News Archive

August 2009 - IRM Scientific Director, Edward Morrisey heads Penn study highlighted this week in Development Cell. Study finds that a tissue-repair-and-regeneration pathway in the human body, including wound healing, is essential for the early lung to develop properly. Genetically engineered mice fail to develop lungs when two molecules in this pathway, Wnt2 and Wnt2b, are knocked out. Read more...
July 2009 - George Daley, MD, PhD agrees to give Keynote Address at the IRM Second Annual Research Symposium scheduled for January 27, 2010
June 2009 - IRM announces call for pilot project proposals. Applications due by
September 14, 2009 To learn more...
June 2009 - Ken Zaret, PhD joins the IRM as Associate Director. Ken comes to Penn from Fox Chase Cancer Center where he was the WW Smith Chair in Cancer Biology and led the Cell and Developmental Biology Program. Ken is an internationally known developmental biologist who has focused on liver and pancreas related research, and the regulation of gene expression.
June 2009 - IRM awards fifteen high school and undergraduates an IRM Summer Internship. Additionally six undergraduates were awarded the Center of Excellence Research Internship.
June 2009 - Regenerative Medicine: Ready to Take the Lead Penn Medicine Magazine's Spring 2009 issue spotlights the Institute for Regenerative Medicine; see pages 16-21. Download PDF »
May 2009 - John D. Gearhart, PhD, IRM Director, is named as a Penn State 2009 Alumni Fellow in recognition of his outstanding professional accomplishments.
April 2009 - IRM Scientists Awarded $2 Million to Create Cardiac Myogenesis Research Center. Penn is one of three medical centers awarded funds by the American Heart Association to study generation of cardiac muscle cells. Learn more...
March 2009 - John Gearhart, IRM Director, speaks about stem cell research and legislation on Harrisburg's WITF Radio. Radio clip »
March 2009 - Carver Science Fair selects nineteen “Bridge to ReBIO” participants as winners of its annual competition. More about the Bridge to ReBIO Project »
March 2009 - John Gearhart, PhD, IRM Director, and Scott Soleimanpour, MD, William Osler Fellow in Medicine, Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism appear on a NBC Nightly News segment about stem cells. News clip »
March 2009 - In continuing coverage of President Obama’s order lifting restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research, John Gearhart, PhD, Director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, participated on a panel discussion on The Diane Rehm Show, National Public Radio. Radio clip »
March 2009 - John Gearhart, PhD, comments in The Guardian (UK) “Better use of space and resources will have a great and immediate effect. That to me is the biggest benefit of this,” said Gearhart. “The conservatives will rally support to slow this down, so on one hand we're celebrating, but there's a way to go yet. This is not a slam-dunk.” Read more...
March 2009 - Jonathan Moreno, PhD, IRM Executive Committee Member, is quoted in USA Today’s coverage "What really is important is that ideology will not drive science," says Moreno, an advocate of stem cell research who has served as leader of the President Obama's Council on Bioethics Review Team. Read more...
March 2009 - Dr. Moreno, PhD, IRM Executive Committee Member, appears on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” discussing the announcement. Read more...
March 2009 - President Obama signed an executive order Monday repealing a Bush-era policy that limited federal tax dollars for embryonic stem cell research. Read more...
March 2009 - First round of of stimulus RFA's announced and the announcement includes stem cell research opportunities. Read more..
February 2009 - NIH announces a Career Enhancement Award for Stem Cell Research (K18) to encourage investigators to obtain the training and career development they need to appropriately use stem cells in their research. Read more...
February 2009 - The Institute for Regenerative Medicine begins accepting applications for its high school and undergraduate summer internship. Read more...
February 2009 - The Institute for Regenerative Medicine begins accepting applications for its Summer 2009 Center of Excellence Research Internship Program. Read more...
February 2009 - John Gearhart, IRM Director, discusses stem-cell legislation on National Public Radio. What's Next for Stem Cell Research?
February 2009 - John Gearhart, IRM Director, quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer regarding President Obama's anticipated executive order removing Bush-era federal funding limits on embryonic-stem-cell research. Read more...
