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UrduPenn Medicine experts have worked with local partners to improve health care in Botswana for years. Now, a new $3.5 million grant from the NCI will help further that work by addressing one of Botswana’s most serious health challenges: cervical cancer.
Tag: Penn Medicine
South Jersey’s First Proton Therapy Center Previews New Facility
Two renowned health systems are bringing the most advanced form of radiation treatment to cancer patients in South Jersey, with the creation of the Penn Medicine |Virtua Health Proton Therapy Center in Voorhees, N.J.
Penn Medicine CAREs Grants Fuel Community Support—From STEM Education to Alzheimer’s Disease Caregiver Respite
Thirty initiatives were supported by Penn Medicine CAREs grants this past quarter, along with programs to provide caregiver respite and encourage STEM education.
$50 Million Gift to Accelerate Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Penn Medicine
A $50 million gift from Stewart and Judy Colton will accelerate the existing Colton Center for Autoimmunity at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine into an internationally leading center of autoimmune research and treatment with a dedicated space, powerful recruitment capabilities, scientific resources, and more. This gift builds on a $10 million gift from the Coltons, which established the Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Penn in the fall of 2021.
Penn Research Finds Psoriasis Medication Apremilast Leads to Fat Loss in People with Psoriasis
Apremilast (brand name Otezla) has helped psoriasis patients achieve clearer skin and ease the symptoms of their psoriatic arthritis. Now, new data from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania shows it could also help people with psoriasis shed unhealthy body fat and therefore improve cardiovascular health, a well-known vulnerability for those with psoriasis.
Over 10 Years of CAREs—Penn Medicine Continues to Support Staff Giving Back in the Community
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.
Tribeca Film Festival to Debut Documentary Tracing the Path to Penn Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Transformative, Personalized Cancer Therapy
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.
Grand View Health and Penn Medicine Extend Strategic Alliance Until 2027
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.
Penn’s Florencia Greer Polite, MD, Named to 2022 Carol Emmott Fellowship Class
Florencia Greer Polite, MD, chief of the Division of General Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has been selected for the 2022 Carol Emmott Fellowship class by the Carol Emmott Foundation, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to achieving gender equity in healthcare leadership and governance.
Penn Medicine’s Pavilion Marks a Healthcare ‘First’ with Prestigious LEED Gold Building Certification for Sustainability
Penn Medicine’s new Pavilion on the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s campus has broken new ground for sustainable healthcare construction and design with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Healthcare Gold Certification.
Creating Green Space and Supporting Student-Athletes – 22 Community Programs Receive Grants Through Penn Medicine CAREs
This quarter, 22 projects will receive Penn Medicine CAREs funding. From leading local park cleanups to providing student-athlete support, employees across Penn Medicine volunteer their time and resources to strengthen the communities they serve, supported by the CAREs program.
Penn Medicine Serving Up Hospitality, Healthy Cafe Options at New Pavilion
Visitors and staff at Penn Medicine’s new Pavilion, opening this October, will have food and drink options that include national celebrity chef Tom Colicchio’s Root & Sprig and Philadelphia coffee guru Thane Wright’s Bower Cafe.
Hospitals with More Inpatient Nurse Practitioners Linked to Better Outcomes, More Satisfied Patients
According to a new study published today in Medical Care, hospitals that employ more inpatient nurse practitioners (NPs) have lower surgical mortality, higher patient satisfaction, and lower costs of care. Nurse practitioners are registered nurses (RNs) with advanced graduate education and expanded legal scope of practice to prescribe treatments including pain medications.
2022 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Awarded to Penn Medicine mRNA Pioneers Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó
PHILADELPHIA – It was a scientific discovery 16 years ago that paved the way for creation of lifesaving vaccines when the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe in 2020. Now, the two Penn Medicine researchers behind the findings are again being recognized for their innovative and monumental work, which has ushered in a new era of vaccine technology.
