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Shujie Yang: Harnessing sound to build the next generation of microrobotic medicine
Shujie Yang

Shujie Yang is at the frontier of single-cell acoustic manipulation, an emerging field that blends physics, mechanobiology, and medicine.

(Image: Courtesy of Penn Engineering)

Shujie Yang: Harnessing sound to build the next generation of microrobotic medicine

Yang’s lab at Penn Engineering uses precisely-controlled ultrasound waves to develop microscale tools that can manipulate cells, viruses, and soft materials without physical contact.

Melissa Pappas

2 min. read

Building better delivery vehicles for medicine
A machine in Michael Mitchell’s lab.

Image: Courtesy of Penn Engineering

Building better delivery vehicles for medicine

Penn researchers in the Mitchell Lab are modifying lipid nanoparticles, the delivery vehicles for mRNA therapies, to make them more potent, precise, and better tolerated.

Ian Scheffler

2 min. read

Topology helps build more robust photonic networks
(From left) Xilin Feng, Liang Feng, and Tianwei Wu in an engineering lab.

(From left) Xilin Feng, Liang Feng, and Tianwei Wu developed a microring array that allows multiple beams of light to travel simultaneously, protected by topology.

(Image: Sylvia Zhang)

Topology helps build more robust photonic networks

Researchers at Penn Engineering draw insights from topology to help drive promising, light-based technological advances in computing and communications.

Ian Scheffler

2 min. read

Mapping catalyst failure to advance clean hydrogen fuel production
A car at a hydrogen refueling station.

Image: David McNew via Getty Images

Mapping catalyst failure to advance clean hydrogen fuel production

A new study co-led by computational Penn engineering professor Aleksandra Vojvodic and collaborators offers an unprecedented view of the complicated degradation process of a material based on one of the rarest elements, iridium. Their findings, which show how this catalytic agent breaks down at the atomic scale, pave the way for better hydrogen fuel production.

3 min. read

Five from Penn named 2025 AAAS Fellows
Portraits from left to right, first row: Cherie Kagan, Danny Krashen, George Pappas. Second row: Kai Tan, Patrick Walsh.

(Top, from left) Cherie Kagan, Daniel Krashen, and George Pappas. (Bottom, from left) Kai Tan and Patrick Walsh.

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Five from Penn named 2025 AAAS Fellows

Five faculty researchers representing the School of Arts & Sciences, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Perelman School of Medicine have been elected 2025 American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows. They are among the nearly 500 scientists, engineers, and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines who are being recognized for distinguished achievements.

3 min. read

When bone behaves like a sponge
Three members of the Tertuliano lab looking at a computer in the lab.

To visualize the nanoscale structures, the Tertuliano lab often uses large-scale models like the one pictured.

(Image: Sylvia Zhang)

When bone behaves like a sponge

Penn Engineers in the Tertuliano Lab have developed a nanoengineered 3D-printed scaffold for observing how cells feel force.

Melissa Pappas

2 min. read

Mapping the expanding cosmos: Dark Energy Survey unveils clearest picture yet
Terrestrial telescope in Chile under a starlit sky.

The Dark Energy Survey used a 570-megapixel camera mounted on the 4-metre Victor M. Blanco Telescope in Chile to image 5,000 square degrees of southern sky. The survey discovered more than 1,000 supernovae and mapped millions of galaxies to help astronomers better understand the accelerating expansion of our universe.

(Image: Courtesy of Dark Energy Survey Collaborative)

Mapping the expanding cosmos: Dark Energy Survey unveils clearest picture yet

The Dark Energy Survey collaborative, including Penn researchers, recently released an analysis that gives the clearest picture yet of how dark energy is driving the universe’s expansion and how matter—including galaxies and groups of galaxies—has been organized over cosmic time.

3 min. read

No brain, no gain: Neuronal activity enhances benefits of exercise
Rendering of the human body on a bicycle and the brain and skeletal system highlighted.

Image: Sciepro/Science Photo Library via Getty Images

No brain, no gain: Neuronal activity enhances benefits of exercise

Research led by Penn neuroscientist J. Nicholas Betley and collaborators finds that hypothalamic neurons are essential for translating physical exertion into endurance, potentially opening the door to exercise-mimicking therapies.

5 min. read

Green Lab’s Freezer Inventory Project: Turning a ripple of change into a wave
Srishti Jainapur recording the temperature on a freezer.

2025 graduate Srishti Jainapur recording the temperature on a freezer.

(Image: Courtesy of Penn Climate)

Green Lab’s Freezer Inventory Project: Turning a ripple of change into a wave

The Freezer Inventory Project, launched in late 2023, aims to improve the efficiency of a major energy strain: ultra-low temperature freezers.

From Penn Climate

2 min. read