions, the breast cancer protein BRCA1 orchestrates the repair of damaged DNA, but the details of just how BRCA1 moves to the damaged site and recruits the right nuclear repairmen for DNA restoration remains a mystery. Now, a new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has identified genes associated with the BRCA1 protein and their involvement in the DNA repair pathway, helping to clear the way for researchers to better understand what goes wrong when the BRCA1 gene is mutated and the repair pathway goes haywire. Identifying patients with mutations in these BRCA1-associated genes may help better fight breast cancer. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/brca-associated-gene.html Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:30:00 GMT Although most Americans live close to some type of emergency room, as many as one in four Americans are more than an hour away from the type of hospital that’s most prepared to save their life during a time-sensitive medical emergency, according to a new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study published in the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine. Since little is known about which U.S. hospitals are best equipped and staffed to tackle emergent illnesses like stroke, cardiac arrest, heart attack and the severe bloodstream infection sepsis, many more Americans may be in peril because no system exists to transport them to the right hospital at the right time. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/emergency-care-access.html Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:30:00 GMT A test capable of confirming or ruling out Alzheimer’s disease has been validated and standardized by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. By measuring cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of two of the disease’s biochemical hallmarks – amyloid beta42 peptide and tau protein – the test also predicted whether a person’s mild cognitive impairment would convert to Alzheimer’s disease over time. Researchers were able to detect this devastating disease at the earliest stages, before dementia symptoms appeared and widespread irreversible damage occurred. The findings hold promise in the search for effective pharmaceutical therapies capable of halting the disease. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/csf-alzheimers-biomarker.html Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a master switch that might prevent cancer cells from metastasizing from a primary tumor to other organs. The switch is a protein that, when in the "on" position, maintains the normal character of cells that line the surface of organs and body cavities. These epithelial cells are the type of cell from which most solid tumors arise. However, when the switch is turned "off" or absent, epithelial cells acquire characteristics of another cell type, called mesenchymal cells, and gain the ability to migrate and move away from the primary tumor. The researchers report their findings in this month’s issue of Molecular Cell. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/esrp-molecular-switch.html Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:00:00 GMT The human brain's sensitivity to unexpected outcomes plays a fundamental role in the ability to adapt and learn new behaviors, according to a new study by a team of psychologists and neuroscientists from the University of Pennsylvania. Using a computer-based card game and microelectrodes to observe neuronal activity of the brain, the Penn study, published this week in the journal Science, suggests that neurons in the human substantia nigra, or SN, play a central role in reward-based learning, modulating learning based on the discrepancy between the expected and the realized outcome. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/learning-unexpected.html Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:30:00 GMT New research has found that heavy drinking and being near off-premise alcohol outlets, such as take-out establishments and delis, can increase the risk of gun violence. Reducing the density of off-premise alcohol outlets and better training of servers in these outlets, may help to reduce gun violence, according to a new study published in the May issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 'Strategies to reduce gun violence often focus on the guns themselves,' said Charles C. Branas, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania and corresponding author for the study. 'While most Americans agree that gun violence is something we need to reduce, there is less certainty as to how we should intervene while striking a balance between gun owners’ rights and public safety.' http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/alcohol-gun-violence-risk.html Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:25:00 GMT Sick or injured African-American patients wait about an hour longer than patients of other races before being transferred to an inpatient hospital bed following emergency room visits, according to a new national study published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine. The authors say the findings underscore the urgency to find equitable, cost-effective solutions to provide better care in the nation’s emergency departments, which are already strained by unprecedented crowding and more visits from the nation’s uninsured population, which is expected to balloon toward 55 million people in the next decade. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/racial-disparities-ed-wait-time.html Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:35:00 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 study conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and colleagues, and published in Reproductive Toxicology, found that maternal exposure to C8, a chemical used in the manufacture of non-stick surfaces, was not associated with either lowered birth weight or increased risk of preterm birth in Little Hocking, Ohio area residents. These findings are based on an examination of the vital records of newborns in Washington County, Ohio who were exposed to significant amounts of C8 through residential drinking water. Although C8 was not associated with lowered birth weight or increased risk of preterm birth, the authors noted that additional research is still required to confirm these findings and to investigate other potentially adverse health effects of C8 on fetal and childhood development.