Right across the street from where you went when you got MERTed, the smartest nerdz in the nation are actually contributing to society. Penn gets more than twice as much National Institute of Health (NIH) funding as those Harvard dummies, and there's some pretty cool shit going on. Since we're no longer Playboy's #1 party school (Ed. note: tear), here's some legitimately amazing stuff to brag about next time you see your parents or annoying pre–med friends from home.
A New Way to Mend a Broken Heart
Heart disease has been the #1 killer in the US for a pretty long time. And while Ben & Jerry’s will always be there for you after a rough breakup, ice cream is prob not the best post–heart attack treatment. Luckily, researchers at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine here at Penn discovered a microRNA cluster (little molecules made from similar stuff as DNA) that can help repair and regenerate injured heart cells after heart attacks. A simple shot was enough to alter the way different genes were expressed. Scientists have been trying to grow cells on a plate and put them back onto someone’s heart, but this new method is a hell of a lot easier.
When Tylenol Doesn’t Cut it Cuz Your Fever is Dengue
With almost 400 million infections per year (more than the entire population of the US) in over 100 countries, the mosquito–spread dengue fever (DF) has become a major global health crisis. Unlike most viruses that at least give you immunity, a DF infection leaves patients more vulnerable to another infection by the other strains. This puts a kink in creating an effective vaccine, which usually includes a weakened form of the virus. Researchers in the Gene Therapy and Vaccine Program found a way to work around this by injecting a specific DNA plasmid into muscle like a shot. The plasmids quickly express neutralizing antibodies, which protect from both original and later infections. This efficient, cost–effective and innovative vaccine could have a huge impact on millions of at–risk people all over the world. Jury’s still out on if it causes autism, though. I’m sure the researchers will get back to us on that one ASAP.
ACT UP, Fight Back, Fight AIDS
HIV’s rapidly mutating genetic code makes it extremely tricky to develop medication for it. Some smarties over at the med school decided to take a different route than most and target amyloid fibrils. These protein bits in semen make HIV more infectious. The researchers found a different protein that clusters and degrades the amyloid fibrils, preventing HIV infection. With help from some other researchers, they also found a tweezer–like molecule that not only works against those fibers, but also disrupted the viral membrane of HIV. This feature of the tweezers makes them a great candidate to target the similarly enveloped herpes and hepatitis C viruses. While there have been great strides in prevention and treatment of HIV, these inexpensive and less specific interventions (and so will work for more strains of HIV) could have life–saving implications.
