2014

Scientists and clinicians at Penn Medicine and elsewhere have been expanding our knowledge of the harm that football and some other sports can do to the brain – and coming up with ways to detect and treat brain injuries sooner. Concussion has drawn the most attention, but a newer focus is chronic traumatic encephalopathy. In addition, Penn researchers are working on ways to detect and treat traumatic brain injuries caused by battlefield blast waves.

Researchers in the rapidly expanding research field of microbiomics have shown that the human body is home to an entire ecosystem of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microbes. What's more, these microbes play an important role in regulating many of our physiological processes.