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/c8-exposure-risk.html Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:30:00 GMT Over the next five years, Joel M. Gelfand, MD, MSCE, Assistant Professor of Dermatology and Associate Scholar in the Center of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, will receive funding from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to study the relationship between psoriasis, cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular outcomes. This research will build a deeper understanding of the relationship between inflammatory diseases like psoriasis and myocardial infarction (heart attack), potentially paving the way for improved disease management strategies for the over 7 million Americans with psoriasis. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/psoriasis-associated-risks.html Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:30:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the University of Connecticut have pinpointed the source of immature cells that spur misplaced bone growth. Unexpectedly, the major repository of bone-forming cells originates in blood vessels deep within skeletal muscle and other connective tissues, not from muscle stem cells themselves. The work also shows that cells important in the inflammatory response to injury trigger skeleton-stimulating proteins to transform muscle tissue into bone. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/fop-bone-growth-cells.html Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:30:00 GMT A University of Pennsylvania team has completed the first successful demonstration of a noninvasive optical device to monitor cerebral blood flow in patients with acute stroke, a leading cause of disability and death. The study is part of a $2.8 million, five-year Bioengineering Research Partnership grant from the National Institutes of Health and the University of Pennsylvania Health System Comprehensive Neuroscience Center. Principal investigator Arjun Yodh, professor of physics in the School of Arts and Sciences at Penn is joined by Rick Van Berg from the High Energy group of the Department of Physics and clinical collaborators John Detre, MD, Associate Professor of Neurology and Radiology, Joel Greenberg, PhD, Research Professor of Neurology and Scott Kasner, MD, MSCE, Associate Professor of Neurology in the School of Medicine at Penn. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/03/monitoring-brain-blood-flow.html Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:20:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have unlocked the mystery of a puzzling human disease and gained insight into cardiovascular development, all thanks to a big-hearted fish. Mark Kahn, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, graduate student Benjamin Kleaveland, and colleagues report in the February issue of Nature Medicine that a human vascular condition called Cerebral Cavernous Malformation (CCM) is caused by leaky junctions between cells in the lining of blood vessels. By combining studies with zebrafish and mice, the researchers found that the aberrant junctions are the result of mutated or missing proteins in a novel biochemical process, the so-called Heart-of-glass (HEG)-CCM pathway. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/02/heg-ccm-pathway.html Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:00:00 GMT Two-thirds of patients referred for psychiatric services following an emergency room visit are likely to reach only an answering machine when they call for help, compared to about 20 percent of patients calling medical clinics with physical symptoms. Only 10 percent of all calls to mental health clinics in nine U.S. cities resulted in an appointment scheduled within two weeks, according to a new University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine study published in Annals of Emergency Medicine. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/02/psych-referral-access.html Tue, 24 Feb 2009 20:35:00 GMT If you ever argued with your mother when she told you to get some sleep after studying for an exam instead of pulling an all-nighter, you owe her an apology, because it turns out she's right. And now, scientists are beginning to understand why.In research published this week in Neuron, Marcos Frank, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, postdoctoral researcher Sara Aton, PhD, and colleagues describe for the first time how cellular changes in the sleeping brain promote the formation of memories. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/02/sleep-memory-formation.html Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:00:00 GMT Researchers have generated altered immune cells that are able to shrink, and in some cases eradicate, large tumors in mice. The immune cells target mesothelin, a protein that is highly expressed, or translated in large amounts from the mesothelin gene, on the surface of several types of cancer cells. The approach, developed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), shows promise in the development of immunotherapies for certain tumors. The study appears online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/02/mesothelin-targeting.html Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:00:00 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 For years controversy has surrounded whether electronic medical records (EMR) would lead to increased patient safety, cut medical errors, and reduce healthcare costs. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered a way to get another bonus from the implementation of electronic medical records: testing the efficacy of treatments for disease.  http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/02/emr-study-drug-efficacy.html Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:00:00 GMT A connection between genetic and environmental causes of Parkinson’s disease has been discovered by a research team led by Aaron D. Gitler, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Gitler and colleagues found a genetic interaction between two Parkinson's disease genes (alpha-synuclein and PARK9) and determined that the PARK9 protein can protect cells from manganese poisoning, which is an environmental risk factor for a Parkinson’s disease-like syndrome. The findings appear online this week in Nature Genetics. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/02/parkinsons-manganese.html Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:00:00 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 Studies at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine on brain electrical signaling offer a fresh perspective on vertebrate evolution, provide additional evidence supporting Darwinian views of evolution, and may also lead to more effective treatment of epileptic seizures in infants. Researchers discovered how evolutionary changes produced a series of improvements in molecules generating electrical signals in nerves between 550 and 400 million years ago. By making nervous systems faster and smarter, these innovations appear to have contributed to the evolutionary success and diversity of vertebrate animals. