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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.

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Daily step counts increased by approximately 1,200 among veterans who were given goals and participated in game-like interventions with loss-framed cash rewards

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Academic articles published by women in high-impact medical journals also have fewer citations than those written by men, especially when women are primary and senior authors, according to new research.

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Patients who had their wisdom teeth extracted had improved tasting abilities decades after having the surgery.

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COVID-19 complicated patient care in a range of ways, from increased incidence of heart attacks to decreased cancer screenings. The virus also caused a six-fold increase in the risk of complications and death among trauma patients, according to new research.

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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.

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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.

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If Black patients were admitted to the same hospitals that serve a majority of White patients, researchers showed their risk of death would drop by 10 percent

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Kellie A. Jurado, PhD, Presidential Assistant Professor of Microbiology, and Colin Conine, PhD, an assistant professor of Pediatrics and Genetics have been named 2021 Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences. Liling Wan, PhD, an assistant professor of Cancer Biology joins the 2021 class of Pew-Stewart Scholars for Cancer Research.

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The prevalence of genetic mutations associated with breast cancer in Black and white women is the same.

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An odor-based test that sniffs out vapors emanating from blood samples was able to distinguish between benign and pancreatic and ovarian cancer cells with up to 95 percent accuracy.

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A small molecule STING agonist was highly protective against the virus that causes COVID-19 and likely other coronaviruses

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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.

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As many as one in three COVID-19 survivors experience a mental health or neurological disorder, adding to a growing body of evidence that show COVID-19 can have serious and potentially long-lasting effects on the brain. The Penn Neuro COVID Clinic aims to assess and treat long-haul COVID patients suffering from neurological symptoms.

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Researchers showed that adding gamification with either competition or support increased physical activity for patients with Type 2 diabetes

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Philadelphia-Based Top Academic Health System Becomes Nation’s Largest to Mandate Vaccination, Calling for Workforce to Set an Example to End the Pandemic

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By sending eligible patients a screening order along with the usual reminder, researchers showed they could double hepatitis C screening rates.

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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.

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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.

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Statins are prescribed to less than half of eligible U.S. patients, and a new study shows time of day may affect doctors’ likelihood of writing a script

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More than two-thirds of pancreatic cancer patients harboring genetic mutations saw their tumor stop growing or shrink substantially after being switched from intensive chemotherapy to the PARP inhibitor rucaparib as a maintenance therapy.

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A gene called GAS2 plays a key role in normal hearing, and its absence causes severe hearing loss, according to a study led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Researchers used microscopy and machine learning to distinguish tau protein aggregates occurring as part of healthy functions from those occurring in disease

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Program established at Penn Medicine to improve support for patients after emergency department visits, helping them recover at home instead of the hospital

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The Pennsylvania Department of Health’s CURE program announced it will award a $3.5M grant to Penn Medicine researchers and community partners to address the underrepresentation of Black adults in Alszheimer’s Disease research. The grant supports the Aging Brain Cohort Dedicated to Diversity (ABCD2) study, a research and training initiative led by David Wolk, MD.

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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.

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Altered neural functioning, like that experienced in patients with Parkinson’s disease, changes the way art is both perceived and valued. People with neurological motor dysfunction demonstrated decreased experiences of motion in abstract art and enhanced preferences for high-motion art, compared to a healthy control group.

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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.

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Piperlongumine, a chemical compound found in the Indian Long Pepper plant, is known to kill cancerous cells in many tumor types. Now an international team including researchers from Penn has illuminated one way in which the piperlongumine works in animal models against glioblastoma.

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Researchers at Penn Medicine have identified more genetic mutations that strongly predispose younger, otherwise healthy women to peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), a rare condition characterized by weakness of the heart muscle that begins sometime during the final month of pregnancy through five months after delivery. PPCM can cause severe heart failure and often leads to lifelong heart failure and even death.

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A retrospective study led by researchers from Penn Medicine found that with MitraClip for treatment of secondary mitral regurgitation (MR), a heart disease associated with problems in the left ventricle, there was no negative effect of having a slightly smaller mitral valve opening as long as there was good reduction of the mitral regurgitation.

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A new gene therapy for one of the most common forms of congenital blindness was safe and improved patients’ vision, according to initial data from a clinical trial.

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A Penn Medicine patient with a genetic form of childhood blindness gained vision, which lasted more than a year, after receiving a single injection of an experimental RNA therapy into the eye.

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Residents in majority-Black neighborhoods experience higher rates of severe pregnancy-related health problems than those living in predominantly-white areas, according to a new study of pregnancies at a Philadelphia-based health system.

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New findings from Penn suggest that people who have recovered from COVID-19 may only need a single mRNA vaccine dose. However, those who did not have COVID-19 did not have a full immune response until after a second vaccine dose, reinforcing the importance of completing the two recommended doses.

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A new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found significant disparities in the use of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, a class of drugs proven to treat type 2 diabetes, with usage remaining low with Black, Asian, and lower-income groups despite an increase in overall usage for patients with type 2 diabetes.

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Real-word evidence is suggesting, for the first time, the most beneficial treatment courses that could help extend the lives of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer.

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Penn Medicine has been selected as one of five sites across the country to serve as a Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response (CEIRR), with the goal of better understanding influenza viruses around the world along with learning about the viral strains that have the potential to cause pandemics. Penn Medicine has been awarded nearly $7 million in first-year funding.

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Humans have a uniquely high density of sweat glands embedded in their skin—10 times the density of chimpanzees and macaques. Now, researchers at Penn Medicine have discovered how this distinctive, hyper-cooling trait evolved in the human genome.

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After a team of researchers showed that a certain enzyme’s presence in cartilage increased significantly in people with osteoarthritis, they targeted it with specially-loaded nanoparticles that stopped the disease’s progression in its tracks.

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Study to compare two Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) Systems, the Medtronic Evolut™ TAVR platform with the Edwards Sapien Valve

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For the first time, researchers led by SU2C “Dream Team” show how CD40 agonist drives an immune response to hard-to-penetrate tumors

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Penn Medicine researchers showed that a new hyaluronic acid hydrogel system can reinforce and seal areas of injured cartilage in animal studies

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Nationwide, the rollout for the COVID-19 vaccine has been inequitable, with white individuals being vaccinated at higher rates compared to Black individuals.

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Among people with opioid use disorder (OUD), more than half have reported contact with the criminal justice system. A new study published today in Health Affairs reveals that Medicaid expansion is associated with substantial improvements in access to medications for OUD. However, the study also reveals that individuals referred for treatment by the criminal justice system were substantially less likely to receive medications for OUD as part of the treatment plan.

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A study published today in Health Affairs documents for the first time that urgent care centers are associated with increased spending for lower-acuity visits across EDs and urgent care centers. Urgent care centers increase the number of people seeking care. For every 37 urgent care visits, one fewer lower acuity ED visit occurs. Urgent care centers increase access, but pose risks for health insurers and patients who must pay these increased costs.