Philadelphia — Two Penn Dental Medicine faculty members — Dr. George Hajishengallis, Thomas W. Evans Centennial Professor in the Department of Basic & Translational Sciences, and Dr. Michel Koo, Professor in the Department of Orthodontics and Divisions of Community Oral Health and Pediatric Dentistry, have been recognized for the scope and depth of their research — named on the Highly Cited Researchers™ 2023 list from […]

“Penn Dental Medicine’s Dr. George Hajishengallis, Thomas W. Evans Centennial Professor in the Department of Basic & Translational Sciences, has been recognized for the scope and depth of his research — named on the Highly Cited Researchers™ 2022 list from Clarivate in the cross-field category. This is the third year in row that he has been included in this recognition. The annual […]

“When it comes to certain childhood illnesses and diseases we get vaccinated against, it is a great thing that our immune systems can remember their adversaries. At the same time, when the threat is generated internally, our immune systems are not always so helpful, mistakenly attacking our bodies. A new study suggests that inflammation in the body creates a memory […]

“Patients with one inflammatory disease are at greater risk of devel­oping another, often distinct, inflammatory comorbidity. Li et al. report in Cell that epigenetic rewiring of bone marrow (BM) progenitor cells as a result of one inflammatory disease can enhance susceptibility to a distinct disease. Trained immunity describes how activation of the innate immune system by a particular stimulus can […]

“The immune system remembers. Often this memory, primed by past encounters with threats like bacteria or viruses, is an asset. But when that memory is sparked by internal drivers, like chronic inflammation, it can prove detrimental, perpetuating a misguided immune response. In a new paper in Cell, researchers lay out the mechanism by which innate immune memory can cause one type of inflammatory […]

“Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have gained new insight into how different inflammatory conditions reinforce each other via trained innate immunity. Their work, which appeared in the April 27, 2022, advance online issue of Cell (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.03.043), “may pave the way to treat inflammatory comorbidities in a holistic manner,” senior author George Hajishengallis told BioWorld. Hajishengallis is a professor of […]

“The immune system remembers. Often this memory, primed by past encounters with threats like bacteria or viruses, is an asset. But when that memory is sparked by internal drivers, like chronic inflammation, it can prove detrimental, perpetuating a misguided immune response. In a new paper in Cell, researchers from the School of Dental Medicine, together with an international team including colleagues at […]

“MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Hajishengallis: The current study is the result of eight years of collaboration with my colleague at Penn Medicine, Dr. John D. Lambris. In our earlier mechanistic studies, we have shown that complement, a system of innate immunity and inflammation, is critically involved in the pathogenesis of periodontitis, an […]

“Penn Dental Medicine’s Dr. George Hajishengallis, Thomas W. Evans Centennial Professor in the Department of Basic & Translational Sciences, has been recognized for the scope and depth of his research — named on the Highly Cited Researchers™ 2021 list from Clarivate. This is the second year in row that he has been included in this recognition. The annual list identifies researchers […]

“A century ago, many medical practitioners in Europe and the United States espoused the idea that the extraction of decaying teeth could stave off a host of disorders ranging from arthritis to schizophrenia. Indeed, some went as far as to simply remove all of a person’s teeth as a pre-emptive measure. “The idea was that an infection around the teeth […]