Freeze, image, cure
Researchers are capturing images of the biology inside our cells using cryogenic electron microscopy to inform how we understand and treat disease.
Cancer care for the mind and spirit
A program where cancer patients can get free mental health care addresses an underrecognized need: that cancer’s deepest wounds are often not physical.
Latest articles
How cryoEM creates new views of life and medicine
Seeing the mechanisms of disease with cryoEM
Understanding how a disease starts and gets going is essential to finding treatments—and imaging with cryoEM and cryoET is leading to such insights.
Zooming into drug discovery with cryo-microscopic science
Penn is at the forefront of using close-up imaging techniques to suggest new ways to match drugs to biological receptors like a key with a lock.
Biological insights of the future come from cryoEM today
Structural biologists are now more clearly seeing fundamental mechanisms of how cells function in the human body and across many forms of life.
Innovations in medical education
On a mission to transform medical education
From precision education to AI, two new leaders are exploring innovative ways to train tomorrow’s doctors.
Can AI tools help train a more effective physician?
Penn Medicine is leveraging emerging technology to strengthen clinical reasoning skills and patient care among medical students and residents.
Penn Medicine to redesign physician training with landmark gift
The gift sparks curriculum transformation, new lectureship, and names Entrepreneurship Pathway in honor of alumnus Rod Wong, M03.
The human dimension of health care
She helps patients find their words to cast a spell on cancer
Even before she experienced cancer herself, Deborah Burnham, PhD, had a knack for “magical” prompts to help cancer patients write through their illness.
One of the first, still foremost: Penn Bioethics marks 30 years
Three decades of training leaders and driving research that defines ethics in health care, policy, and innovation were honored with a national award.
Addressing ‘whole person care’ as part of cancer treatment
The Abramson Cancer Center’s legacy of holistic care is the foundation for cancer care and research that aims to become a model for the world.
At the forefront of medical discoveries past, present, and future
X-ray plates from 1896 give a snapshot of Penn’s place in history
A pair of early X-ray plates represent the beginning of a revolution in medicine that began at Penn.
Transformative times, transformative leaders: an oral history
Penn Medicine’s eminence today traces back to decades-ago investments in people, places, and uniting in the purpose of academic medicine.
Four Penn studies named among nation’s top clinical research advances
Perelman School of Medicine papers win Clinical Research Forum’s 2026 Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Awards, highlighting the power of federal funding for science.
People of Penn Medicine
Healer, educator, advocate: Meet Dr. Florencia Polite
At home and overseas, Florencia Polite, MD, is on a mission to help patients and physicians understand how RSV vaccines protect newborns.
Penn’s future doctors build trust on the streets
Penn medical students are forging connections with those experiencing homelessness and shining a light on the transformative power of street medicine.
Maximizing access to science with Donita Brady, PhD
The 2026 recipient of the ASBMB Ruth Kirschstein Award for Maximizing Access in Science shares her approach to creating opportunities for all.
Breathtaking biomedical advances
With the gift of hands comes feeling like ‘a whole human’
Getting Luka Krizanac new hands took 16 years, a connection between a surgeon and his mentor, and surgeries on two continents.
How discoveries become cures, in a virtuous cycle
Public investments in biomedical research have an outsized effect, driving new scientific insights, economic growth, and ultimately treatments and cures.
World’s first patient treated with personalized CRISPR therapy
In a historic medical breakthrough, a child with a rare genetic disorder has been successfully treated with a customized CRISPR gene editing therapy.
Getting patients to the right care in the right place
PennSTAR delivers critical care in the air, across the region
For PennSTAR, Penn Medicine’s critical care transport service, any given day brings a new opportunity to save lives—at high speed and altitude, anywhere they’re needed across the region.
Right place, right care
Penn Medicine is building better systems that help patients build health care around their lives instead of their lives around health care.
Hospital capacity management teams are making space for miracles
Behind the scenes, it takes smart capacity management systems to serve patients who need nothing less than the most advanced health care available anywhere.
Development matters
Ushering in a bold new era of Immune Health discovery
A reimagined facility has been introduced as the epicenter for pioneering Penn research aimed at “breaking the immunological code” of autoimmune diseases and bringing them to heel.
Penn, CHOP launch Lurie Autism Institute with $50 million gift
A $50 million gift from the Lurie family to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine will launch the Lurie Autism Institute to drive autism research.
A transformational gift to accelerate Penn Medicine care
The Pavilion will be renamed to recognize Catherine and Anthony Clifton’s historic philanthropic commitment that will usher in a new era of innovation.
Stopping cancer at every step
Keeping cancer conquered
Penn Medicine research is bringing the “sleeper” phase of cancer to light—creating hope that more cancers could be wiped out for good and never come back.
Sleeper cells: the science of cancer dormancy
Penn researchers have spent decades detecting where tumor cells lurk after treatment in hopes of finding them in time to stop cancer from coming back.
Volunteering for cancer research: an act of love
The Basser Center for BRCA is running an innovative cancer interception clinical trial that depends on volunteers with deep, personal ties to cancer.
The reimagineers transforming health care
The reimagineers of Penn Medicine
Penn Medicine is harnessing technology, innovation, and physician insights to make health care easier for clinicians and patients.
The tinkerer-turned-tech leader
Mitchell Schnall, MD, PhD, is using his insights from technology in radiology to solve problems and scale up changes in the health system.
The connected, creative innovator
Nearly two decades into her tenure at Penn, Raina Merchant, MD, leads teams transforming health care for better patient, clinician, and community experiences.
With greenery and justice for all
Health, greenery, and justice for all
Reversing racial inequities is a full-force effort rooted in research that includes gardens and parks, financial support, and lifting up local community members.
A large-scale research study of health, wealth, and greening
Combining economic assistance with greening initiatives in a randomized trial, IGNITE aims to show how to reverse the harms of racial injustice in health.
‘We are all Deeply Rooted’
Deeply Rooted is a community partnership that plants trees, greens vacant lots, and funds grassroots programs. The goal: health justice in action.
Penn Medicine goes green
How Penn Medicine is going green for good health
To improve health while addressing climate change, Penn Medicine aims to become the most environmentally friendly health care system in the country.
Penn teams address climate impacts in the operating room
From rethinking anesthesia gases that have outsized greenhouse effects, to medical waste disposal, Penn Medicine is reducing the climate impacts of surgery.
Health research on a warming planet
Climate change affects health, from viral transmission to the effectiveness of medications. Penn researchers are discovering how and seeking solutions.