Michele Volpe has been named the University of Pennsylvania Health System’s new Chief Operating Officer, following 23 years as CEO of Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC).
With super-resolution imaging, Penn Medicine researchers discovered that cells change the physical structure of their genome when they’re affected by disease
Aiming to advance the nation’s telehealth research agenda and improve cancer-related care and outcomes, with support from the White House Cancer Moonshot, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania is one of four institutions nationally to receive a five-year, $5.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, for a new research center to develop and test advanced methods of telehealth delivery for cancer care with a focus on promoting health equity.
Data published in Cell Metabolism on liver cancer’s rapid growth which leads to a vulnerability in its energy-production and cell-building processes that may be potently exploited with a new combination-treatment strategy, according to a study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Penn Medicine hospitals have once again been ranked among the top in the nation by U.S News & World Report. The combined enterprise of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center is ranked #13 in the nation for the second year in a row, and appear on the magazine’s prestigious annual Honor Roll for the 16th consecutive year. HUP/PPMC is also ranked as the top hospital in Pennsylvania and #1 in the Philadelphia metro area in the 2022 survey. Lancaster General Hospital also garnered impressive honors, again ranking #4 in Pennsylvania.
Medication therapy based on the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1(GLP-1) may help regulate natural insulin production in cystic fibrosis, potentially offering a better way to prevent and ultimately manage diabetes than daily insulin injections
New research shows that parents are open to talking about gun safety measures with their children’s pediatricians and willing to change firearm storage practices
Building on Penn Medicine’s years of research and use of imaging technology that illuminates tumor tissue—helping clinicians more easily detect and remove it—the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has received a five-year, $9 million research grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to push the field forward, particularly for lung cancer patients.
The historic scientific breakthrough at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that helped lead the world’s fight against COVID-19 through mRNA-based vaccines is being commemorated through a non-fungible token—a digital asset to be auctioned by Christie’s—that will support ongoing research at Penn.
Over the last 10 years, the Penn Medicine CAREs grant program has supported staff, faculty, students, and trainees across the organization in helping their communities. This quarter, 36 community programs received funding.
The Pew Charitable Trusts has named Maayan Levy, PhD, an assistant professor of Microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, a 2022 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences. The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Alexander and Margaret Stewart Trust have also selected Alexander Huang, MD, an assistant professor of Hematology-Oncology, and Chengcheng Jin, PhD, an assistant professor of Cancer Biology, as 2022 Pew-Stewart Scholars for Cancer Research. John James Tello Cajiao, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, has been named a 2022 Pew Latin American Fellow in the Biomedical Sciences.
A study examining pain and prescription use among hip fracture patients compared outcomes among those who had spinal anesthesia and those who had general anesthesia
A stress protein that is overactive in many types of tumor cells also has a key role in tumor-supporting cells called fibroblasts, and may be a good target for future cancer treatments, suggests a study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Penn Medicine will offer free cancer screenings and risk assessments on Sunday, June 12 at a local health fair in Southwest Philadelphia at the William C. Bryant Promise Academy, 6001 Cedar Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19143., and mammographies from Jun 12 - 24, weekdays, for free, no insurance required, same location.
The behind-the-scenes story detailing the pursuit of a transformative cancer cure will unfold onscreen at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City this weekend. “Of Medicine and Miracles,” which will premiere during the renowned international festival, is an emotional journey, revealing decades of research – and one young patient’s family’s last hopes to save their daughter – that culminated in the world’s first CAR T-cell therapy, an approach that reprograms patients’ own immune cells to kill their cancer.
In August 2018, Penn Medicine and Grand View Health set a vision to develop collaborative services at Grand View Hospital in an effort to provide comprehensive care that kept patients closer to home. Four years later, the relationship is flourishing, with programs in Cancer (including Radiation Oncology), Trauma, Neurosciences, and Orthopaedics. Early this month, the two organizations signed a renewal of their strategic alliance for five more years.
A combination of chemotherapy with an immunotherapy meant to unleash the anticancer capacity of the immune system was effective against one of the hardest targets in cancer care, pancreatic cancer, in a national, randomized clinical trial led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and sponsored by the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.
With a vision to strategically bridge the gap between pediatric and adult care for individuals with Williams syndrome, a $25 million gift from Michael R. Armellino, W’61, will establish the Armellino Center of Excellence for Williams Syndrome to serve as a model for coordinated care across the lifespan, as well as to provide social support and pioneer research for individuals with the genetic condition.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded its approval for a personalized cellular therapy developed at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center, this time for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma (FL) after two or more lines of systemic therapy. The accelerated approval was granted today to Novartis for the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy Kymriah® (tisagenlecleucel), making it the third indication for the nation’s first personalized cellular therapy for cancer. It remains the only CAR-T cell therapy approved for both adult and pediatric patients.
Penn Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), who together pioneered the research and development of the world’s first personalized cellular therapy for cancer — also known as CAR T cell therapy — have announced plans with Costa Rica’s CCSS, or the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (Social Security Program), to facilitate CAR T research in Costa Rica.
Researchers at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania have found a way to identify lung cancer at the cellular level in real time during a biopsy, offering promise in the ability to detect the disease earlier and with more confidence. The research is published this week in Nature Communications.
The first bladder cancer drug targeting a cancer-driving gene mutation has been used relatively little despite its clear efficacy in a clinical trial, suggests a JAMA Oncology study led by the University of Pennsylvania. Researchers analyzed a large, nationwide database of cancer cases and found that bladder cancer patients potentially eligible for erdafitinib (Balversa) treatment, fewer than half had a record of being tested for the relevant gene mutation. Of those who were tested and found to have the mutation, fewer than half received the treatment.
