Penn Science Policy and Diplomacy Group

by Adrian Rivera-Reyes and Koreana Pak Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare cancers of the connective tissues, such as bone, muscle, fat, and blood vessels. Soft and elastic, sarcoma tumors can push against their surroundings as they grow silent and undetected. Residing in an arm, torso, or thigh, it can take years before a sarcoma begins to cause pain. By the time a patient presents their tumor to a doctor, amputation may be unavoidable 1 . In 2017, it is predicted that 12,390 Americans will be diagnosed with sarcoma, and approximately 5,000 patients will die from these tumors 2 . But the vast majority of these patients aren’t dying from the first tumor in their arm or leg—the real danger is metastasis, which is responsible for more than 90% of cancer-related deaths 3-5 . Metastasis occurs when tumor cells leave their original site and colonize a new area of the body, such as the lungs, liver, or bones 3-5 . The current treatment options for sarcoma—surgery, chemotherapy,...

by Arpita Myles Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or AIDS is a global health problem that has terrified and intrigued scientists and laypeople alike for decades. AIDS is caused by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, which is transmitted through blood, semen, vaginal fluid, and from an infected mother to her child [1] . Infection leads to failure of the immune system, increasing susceptibility to secondary infections and cancer, which are mostly fatal. Considerable efforts are being put into developing prophylactic and therapeutic approaches to tackle HIV-AIDS, but there is also interest in understanding how the disease became so wide-spread. With the advent of the Ebola and Zika viruses in the last couple of years, there is a renewed urgency in understanding the emergence and spread of viruses in the past in order to prevent those in the future. The narrative surrounding the spread of HIV has been somewhat convoluted, but a new paper in Nature by Worobey et. al , hopes to se...

by Amaris Castanon For the first time, scientists have generated haploid embryonic stem (ES) cell lines in humans, as published in  Nature . This could lead to novel cell therapies for genetic diseases – even color blindness ( Benvenisty et al. , 2016 ) The study was performed by scientists from the  Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel) in collaboration with  Columbia University Medical Center  ( CUMC ) and the  New York Stem Cell Foundation  ( NYSCF ). The newly derived pluripotent, human ES cell lines demonstrated their ability to ‘self-renew’ while maintaining a normal haploid karyotype (i.e. without chromosomal breakdown after each generation) ( Benvenisty et al. , 2016 ). While gamete manipulation in other mammalian species has yielded several ES cell lines ( Yang, H. et al. , Leeb, M. & Wutz, A.), this is the first study to report human cells capable of cell division with merely one copy of the parent’s cell genom...