The eyes are a window to the soul, but the mouth may reveal just as much about a person’s health—and the diseases that shape how we age. To better understand those connections, scientists are studying how issues that start in the mouth may contribute to chronic inflammation elsewhere in the body. In particular, they’re examining how bacteria from diseased gums, […]

George Hajishengallis, Thomas W. Evans Centennial Professor at University of Pennsylvania, shared John Lambris’ post on LinkedIn: “I am deeply grateful to John Lambris for more than two decades of scientific partnership, friendship, and shared curiosity. What began as a discussion about whether the complement system might play a role in periodontal disease evolved into a long-term collaboration that helped redefine how we think about […]

Clinical research has long focused on ways to harness the actions of the immune system. From vaccines to immunotherapies, researchers have used their knowledge of the immune system to develop therapies to treat or prevent diseases from influenza to autoimmune disease and cancer. Now, researchers from Penn’s School of Dental Medicine and international collaborators have investigated the effects of training the innate […]

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 once again recognized for the scope and depth of their research — named on the Highly […]

As humans age, hematopoietic stem cells—the immature precursor cells that give rise to all blood and immune cells—accumulate mutations. Some of the mutations allow these stem cells to self-renew and expand more effectively than their non-mutated counterparts. This relatively poorly understood condition, known as clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), is detectable in more than 10% of people older than 65 and […]

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 […]