The Research at Penn brochure highlights research and innovations from all of Penn’s 12 schools over the past year. (Photo from Upenn.box.com)
Penn released its annual "Research at Penn" brochure online-only for the first time this year, highlighting research from all of Penn's 12 schools with a special section focused on COVID-19.
The 2021 brochure, written by the Office of University Communications and guided by the Office of the Vice Provost for Research, features groundbreaking research on topics such as the pandemic, cancer treatments, and public policy. Senior Vice Provost for Research Dawn Bonnell said the University is considering making the switch from print to online-only permanent.
Due the pandemic, many traditional funding sources and other resources for research have been directed to COVID-19, Bonnell said. Many researchers in the areas of medicine and engineering also wanted to use their intellectual energy to create short-term solutions to problems created by COVID-19, she added.
The brochure includes a section devoted to COVID-19, featuring a two-page timeline of COVID-19 research at the University.
Research at Penn featured the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a nonpartisan, research-based initiative that examines the economic impact of public policies. In response to the pandemic, PWBM created a Coronavirus Policy Response Simulator that shows health and economic predictions for each state, county, and zip code.
While under normal circumstances it would have been sufficient to rely on government-provided monthly or quarterly surveys about the economy, PWBM Associate Director John Ricco said PWBM had to pivot to using data that is updated more frequently. The fast-paced nature of the pandemic, especially in the first few months, led PWBM to rely on Google searches for unemployment, cell phone mobility, and hourly scheduling software.
Ricco said that in order to understand the impact of the pandemic on the economy, they needed to develop a model that could explain the changing pandemic conditions. This led the team to integrate epidemiological and economic simulations into a singular model.
Ricco added that the pandemic has encouraged researchers to take a more interdisciplinary approach to COVID-19 research.
“I think there was skepticism of that approach among some people because it was viewed as like an intrusion on expertise from other fields," Ricco said. "I don’t see it that way. I think that for something as socially transformative and as infinitely complex as like a pandemic, you do need voices from every field.”
The brochure also included research from Perelman School of Medicine professor Carl June, who recently won the 2021 Dan David Prize for his work on the first United States Food and Drug Administration-approved personalized cellular therapy for cancer treatment.
June and Edward Stadtmauer, section chief of hematologic malignancies at Penn, conducted research demonstrating how the genetic editing tool CRISPR can be used to fight cancer safely.
The research team infused three participants with edited T cells, a type of white blood cell that is important to a human's immune response, and found that the T cells bind to the tumor target with no serious side effects. The study also found that months after being manufactured and infused into the patients, the T cells could still kill cancer cells in a laboratory setting.
Despite the difficulties the pandemic has caused, June said he sees an upside in the increased understanding of science among the general public.
“I think the big benefit of this COVID is that science, the lay public is really getting into it. Now they've heard of immunology and vaccines," June said.
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.
Donate