Penn Presbyterian Medical Center Trauma Division Launches Partnership with United States Navy
Representatives from Penn Medicine and the United States Navy will sign a unique agreement today marking the start of a three-year partnership to integrate members of the Navy with the Trauma Division at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC). The program, known as the Naval Strategic Health Alliance for Readiness and Performance, is designed to provide sustained experiences in all aspects of trauma care – from surgery to anesthesiology to nursing – in one of the nation’s busiest trauma centers. The eleven Navy team members bring a wealth of experience with multiple deployments around the globe that will promote new approaches and knowledge across both civilian and military healthcare.
Penn mRNA Researchers Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó Awarded the 2021 Albany Prize
PHILADELPHIA – For their landmark research that set a foundation for the mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, the Roberts Family Professor of Vaccine Research, and Katalin Karikó;, PhD, an adjunct professor of Neurosurgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and a senior vice president at BioNTech, have been selected to receive the 2021 Albany Prize.
Penn Medicine Discovery Clarifies the Problem of T-Cell “Exhaustion”
Researchers have discovered a limitation of the immune system in battles against cancers or viruses: T cells remain programmed to stay exhausted even weeks after exposure to a virus ended. Scientists need to take this “T cell exhaustion” into account when devising immune-based therapies.
New Approach for Cell Therapy Shows Potential Against Solid Tumors with KRAS Mutations
A new technology for cellular immunotherapy developed by Abramson Cancer Center researchers at Penn Medicine showed promising anti-tumor activity in the lab against hard-to-treat cancers driven by the once-considered “undruggable” KRAS mutation, including lung, colorectal, and pancreatic.
Basser Center for BRCA Awards 2021 Basser Global Prize to National Cancer Institute’s Andre Nussenzweig
The Basser Center for BRCA at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, the world’s first comprehensive center aimed at advancing research, treatment, and prevention of BRCA-related cancers, has announced Andre Nussenzweig, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as the recipient of the ninth annual Basser Global Prize. Nussenzweig serves as branch chief of the Laboratory of Genome Integrity in the NCI’s Center for Cancer Research.
Pulling Wisdom Teeth Can Improve Long-Term Taste Function
Patients who had their wisdom teeth extracted had improved tasting abilities decades after having the surgery.
Penn Medicine to Use $1M from City of Philadelphia for Additional Community Vaccination Clinics
Penn Medicine will continue its collaboration with the West and Southwest Philadelphia communities to operate a series of COVID-19 vaccine clinics in partnership with community organizations, faith-based institutions, restaurants, barbershops, and even professional sports teams thanks to $1 million in funding from the City of Philadelphia, in partnership with PMHCC.
Penn Medicine Hospitals Ranked #50 Globally on Newsweek’s “World’s Best Smart Hospitals 2021” List
The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC) rank #27 in the United States and #50 globally on Newsweek’s World’s Best Smart Hospitals 2021, which ranks the 250 best medical institutions that are leading the field in smart technologies, like digital surgery, imaging, artificial intelligence, telehealth and electronic medical records. Results are based on worldwide recommendations from medical professionals.
Black and White Women Have Same Mutations Linked to Breast Cancer Risk
The prevalence of genetic mutations associated with breast cancer in Black and white women is the same.
Penn Medicine at the 2021 ASCO Meeting
Researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania will be presenting data on the latest advances in cancer research and treatment at American Society of Clinical Oncology virtual annual meeting, including new findings on minority health, immunotherapy, and…
Low on Antibodies, Blood Cancer Patients Can Fight off COVID-19 with T Cells
Antibodies aren’t the only immune cells needed to fight off COVID-19 — T cells are equally important and can step up to do the job when antibodies are depleted, suggests a new Penn Medicine study of blood cancer patients with COVID-19 published in Nature Medicine.