January 2009 - Founding IRM Co-Director, Ralph Brinster and a team of researchers have found that "Just Living with Females Extends the Reproductive Life of the Male Mouse". Read more..
January 2009 - Arthur Caplan, PhD, chair of Medical Ethics and director of the Center for Bioethics, appeared on CNN’s “American Morning” commenting on the FDA’s approval of the first human embryonic stem cell trial. Geron, a US company, is conducting the trial which involves human trials using embryonic stem cells on spinal cord patients. To hear the interviews...
January 2009 - FDA Approves a Stem Cell Trial. In a research milestone, the federal government will allow the world’s first test in people of a therapy derived from human embryonic stem cells. Read more...
January 2009 - University of Pennsylvania, Shanghai Jiao Tong University to Expand Academic, Research Collaborations. The University of Pennsylvania and Shanghai Jiao Tong University today announced an agreement to expand and enhance their ongoing academic and research collaborations, including identifying student and faculty exchanges, development of plans for research collaboration in regenerative medicine, formation of a joint Center of Excellence in Medical Imaging and exploring a jointly sponsored conference on International Financial Market Regulation. Read more...
January 2009 - Molecular origin of blood cells uncovered. A research team led by Nancy Speck, PhD, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (and an IRM Member), has identified the location and developmental timeline in which a majority of bone marrow stem cells form in the mouse embryo. Read more...
December 2008 - Ed Morrisey, IRM Scientific Director, speaks with ABC News regarding tiny foot found growing in a newborn infant's brain Read more...
December 2008 - Penn Study Finds Newly Discovered Esophagus Stem Cells Grow Into Transplantable Tissue Read more...
December 2008 - The International Society for Stem Cell Research Releases New Guidelines to Shape Future of Stem Cell Therapy Read more...
December 2008 - The research of George Cotsarelis, MD, Associate Professor of Dermatology and IRM Executive Committee member, is described in Parade magazine’s new insert called HealthyStyle. The article on hair-loss research mentions that the Cotsarelis lab is now working on compounds that could be applied to a slightly injured scalp to produce the stem cells that create hair follicles. Read more...
November 2008 -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. Read more...
November 2008 - John Gearhart, comments in Reuters about Japanese scientists who have cloned mice whose bodies were frozen for as long 16 years. "There is hope in bringing Ted Williams back, after all," quipped Gearhart in an e-mail. The family of Williams, the Boston Red Sox hitter, had his body frozen by cryogenics firm Alcor after he died in 2002. Gearhart was only half-joking and said the study "may now stimulate the small industry of freezing parts of us before we die to bring us back in the future." The Japanese researchers speculated that it may be possible to use the technique to resurrect mammoths and other extinct species. Read more...
October 2008 - John Gearhart, Director for the Institute, was interviewed on WHYY and commented on the embryonic stem cell policies of the presidential candidates. To hear the interview...
October 2008 - WHYY radio features the Institute for Regenerative Medicine and aired an interview today with Paul Esteso, a Ph.D. student in John Gearhart's lab here at Penn. To hear the interview...
October 2008 - Founding Co-Director of the Instititue for Regenerative Medicine,
Jonathan A. Epstein, M.D., named to prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the nation’s highest honors in biomedicine. Read more...
October 2008 - Over 300 guests registered for the Institute's First Annual Scientific Retreat on October 7, 2008. Read more...
September 2008 - Bridge to ReBIO looks for mentors among Haverford, Lincoln, and Penn students. In collaboration with the Science Outreach Program at Thomas Jefferson University, the Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IRM) at the University of Pennsylvania is offering a unique opportunity for Haverford College, Lincoln University, and University of Pennsylvania students to mentor local Philadelphia high school students in developing, conducting, and presenting research on regenerative biology. Read more...
August 2008 - The Penn Current interviews, John Gearhart, "Stem Cell Pioneer" Read more...
August 2008 - Dr. Gearhart quoted in the Wall Street Journal as scientists transform one type of cell into another in living mice, a big step toward the goal of growing replacement tissues to treat diseases. Read more...
July 2008 - John D. Gearhart named Director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine. John Gearhart, who led a research team that first identified and isolated human embryonic stem cells, has been named director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and also a Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor. For the full press release, click here.
