On a rainy Friday afternoon in September 2011, The Wistar Institute celebrated a landmark occasion. Crowded inside the atrium of Wistar’s historic 1894 building, away from the torrent outside, the Institute made officially public its intent to build a new, seven-story, 89,700-square-foot research tower and renovate significant portions of its existing research complex. The project, estimated to cost more than $100 million, is designed to expand Wistar cancer and vaccine research capabilities, and provide a bold new presence for the Institute.

Breast cancer survivors who carry the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic mutation are at high risk for developing contralateral breast cancer — a new primary tumor in the other breast — and certain women within this group of carriers are at an even greater risk based on age at diagnosis and first tumor status, according to data presented at the 2011 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 6-10, 2011.

Sports used to be a boy’s club. But today women are integral players in the sports world, from your kid’s soccer team to the professional level.

“In half a century, we’ve gone from girls in high schools engaging in one or two play days a year and that counting for their athletic experience to full-blown athletic participation in virtually any sporting activity that a high school or college offers,” says Stephen D. Mosher, professor of sport management and media in the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have likely found one reason why the Ebola virus is such a powerful, deadly, and effective virus. Using a cell culture model for Ebola virus infection, they have discovered that the virus disables a cellular protein called tetherin that normally can block the spread of virus from cell to cell.

A novel protein marker has been found that identifies rare adult liver stem cells, whose ability to regenerate injured liver tissue has the potential for cell-replacement therapy. For the first time, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine led by Linda Greenbaum, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, have demonstrated that cells expressing
the marker can differentiate into both liver cells and cells that line the bile duct.

University of the Sciences is now home to an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), a powerful tool that will not only enable researchers to conduct cutting edge research on campus but will also create new cross-disciplinary projects and initiatives that will benefit student education.

When Lisa A. Lawson, PharmD, came to the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Sciences campus in 1982, she was focused on the job at hand: assistant professor of clinical pharmacy.

“My goal upon arriving at PCP&S was to become an outstanding faculty member in the area of pharmacokinetics, not an administrator,” said Lawson. She focused on her teaching duties, on scholarly activity, and on her practice, which she set up at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center.

Diane Selkirk called from her in-laws’ place in Vancouver, British Columbia, the city she calls home. But as soon as we started talking, she was interrupted by a whisper, then a giggle.

“Here she comes,” says Selkirk, 42, who has a soft voice and the round o’s of a Canadian accent. The ‘she’ is Maia, her freckle-faced 9-year-old daughter. Selkirk asked me to call her back on Skype so we could talk over her computer, and got off the landline so Maia could use it.