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.
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. The technology may herald the next generation of active, flexible, implantable devices for applications in cardiology and neurology.
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.
Researchers have found that one particularly aggressive type of blood cancer, mixed lineage leukemia, 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.
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 that will be published online February 24.
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.
The severe shortage of specially-trained intensivist physicians has hospital intensive care units (ICUs) nationwide struggling to staff units with critical care teams led by intensivists. A new Penn Medicine report found that replacing intensivist-led teams with multidisciplinary care teams can also reduce the risk of dying in intensive care units.
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.
Experts from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine are available to offer expert medical insight and commentary during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver on issues ranging from the effects of performance enhancing drugs to concerns about the spread of novel H1N1, head trauma and more.
Researchers have found that three different degenerative brain disorders are linked by a toxic form of the same protein. Elk-1 was found in clumps of misshaped proteins that are the hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. This suggests a molecular link between the presence of inclusions and neuronal loss that is shared across a spectrum of neurodegenerative disease. Identifying these links could open up novel avenues for therapeutic intervention.
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.
A new 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.
On Monday, January 25th “Penn Medicine Team One” – the first medical team from Penn Medicine to fly to Haiti - left from Philadelphia to provide expert medical care in Haiti.
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 -- the so-called "weekend effect" -- 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.
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.
A minimally invasive surgical approach developed by head and neck surgeons at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine has 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.
Researchers 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.
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.
An international team of scientists 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.
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.
Researchers identified a small molecule that inhibits the heat shock protein HSP70. They also showed that the HSP inhibitor, called PES, could stop tumor formation and significantly extend survival of mice.
Researchers demonstrate 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.
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.
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.
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 uncovered 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.
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 study published in Cell. The new data 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.
Researchers have discovered a molecular circuit involving the oxygen-carrying component of hemoglobin -- heme -- that helps maintain proper metabolism in the body, providing new insights into metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes. This happens through a molecular pathway that allows the cell to monitor and adjust internal heme levels via Rev-erbα, creating more when heme levels fall, and slowing it down when levels rise.
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.
A tissue-repair-and-regeneration pathway in the human body, including wound healing, is essential for the early lung to develop properly, researchers found. Genetically engineered mice fail to develop lungs when two molecules in this pathway, Wnt2 and Wnt2b, are knocked out.
Errors in cell division can cause mutations that lead to cancer, and a new study could shed light on the role of chromosome abnormalities in uncontrolled cell replication. They uncovered the molecular players and mechanism underlying a little-studied stage of cellular division called Anaphase B.
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.
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.
A new class of molecules capable of blocking the formation of specific protein clumps that are believed to contribute to Alzheimer's disease pathology has been discovered by researchers. By assaying close to 300,000 compounds, they have identified drug-like inhibitors of AD tau protein clumping.
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 cardiovascular disease. The answer is a process known as protein unfolding.
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 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 represents the first example of how circulating cells may contribute to abnormal bone formation.
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.
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. In a new study, published this week in Science, researchers investigated a trio of cell-signaling pathways that work simultaneously, converging to direct pancreas and liver progenitor cells to mature into their final state.
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.
How molecules of the oldest branch of the human immune system have interconnected has remained a mystery. Now, two 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.
Shelley L. Berger has been named the 10th Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Karen Glanz, a globally influential public-health scholar, has been named the ninth Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Older women suffering from clinical frailty stand to benefit from the first potential medical treatment for the condition. Ghrelin, a hormone that stimulates appetite, was administered to older women diagnosed with frailty, characterized by unintentional weight loss, weakness, exhaustion and low levels of anabolic hormones which increases risk of falls, hospitalizations, disability, and death.
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 challenges standard assumptions on the timing of when mobile DNA, so-called jumping genes, insert into the human genome.
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.
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, researchers have found that a common anti-diabetic drug might enhance the effectiveness of vaccines.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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