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/01/evolution-epilepsy.html Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:00:00 GMT Many breast cancer survivors give low marks to the post-cancer care they receive from their primary care physicians, who generally serve as a patient’s main health care provider after they’re released from active treatment with their oncologists, according to a new study from the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/01/cancer-survivorship.html Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:00:00 GMT A research team led by Nancy Speck, PhD, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has identified the location and developmental timeline in which a majority of bone marrow stem cells form in the mouse embryo. The findings, appearing online this week in the journal Nature, highlight critical steps in the origin of hematopoietic (or blood) stem cells (HSCs), says senior author Speck, who is also an Investigator with the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at Penn. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/01/blood-stem-cell-development.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:00:00 GMT Efforts to fight the toll of cardiac arrest have typically focused on pre-hospital factors -- bystander CPR education and improvement, public defibrillation programs, and quicker EMS response. But new research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine reveals that the hospital where patients are cared for after being resuscitated plays a key role in their chances of survival following these incidents, which take the lives of more than 300,000 Americans each year. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/01/cardiac-arrest-survival.html Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:00:00 GMT Racial disparities in end of life cancer care may be caused by a preference for continuing aggressive treatment – a decision that blocks enrollment in hospice care – according to a study by Jessica Fishman, PhD and David J. Casarett, MD, MA, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, and colleagues. In this study, African-Americans patients with cancer were less willing to give up treatment, compared with white patients. In addition, African-American patients reported greater needs for hospice services (i.e. counselor, respite care, chaplain, nurse), despite the fact that their cancer treatment preferences would exclude them from most hospice programs. The study, published early online this week by CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, indicates that the eligibility criteria for hospice services should be reconsidered. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2009/01/racial-disparities-hospice.html Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:00:00 GMT More drafts usually mean a better product and so it also seems to go with the human immune system. As B cells develop, genes rearrange to allow their antibodies to recognize different foreign invaders or pathogens. But sometimes antibodies are created that recognize and attack the body’s own cells. These self-reactive antibodies, like early drafts of a manuscript, must be edited into safer versions. This process is called receptor editing and is important for central or early B cell tolerance, which occurs while B cells are still developing in the bone marrow. A research team led by Nina Luning Prak, M.D., Ph.D, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has discovered that this editing process may go awry in people with certain types of autoimmune diseases. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/12/b-cell-editing-autoimmune.html Mon, 22 Dec 2008 20:00:00 GMT Two faculty members of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). mThe new Penn Medicine AAAS Fellows are: Yvonne Paterson, PhD, Professor of Microbiology: For distinguished contributions to the field of cancer research, particularly for her pioneering work in immunotherapeutic and for her institutional leadership as Director of Postdoctoral Programs; and Susan R. Weiss, PhD, Professor of Microbiology: For distinguished contributions to viral pathogenesis, specifically elucidating the determinants of mouse corona virus tropism and virulence in the central nervous system and liver. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/12/aaas-fellows-paterson-weiss.html Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:00:00 GMT Psoriasis – a common skin disease characterized by thickened patches of inflamed, scaly skin – is associated with an increased risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular conditions, especially when skin disease is severe, according to research by Joel M. Gelfand, MD, MSCE, Assistant Professor of Dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. An editorial consensus paper on the topic is published in the December 15th issue of the American Journal of Cardiology. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/12/psoriasis-cardiovascular.html Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:30:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered stem cells in the esophagus of mice that were able to grow into tissue-like structures and when placed into immune-deficient mice were able to form parts of an esophagus lining. The investigators report their findings online this month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/12/esophagus-tissue-growth.html Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:00:00 GMT Penn Presbyterian Medical Center is the only hospital in Philadelphia to be selected as one of the nation's "100 Top Hospitals" for cardiovascular care by Thomson Reuters, a leading news and information company. Each year, this award for cardiovascular services objectively measures performance on key criteria at the nation’s top-performing acute-care hospitals. This is the sixth year that Penn Presbyterian has been recognized with this honor. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/12/penn-presbyterian-top100-cardiac.html Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:30:00 GMT A new study from the Abramson Cancer Center and Department of Psychiatry in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine shows that smokers who carry a particular version of a gene for an enzyme that regulates dopamine in the brain may suffer from concentration problems and other cognitive deficits when abstaining from nicotine – a problem that puts them at risk for relapse during attempts to quit smoking. The findings, newly published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, pave the way to identify novel medications to treat nicotine addiction. