Penn is Making History -- every day

Penn's Center for Neuroscience and Society: The Brains Behind Brain Science

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Penn Nursing Science: A Leader for Change in U.S. Healthcare

Penn Nursing is making history -- with a new model of patient care (based on nurse-conducted research) that will impact the nation's healthcare and budget.

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From National Public Radio:

Here's a number that tells you a lot about what's wrong with the American health care system: When older patients get discharged from a hospital, 1 out of 5 of them will go right back within a month. Medicare pays $17 billion a year on these hospital readmissions. And in many cases, coming back should have been avoidable.

Mary Naylor is trying to change that. She started the Transitional Care Model at the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia. A nurse with advanced training in geriatrics is assigned to an elderly patient while he is in the hospital and then follows the patient, with frequent visits and contact, over two or three months to help him manage his own care.

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Young Penn Alum, Helen Lu, Receives Presidential Honor

Penn people are making history -- again.

This time, it's a young Penn alumna, Helen H. Lu, who received her BSE, MSE, and PhD from Penn and who is now an associate professor at Columbia University's Department of Biomedical Engineering.

From Columbia's website:

Helen H. Lu has received the nation’s highest honor for young scientists.

Associate Professor Helen H. Lu of the Department of Biomedical Engineering has been selected to receive the nation’s highest honor for scientists at the outset of their professional careers. She is one of 12 National Institutes of Health-nominated winners of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

In announcing the awards, President Barack Obama said, "These extraordinarily gifted young scientists and engineers represent the best in our country. With their talent, creativity, and dedication, I am confident that they will lead their fields in new breakthroughs and discoveries and help us use science and technology to lift up our nation and our world."

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Ten for Penn: Shelley Berger Named Penn's 10th PIK Professor

Shelley L. Berger, a world-renowned genetics researcher, was named the 10th Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professor.

   what is a PIK Professor?

Known for her research in epigenetics -- the study of genetic changes caused by factors other than genes -- Berger will integrate knowledge from the disciplines of genetics and biochemistry to study critical diseases in her new role as the Daniel S. Och University Professor.

"Shelley Berger is revolutionizing our understanding of genetic information" Gutmann said. "Her work is intrinsically interdisciplinary and holds tremendous potential for not only treating devasting diseases such as cancer, but also preventing them entirely."

Berger will hold appointments in the School of Medicine's Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and the School of Arts and Sciences' Department of Biology. SAS Dean Rebecca Bushnell and Medical School Dean Arthur Rubenstein both emphasized that Berger will be teaching both graduate and undergraduate students. 

"It's a great home run for Penn, for medicine, for arts and sciences, and for the University," said Amy Gutmann. "Her research and her teaching are both truly path-breaking."

    news release | news article

The Daniel S. Och University Professorship is the gift of Jane and Daniel S. Och. He is a Penn alum, a University Trustee, serves on the Wharton Undergraduate Executive Board and mentors Penn students through the Jewish Heritage Program.

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Penn Medicine's Emmy-Winning Film Puts Alzheimer's Disease on Prime Time

"Americans should see this film, their jaws should drop and they should quake in their boots," says Dr. John Q. Trojanowski, Director of Penn's Institute on Aging.

Terminator 4? Monsters vs. Aliens?

No, something more dramatic -- and real: Alzheimer's Disease: Facing the Facts.

Facing the Facts, which premiered on PBS in January and won a regional Emmy® in May, is a hard-hitting documentary conceived by Trojanowski to deliver a powerful wake-up call: America's ever-growing Alzheimer's population threatens to overwhelm both the health care system's ability to care for these patients and the country's ability to pay.

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