A six-year study of nearly 100,000 women in Botswana has provided new evidence that relatively inexpensive daily diet supplementation of iron, folic acid and vitamin supplementation in pregnancy can reduce complications at birth.
The Penn Urban Health Lab, along with 13 community and faith-based organizations, will launch Deeply Rooted, a community-driven program to promote health equity and environmental justice in Black and brown neighborhoods in West and Southwest Philadelphia. Penn Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s (CHOP) Healthier Together Initiativeare the initial funders for Deeply Rooted, while the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society serves as the lead strategic greenspace implementation partner.
As COVID-19 necessitated the wider adoption of telemedicine, the rate of completed primary care visits for Black patients rose to the same level of non-Black patients, Penn Medicine study finds
Study finds that patients of orthopaedic and urologic procedures were more likely to dispose of their extra opioid tablets when they received kits in the mail to do so
Through analyzing human DNA samples in a large biobank, Penn Medicine researchers found associations between genetic variants with severe COVID and conditions involving blood clots and respiratory issues
A generous $10 million gift from the Abramson Family Foundation will help ensure Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center remains on the leading edge of cancer research and care. In recognition of the gift, the lobby of Penn's new Pavilion will be named in memory of the late Madlyn K. Abramson, who passed away in 2020.
Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, has been appointed to a second five-year term as director of the Abramson Cancer Center (ACC) at the University of Pennsylvania, following a highly successful tenure that saw 17 FDA approvals in oncology for therapies based on studies led or co-led by ACC investigators, high-impact basic and translational research discoveries, expansion of radiation oncology services to new sites across the Philadelphia region, and development of new methods for live tumor imaging during surgeries.
Already checked regularly for worsening symptoms via automated text messages, COVID-19 patients with pulse oximeters in a home monitoring program had similar recovery to those without them.
A TE-NMI in vitro and reinnervated muscle fiber after delayed nerve repair following TE-NMI excision. PHILADELPHIA— Researchers engineered the first injectable microtissue containing motor and sensory neurons encased in protective tissue, called tissue engineered neuromuscular interfaces (TE-NMIs). The TE-NMI neurons provide a source of axons to muscles in rats who suffered nerve injuries, and “babysit” the muscles to prevent degeneration and loss of function, while the damaged nerve regrows.
Black patients presenting at Emergency Departments (EDs) across the country with psychiatric complaints are 63 percent more likely to be chemically sedated than their white counterparts. But researchers also found that, at hospitals that serve a majority of Black patients, white patients were more likely to be chemically sedated for psychiatric complaints when compared to hospitals that predominantly serve white patients.
Penn Medicine’s hospitals have been honored by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation in the 15th edition of the Healthcare Equality Index released this week.
A new approach from Penn Medicine researchers could cut the time it takes to alter patients’ immune cells for infusion back into the body to find and attack cancer. The cell manufacturing process for this type of immunotherapy that was pioneered at Penn — CAR T cell therapy — typically takes nine to 14 days. In a pre-clinical study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a team in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania abbreviated this process and generated functional CAR T cells with enhanced anti-tumor potency in just 24 hours.
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells can be remarkably effective in treating leukemias and lymphomas, but there are no successful immunotherapies for neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) and gastrointestinal cancers (GICs) yet. Researchers at Penn Medicine have discovered that CAR-T cells directed to a tumor antigen, CDH17, a cell surface marker expressed on both NETs and GICs but also found on healthy tissues, eliminated GICs in several preclinical models without toxicity to normal tissues in multiple mouse organs, including the small intestine and colon. The results from this study, the first to target CDH17 in neuroendocrine tumors, suggest a new class of tumor associated antigens accessible to CAR-T cells in tumors but sequestered from CAR-T cells in healthy tissues.
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC) rank #15 in the United States and #53 globally on Newsweek’s “World’s Best Hospitals 2022,” which ranks 2,200 hospitals in 27 countries based on their consistent excellence, innovation and top talent. The combined enterprise of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center is the highest-ranked Pennsylvania hospital on the national list and the state’s only hospital to make the global list.
Tracing the impact of a single protein, Piezo1, Penn researchers found that restoring it in muscles affected by Duchenne muscular dystrophy could improve their ability to heal efficiently
Patients who undergo facial surgery think their surgical scars look worse than surgeons and independent observers do, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
A mouse study detailed the differences between the two forms of the protein PPARgamma, a target of thiazolidinedione, or glitazone, diabetes drugs, could cut out weight gain side effects
This past quarter, 33 projects from employees across Penn Medicine who volunteer to support their communities were awarded CAREs grants. Since 2012, the CAREs Grant program has provided more than $820,000 in funding to over 800 service initiatives across the regions Penn Medicine serves.
While gene mutations can lead to drug resistance, researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have identified an important, non-genetic adaptation that could also drive resistance to targeted therapy in T cell leukemia, a type of blood cell cancer.
With more than $12 million in new funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania will build on its preclinical research of an emerging form of radiation that provides ultra-fast doses—of under a second, compared to several minutes with conventional radiation—and shows promise of greater protection of normal tissue, thereby minimizing toxic effects to the body.
Combining the drug brequniar with remdesivir or molnupiravir — both approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use — inhibited the SARS-CoV-2 virus in human respiratory cells and in mice, according to a new study published in Nature.
Developed to address the often-difficult task of coordinating care between teams, CareAlign was voluntarily adopted by 94 percent of inpatient services