Penn Nursing-led Philly Team Awarded $1.4 Million NIH Grant to Expand COVID-19 Outreach
José A. Bauermeister, PhD, and Antonia M. Villarruel, PhD, are leading one of 10 new research teams from across the country that received National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants totaling $14 million to extend the reach of the NIH’s Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities. The Philly CEAL team was awarded $1.4 million from the NIH with additional support from Penn Nursing and The University of Pennsylvania, bringing the total for the alliance to $1.53 million.
28 Community Programs Receive Grants Through Penn Medicine CAREs Program
Penn Medicine CAREs awarded grants to 28 projects, many of which aim to fill vast needs in the community created by the COVID-19 pandemic, while others seek to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Rapid COVID-19 Diagnostic Test Delivers Results Within 4 Minutes With 90 Percent Accuracy
A low-cost, rapid diagnostic test for COVID-19 developed by Penn Medicine provides COVID-19 results within four minutes with 90 percent accuracy. A paper published this week in Matter details the fast and inexpensive diagnostic test, called RAPID 1.0. Compared to existing methods for COVID-19 detection, RAPID is inexpensive and highly scalable, allowing the production of millions of units per week.
Penn Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to Host Symposium on the Future of Cell and Gene Therapies
Penn Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) will host a virtual event on May 6 and 7 that will bring together cell and gene therapy leaders from the two institutions and around the world to discuss the latest achievements in the field, novel strategies, and future developments and applications for chimeric antigen receptor, CAR, T cell therapy and more.
Less is More for the Next Generation of CAR T Cells
Penn Medicine researchers discovered that less is more when it comes to the length of what is known as the single-chain variable fragment in CAR T cells.
Penn Medicine’s Shelley L. Berger, PhD, and M. Celeste Simon, PhD, named 2021 Fellows of the AACR Academy
World-renowned genetics researcher Shelley L. Berger, PhD, and cellular biologist M. Celeste Simon, PhD, have been named as members of the 2021 class of fellows of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy.
Hormone Drugs May Disarm COVID-19 Spike Protein and Stop Disease Progression
Hormone drugs that reduce androgen levels may help disarm the coronavirus spike protein used to infect cells and stop the progression of severe COVID-19 disease, suggests a new preclinical study from researchers in the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania and published online in Cell Press’s iScience.
Five Years Later: Penn-developed CAR T Therapy Shows Long-lasting Remissions in Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas
A significant number of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients in a Penn Medicine-initiated clinical trial continue to be in remission five years after receiving the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy Kymriah™, researchers in Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The Scarred Villain: Study Explores Neurocognitive Basis of Bias Against People Who Look Different
A new brain-and-behavior study from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania clarifies how the “anomalous-is-bad” stereotype manifests, and implicates a brain region called the amygdala as one of the likely mediators of this stereotype.
Penn Medicine Opens the Largest Healthcare Sterilization Facility in the Country
Penn Medicine opened its new Interventional Support Center (ISC), the largest instrument processing and surgical supply preparation facility in the country. Located in Southwest Philadelphia, the ISC is the first facility of its kind in Pennsylvania. In this space, staff will both sterilize and package thousands of instruments each day in preparation for surgeries and procedures.
Penn Medicine Partners with Renowned Artist Maya Lin for Art Installation Ahead of 2021 Opening of Hospital on Penn’s West Philadelphia Campus
Penn Medicine’s Pavilion, one of the largest hospital projects underway in the United States and the largest capital project in the University of Pennsylvania’s history, will feature an art installation by renowned artist and designer Maya Lin. The artwork—tentatively titled “DNA Tree of Life”—will be on display in the atrium of the new state-of-the-art facility, set to open later this year.
Mutations Commonly Linked to Breast Cancer Found to Pose No Increased Risk, Population Study Reveals
Several genetic mutations previously linked to breast cancer and included on commercial genetic tests, including direct-to-consumer tests, were found not to increase a woman’s risk of disease, according to a population study of more than 64,000 women published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine from several institutions, including Penn Medicine.
