The Legend of Frances Houston
James Widerman C’66 shares a touching memory of how biomedical librarian Frances Houston helped his father, Arnold H. Widerman C’33 M’37, obtain books for his classes.
Hope for Katherine Belle
How one family’s journey through the realm of rare disease led them to the newest frontier of precision genetic medicine.
FDA Approves First Gene Therapy for Cancer
FDA approval for Penn-developed gene therapy for cancer.
Science and Error
A history of unripe findings and unintended consequences.
Strange Brotherhood
The hidden chapter of wartime human experimentation in the DKE house.
UV versus C. Diff
Finding: UV light can reduce C. diff infections.
States Worse Than Death
Patient preferences diverge from standard measures of care quality.
Chasing Miracles
The author wanted to know why the stem-cell treatments that worked so well for her hobbled dog aren’t being used to put the spring back in humans’ steps. Researchers at Penn’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine explained—and shared some of their own, measured, progress toward successful therapies.
A $2 Genetic Test for Zika
Penn researchers develop a $2 genetic test for Zika virus.
New Center for Personalized Immunotherapies
Unveiled: Penn-Novartis Center for Advanced Cellular Therapeutics.
How To Change Your Mind
“Enlightenment is for anyone.”
Our Labs, Our Health?
In Risky Medicine, History and Sociology of Science Professor Robert Aronowitz argues that today’s fixation on diagnosing and managing risk factors rather than treating diseases leads to anxiety and stress, over-diagnosis of conditions and overuse of drugs, and radical treatments that are unnecessary or harmful.
Pulling Weeds
David Casarett used to just say No when his hospice and palliative-care patients asked about using medical marijuana as a treatment or to relieve their symptoms. After researching and writing his new book, Stoned, his answer is “a lot more nuanced.”
The Gift
When a Penn-CHOP team performed the world’s first double hand transplant on a child last summer, the landmark operation generated headlines around the world and young Zion Harvey became a YouTube star. But there’s a lot more to the story.
Baby Mama
After overcoming her own infertility, Melissa Brisman has helped hundreds of couples become parents as a legal entrepreneur in the little-discussed realm of pregnancy for pay.
Plastic Fantastic
Penn Medicine’s Frances E. Jensen is a leader in studying how the brain develops and what that means for learning, behavior, and the treatment of disease at different ages. For her book on the teenage brain, she drew on the latest neuroscience findings—and the experiment going on in her own home.
The Link
As the nation’s first medical school celebrates its 250th anniversary, a look back at how generations of students, faculty, and alumni have served their country, delivered the finest patient care, and advanced medical research and education here in Philadelphia and around the world.
The T-Cell Warriors
Four years after a tentative but tantalizing breakthrough against leukemia, Carl June and Bruce Levine C’84 have gone from the fringes of gene therapy to the center of a revolutionary approach to cancer treatment.
Penn’s Ebola Fighters
They tend to be uncomfortable with terms like “fighter” and “hero,” but it’s hard to know what else to call these alumni and staff volunteers who’ve traveled to the heart of the epidemic to do whatever they can to help its victims.
Life and Death Without Borders
Dan Goldring C’98 W’98 co-chairs Doctors Without Borders’ advisory board.
Leading the Fight Against Childhood Cancer
John Maris M’89 co-leads a “Dream Team” fighting childhood cancers.
Wounded Warriors and the Legacy of WWI
Medical historian Beth Linker on war and the limits of rehabilitation.
A Principled Man
Nathan Mossell M1882 overcame great odds to become the first African-American graduate of Penn’s School of Medicine. He went on to found Philadelphia’s first black hospital—an achievement he never really wanted.
On Doctoring
A physician and bioethicist reconsiders his father’s medical paternalism.