July 2008 - The Institute for Regenerative Medicine is mentioned in an article about biotech discoveries in Philadelphia in the July issue of US Airways Magazine, which is part of a special section on tourism and business in the region. Read more...
June 2008 - Penn Researchers Find Key Developmental Pathway Activates Lung Stem Cells: Pathway Could Hold Promise for Lung Tissue Repair Read more...
June 2008 - Institute for Regenerative Medicine sponsors free Public Workshop on Stem Cell Biology and Public Symposium during ISSCR Annual Meeting Read more...
June 2008 - IRM co-sponsors free film screening of "Hope Deferred: Perspectives on Stem Cell Research" a documentary commissioned by the Brooke Ellison Project. Tuesday, June 10, 10:00-11:30 a.m., BRB Auditorium.
May 2008 - NCI Scientists Visualize Gene Regulation in Living Cells. A research team has applied advanced imaging methods and computer simulations to be able to glance at the regulation of a cancer-related gene in a living cell. They found that the efficiency with which the components of the cell's gene reading machinery come together has an impact on gene expression, the process by which a gene translates its information into a new protein. Read more...
April 2008 - Center of Excellence Research Internship begins recruitment for 2008-2009. See flyer or apply now!
April 2008 - The Hinxton Group releases consensus statement: The Science, Ethics, and Policy Challenges of Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Gametes. Read more...
April 2008 - Contrary to the currently accepted model of T-cell development, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that juvenile cells on their way to becoming mature immune cells can develop into either T cells or other blood-cell types versus only being committed to the T-cell path. Read more...
April 2008 - NIH to host research sumposium on clinical applications of stem cell therapies on Tuesday, May 6, 2008, from 8 a.m. to 5: 30 p.m. Read more...
March 2008 - IRM Supports New Research. Penn offers a unique opportunity to translate discovery into therapy due to its proximity to various schools and their faulty. To further promote this research, the IRM recently provided three pilot awards in regenerative medicine.
March 2008 - The University of Pennsylvania’s newly created Institute for Regenerative Medicine, in collaboration with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Haverford College, Lincoln University and Thomas Jefferson will receive $3.9 million from Pennsylvania’s share of the national tobacco settlement for 2007-08. Read more...
March 2008 - The stem cell and hair follicle research of George Cotsarelis, MD, Associate Professor of Dermatology, is mentioned in a San Francisco Chronicle article about biotech and baldness. Read more...
February 2008 - Andrea Stout PhD and Jill Agolino from the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and the IRM visited the Wissahickon Charter School in Philadelphia on February 29, 2008 to explain microscopy to elementary school students. The IRM is committed to public outreach and bridge-building with local schools and communities. See picture ...
February 2008 - Jonathan A. Epstein, MD, Chairman of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and the Co-director the Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine, is quoted in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer commenting on the announcement from PrimeGen Biotech - based in Irvine, CA - that their embryonic-like stem cells are created without human eggs or embryos. The company also claims they have found a shortcut in the “process of turning a cell's developmental clock backward, using what it calls "purified proteins," while also avoiding “the theoretical danger of triggering cancer.” Read more...
February 2008 - George Cotsarelis, MD, Albert M. Kligman Associate Professor of Dermatology, appears on The Today Show this morning discussing his research on stem cells and hair-follicle regeneration and its possible future application for treating baldness.
December 2007 - Jonathan A. Epstein, MD, Chairman of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and the Co-director the Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine, is quoted in a Philadelphia Business Journal article about the $30 million, five-year plan to boost the university's work on stem cell research and therapies. Read more...
December 2007 - Jonathan A. Epstein, MD, Chairman of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and the Co-director the Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and Paul Root Wolpe, PhD, Director of the Program in Psychiatry and Ethics and Associate Professor of Sociology in Psychiatry, were mentioned in a/ Nature/ magazine blog called "The Great Beyond" for their participation in a panel discussion following the/ WHYY-TV/ screening of "Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita." The film describes the personal experience of stem cell researcher Jack Kessler of Northwestern University when his daughter lost the use of her legs in a skiing accident. National airing of the film starts on January 15. Read more...