Penn Medicine magazine

Discover extraordinary advances in medical science, transformations of health care, and the people driving change, in stories from the Perelman School of Medicine alumni magazine.
Exterior of Pennsylvania Hospital Pine Building with a statue of William Penn

Where 275 years of medical history come to life

The future of medicine grows from understanding its past, and Pennsylvania Hospital’s museum brings that history to life in a milestone anniversary year.

Hongjun Song, PhD, and Guo-li Ming, MD, PhD, relaxed sitting in an office with plants

A meeting of the minds drives discovery in the brain

Using organoids as models of human brains and brain cancer, Hongjun Song, PhD, and Guo-li Ming, MD, PhD, are making major scientific advances together.

Latest articles

Resetting brain circuits

New advances in technologies that stimulate the brain are breaking down boundaries between neurological and psychiatric treatments.

Helping patients regain the power of speech

Integrated clinical and research efforts at Penn are addressing the major unmet need for better solutions for aphasia and other communication losses.

America’s oldest hospital and the future of brain science

Growing from its origins in progressive mental health care, Pennsylvania Hospital is shaping the future of advanced care for neurological diseases.

Comprehensive clinics simplify care for neurological diseases

Complex diseases are best treated by comprehensive care teams—a paradigm that makes a difference for patients with neurological disorders.

Owner of the broken hearts

Penn Medicine’s repository of diseased and damaged heart tissues is fueling research discoveries to improve cardiac health.

Resetting brain circuits

New advances in technologies that stimulate the brain are breaking down boundaries between neurological and psychiatric treatments.

Helping patients regain the power of speech

Integrated clinical and research efforts at Penn are addressing the major unmet need for better solutions for aphasia and other communication losses.

America’s oldest hospital and the future of brain science

Growing from its origins in progressive mental health care, Pennsylvania Hospital is shaping the future of advanced care for neurological diseases.

Comprehensive clinics simplify care for neurological diseases

Complex diseases are best treated by comprehensive care teams—a paradigm that makes a difference for patients with neurological disorders.

Owner of the broken hearts

Penn Medicine’s repository of diseased and damaged heart tissues is fueling research discoveries to improve cardiac health.

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Breathtaking biomedical advances

A person texting on their phone in a hospital room

AI platform allows patients to text with their medical device

With a new AI platform, patients communicate with medical devices in real time, receive alerts, ask questions, and better manage their condition.

  • October 13, 2026
Alexander Lin and an advanced practice provider standing in front of a proton treatment room

Penn launches first advanced proton therapy clinical trial

The new form of proton therapy is called FLASH and is designed to deliver cancer-killing radiation therapy in less than a second.

  • September 1, 2026
Exterior rendering of the Middleman Center at Penn Medicine

Middleman gift accelerates Penn Medicine breakthroughs

The gift establishes the Middleman Center and Middleman Fund to advance promising discoveries and speed new treatments to patients.

  • September 10, 2026
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Service in action for community health

Kent Bream checking student Jaisen Smith’s blood pressure in a school gym

A new playbook for community care

Penn Medicine is helping student-athletes stay in the game while expanding access to care where it is needed most.

  • Lydia Moore-Hill
  • September 22, 2026
A group of people in gardening clothes in front of a large wooden fence

Planting seeds, growing leaders: Teens explore health justice

From planting to event planning, the LeadIN program teaches Philly teens about environmental justice and leadership skills.

  • Meredith Mann
  • September 16, 2026
Sunny Vespico hands a woman a box containing a gun safe at a handout event in Delaware County. In the foreground is a poster displaying more information about the program.

A gun safety effort that doesn’t stop at the front door

Because safety matters inside the hospital and beyond, Penn Medicine across the region is connecting communities with gun locks, safes, and guidance. 

  • Kris Ankarlo
  • July 16, 2026
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Development matters

Leonard and Madlyn Abramson at a Philly Fights Cancer fundraiser

Honoring a renowned businessman and dedicated philanthropist

On July 4, 2026, Penn Medicine lost a true friend who helped shape the face of cancer research and care, Leonard Abramson.

  • October 30, 2026
Dolores Hambardzumyan using a pipette in a lab

Foundational gift establishes Troiano Brain Tumor Center

Troiano gift launches $35M Penn Medicine initiative, establishing the Troiano Brain Tumor Center and advancing brain tumor research.

  • October 29, 2026
Penn Medicine and Howley Foundation leaders at a 2026 event

$12 million expands Howley ASPIRE Nurse Scholars Program

$12 million from the Howley Foundation will expand educational opportunities for high schoolers while strengthening the region's nursing workforce.