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/12/genetic-nicotine-addiction.html Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:00:00 GMT During the busy holiday season, three Penn Medicine locations will pause to remember the friends, family and loved ones by lighting trees in their honor. Penn Wissahickon Hospice, a division of the Penn Home Care and Hospice Service and part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, holds the Light Up a Life ceremony annually to honor the people who have brightened and enriched the lives of others. Each light on the tree is dedicated in honor or memory of a patient, friend or loved one. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/12/light-up-events.html Mon, 01 Dec 2008 18:00:00 GMT A research team led by Mitchell Lazar, MD, PhD, Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has discovered a key molecular partnership that coordinates body rhythms and metabolism. Lazar and his colleagues, including the study’s first author, Penn Veterinary Medicine doctoral student Theresa Alenghat, studied a protein called NCoR that modulates the body’s responses to metabolic hormones. They engineered a mutation into mice that prevents NCoR from working with an enzyme that is normally its partner, HDAC3. These animals showed changes in the expression of clock and metabolic genes, and were leaner, more sensitive to insulin, and on different sleep-wake cycles than controls. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/11/hdac-rhythm-metabolism.html Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:00:00 GMT Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found an association between the genetics of donor-recipient matches in kidney transplants and complications during the first week after transplantation. The team, led by Malek Kamoun MD, PhD, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Director of the Clinical Immunology and Histocompatibility Laboratory, and Harold Feldman MD, MSCE, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, has shown that small differences in the building blocks of cell-surface proteins used to match donors and recipients for deceased-donor kidney transplantation was associated with an increased risk for delayed allograft function, or DGF. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/11/genetic-match-transplant.html Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT Haig H. Kazazian, Jr., M.D., Seymour Gray Professor of Molecular Medicine in Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, received the American Society of Human Genetics’ (ASHG) Allan Award at the Society’s 58th Annual Meeting, which was held this month in Philadelphia. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/11/kazazian-ashg-allan-award.html Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:30:00 GMT PENN Medicine announced today the creation of the Clyde F. Barker Transplant House, a 'home away from home' designed to help ease the unique economic and emotional stresses of transplant families. Modeled after the Ronald McDonald Houses and named for the physician who performed the first kidney transplant at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 1966, the Barker Transplant House will be located at 3940 Spruce Street on Penn's campus and will offer comfortable, convenient accommodations in a supportive community setting - all at a nominal cost. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/11/transplant-house-dedication.html Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT Flip open any biology textbook and you're bound to see a complicated diagram of the inner workings of a cell, with its internal scaffolding, the cytoskeleton, and how it maintains a cell’s shape. Yet the fundamental question remains, which came first: the shape, or the skeleton?Now a research team led by Phong Tran, PhD, Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has the answer: Both. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/11/cytoskeleton-cell-shape.html Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT Michael P. Nusbaum, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, will receive over $2.7 million over the next seven years from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) to understand how a fundamental aspect of molecular signaling in the nervous system, called neuromodulation, modifies sensory-motor integration to enable a single neural network to generate the appropriate coordinated movement in different contexts. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/11/nusbaum-javits-neuroscience-award.html Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT Blending the comforts of home with first-class end-of-life care, Penn Hospice at Rittenhouse, a division of Wissahickon Hospice and part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, will open its doors for terminally ill patients this week in Center City Philadelphia. The first inpatient hospice of its kind in the area, the facility offers 12 large, private rooms, a spa center, meditation area and panoramic views of the city. Patients will receive exemplary care from a specialized team of physicians, nurses, social workers, counselors and chaplains to manage pain symptoms and other physical, emotional and spiritual needs unique to patients in their final days. Families will be able to spend time with their loved ones 24 hours a day, and will have access to a family lounge with wireless internet, a dining room with full kitchen as well as respite and bereavement support. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/11/penn-hospice-rittenhouse.html Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT Results of a new study call into question recent clinical guidelines issued by leading cardiovascular groups, including the American Heart Association, which recommend patients with cardiovascular disease be screened for signs of depression and treated accordingly. The study, published in the November 12 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association and conducted by an international team of researchers including James Coyne, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, determined that there is no clear evidence that depression screening plays a conclusive role in improving cardiovascular patients' health. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/11/cardiovascular-depression-screening.html Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT A novel protein marker has been found that identifies rare adult liver stem cells, whose ability to regenerate injured liver tissue has the potential for cell-replacement therapy. For the first time, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine led by Linda Greenbaum, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, have demonstrated that cells expressing the marker can differentiate into both liver cells and cells that line the bile duct. http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/news/News_Releases/2008/11/liver-stem-cell-marker.html Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:00:00 GMT