Penn Medicine Surgeons Develop Universal Patient-Reported Outcomes Tool to Improve Hernia Care
Penn Medicine researchers have successfully developed, tested, and implemented a first-of-its-kind, patient-informed questionnaire tool for ventral hernia repair surgery patients that could be broadly used to improve the way clinicians care for patients and potentially outcomes.
Post-ICU Interviews Reveal Outcomes Important to Patients, Families
A Penn Medicine study in American Journal of Critical Care offers insights into patients’ and families’ priorities for quality metrics during the ICU stay and postdischarge outcomes. Researchers conducted interviews with individual ICU survivors, as well as family caregivers of patients who survived and of patients who died.
New Biomarker Identifies Patients with Aggressive Lymphoma Who Don’t Respond to Precision Therapy
A new biomarker discovered by a team that includes researchers from Penn Medicine identifies patients with an aggressive form of lymphoma unlikely to respond to the targeted treatment ibrutinib.
CRISPR-edited CAR T Cells Enhance Fight Against Blood Cancers
Knocking out a protein known to stifle T cell activation on CAR T cells using the CRISPR/Cas9 technology enhanced the engineered T cells’ ability to eliminate blood cancers.
Penn Medicine Researchers Unlock the Door to Tumor Microenvironment for CAR T Cells
Combining chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy with a PAK4 inhibitor allowed the engineered cells to punch their way through and attack solid tumors, leading to significantly enhanced survival in mice.
Penn Medicine and Comcast/Independence Health’s Quil Come Together for Digital Patient Education
Internationally recognized leaders in health care and connectivity partner with Quil platform to customize and enhance care and patient education through video and digital communication
Penn Medicine and Virtua Health Extend Strategic Alliance to 2023
Penn Medicine and Virtua Health announced the renewal of their strategic alliance in cancer and neuroscience services for another three years. The collaboration, which first began in 2015, has enabled South Jersey residents to access comprehensive health care closer to home from a cross-disciplinary team of Penn and Virtua clinicians.
What Fuels the Beating Heart? Study Reveals Nutrients Used by Normal and Failing Hearts
A team led by Penn scientists produced a detailed picture of fuel and nutrient use by the human heart. The study was the first of its kind, involving the simultaneous sampling of blood from different parts of the circulatory system in dozens of human participants, in order to record the levels of related molecules going into and coming out of the beating heart.
Penn Medicine Scientists Engineer Bacteria-Killing Molecules from Wasp Venom
A team led by Penn Medicine has engineered powerful new antimicrobial molecules from toxic proteins found in wasp venom. The team hopes to develop the molecules into new bacteria-killing drugs, an important advancement considering increasing numbers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria which can cause illness such as sepsis and tuberculosis.
Offering a Pay-for-Performance Program to Oncology Practices Increases Prescriptions of Evidence-based Cancer Drugs
A pay-for performance program that offers enhanced reimbursement to oncology practices for prescribing high-quality, evidence-based cancer drugs increased use of these drugs without significantly changing total spending on care, Penn Medicine researchers report in a new study published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Penn Medicine Researchers Receive Prestigious National Institutes of Health Director’s Awards
The NIH selected two researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania to receive its Director’s Awards, part of the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program. Brian Litt was honored with a Pioneer Award, supporting his novel neurodevice research. Gregory Corder was selected as a New Innovator Award winner for research investigating the mechanisms of chronic pain.
Penn Researchers Receive Grant to Use AI to Improve Heart Transplant Outcomes
Researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania were awarded a $3.2 million grant from the NIH to enhance research for improving heart transplant outcomes for patients. The four-year grant will fund a project exploring the use of AI-driven analysis to determine the likelihood of cardiac patients accepting or rejecting a new heart.
Gender Parity in Heart Failure Research: More Female Authors Could Mean More Female Participants
Representation of women leading heart failure research remains limited, according to new research led by Penn Medicine. The authors say the findings point to a need to support great gender diversity among researchers to drive diversity among clinical trial participants and even improve patient outcomes.