  • October 20, 2026

Transforming health care delivery

A measles-precaution sign on a glass medical facility door

Prepared to meet the new measles moment

As vaccine-preventable illnesses re-emerge, Penn Medicine is prepared—and committed to keeping patients, staff, and communities healthy and safe.

  • Abby Alten Schwartz
  • September 8, 2026
Penn Nursing Students Samantha Strasser and Simone Snead wearing scrubs and stethoscopes walk along a tree-lined neighborhood street, talking as they travel between in-home patient visits

Linking senior care and companionship

Senior HealthLink, a program pairing seniors with nursing students for regular check-ins, shows that sometimes just showing up is the best medicine.

  • Kris Ankarlo
  • October 5, 2026
Two people in lab coats, one watching as the other holds tweezers over a test tube

A model global health academic partnership flourishes in Botswana

Beyond its AIDS-crisis origins, the Botswana-UPenn Partnership has achieved an expansive vision of health care, access to innovations, and education.

  • Meredith Mann
  • July 7, 2026

Medicine meets personal passions

Alex Pfister dancing in a white lab coat

The neurologist choreographing joy

As a physician and a dancer, Alex Pfister is challenging the notion that medicine and the arts belong in separate worlds.

  • Daphne Sashin
  • October 28, 2026
Hansell Stedman stands on cross-country skis on a snowy path

Where peak performance meets progressive disease

A muscle science lab draws on personal experience at the extremes—world-class athleticism and muscular dystrophy—in seeking a safer gene therapy.

  • Wynne Parry
  • February 19, 2026
Deborah Burnham has led the Writing a Life group since 2015

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.

  • Daphne Sashin
  • February 4, 2026

People of Penn Medicine

Pari Pandharipande smiles behind a shelf of vintage glass X-ray vacuum tubes

From the first X-rays to AI

As Penn Radiology chair, Pari Pandharipande takes a people-first leadership style to embrace change and streamline operations across the region.

  • Darcy Lewis
  • November 5, 2026
Jamie Shuda sitting at her desk, looking at BioEYES journals, with drawings and notes on her office wall in the background

Small fish, big impact

“Every kid can do science.” That’s the mission of Jamie Shuda, who has expanded Penn Medicine’s STEM community outreach programs.

  • Julie Wood
  • September 9, 2026
Florencia Polite speaking with a pregnant patient

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.

  • Meredith Mann
  • November 12, 2025
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Perelman School of Medicine alumni in the national spotlight

Neha Vapiwala with the Clifton Center in the background

How to grow at every stage of your medical career

Neha Vapiwala, MD, offers lessons for finding purpose throughout one’s professional journey in medicine.

  • Meagan Raeke
  • September 21, 2026
Amol Navathe, MD, PhD, sitting in a park with trees in the background

Penn health economist on shaping Medicare’s future

Amol Navathe takes the helm as chair of MedPAC, which advises Congress on Medicare policy affecting millions of Americans.

  • Eric Horvath
  • June 12, 2026
A collage of headshots of Scott D. Halpern, Paula Chatterjee, and Katalin Susztak

Three Penn Medicine faculty receive national ACP awards

National awards honor three Penn Medicine faculty for contributions to behavioral medicine, health policy, patient care, and scientific discovery.

  • October 5, 2026

At Pennsylvania Hospital, 1751 meets the future of medicine

Old illustration of the exterior of the Pennsylvania Hospital Pine Building

The history of Pennsylvania Hospital’s Pine Building

The original structure of the nation’s first chartered hospital—home to early mental health and maternity care—is a living symbol of innovation.

  • Julie Wood
  • May 7, 2026
Stacey Peeples standing in her office, looking at shelves of books and artifacts

Preserving Pennsylvania Hospital’s history ‘never gets old’

Stacey Peeples oversees the archives of the nation’s first chartered hospital, home to a nearly three-hundred-year collection of medical artifacts.

  • Julie Wood
  • May 7, 2026
Exterior of Pennsylvania Hospital Pine Building with a statue of William Penn

Where 275 years of medical history come to life

The future of medicine grows from understanding its past, and Pennsylvania Hospital’s museum brings that history to life in a milestone anniversary year.

  • Julie Wood
  • May 7, 2026

Explore past issues’ cover stories

Nicholas Palmer, wearing a face shield and thick gloves, pours cold liquid nitrogen from a jug into a vessel with a snowflake symbol in a coolly lit lab

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.

  • Catherine Zandonella
  • February 9, 2026
A line illustration of house- and hospital-shaped buildings on a colorful background

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.

  • Kris Ankarlo
  • October 14, 2025
Illeana Casiano-Vazquez, smiling and relaxed at home

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.

  • Kirsten Weir
  • May 20, 2025

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