In a Penn Medicine medical marvel six years in the making, a 28-year-old Swiss man has hands of his own for the first time since he lost his arms and legs to major infection at age 12. His bilateral hand transplant marked the first surgery of its kind at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania since 2019. The yearslong journey and transatlantic relationship with the Penn Medicine team leading up to the surgery endured amidst the hand transplant program’s pause during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Researchers from Simon Fraser University are joining an international effort to improve how infectious diseases are tracked and monitored.   

Launched at the end of May, ARTIC-2 is extending a genome sequencing technique that was used by thousands of laboratories globally to spot COVID-19 variants, providing crucial information when mapping out new infectious threats.  

When pets face multiple or complex health problems, seeking a second opinion can be a helpful step to gain additional clarity and explore all available care options, according to Dr. Andrew Bugbee, chief medical officer and a clinical associate professor at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Tentacles reaching from the deep. Dark mold overtaking walls. A familiar forest suddenly becoming strange and threatening. These elements in literature, film and games define the “eco-weird,” a term coined by Penn State philosopher Brian Onishi to describe an emerging genre focused on the strangeness that can emerge from the ambiguity of the environment and humans’ experience of and relationship to it. Onishi explained in the following Q&A what the eco-weird is and how it may help individuals build resiliency in a changing world.