10 Ways Thomas Jefferson University Research is Improving Lives and Our World

For 200 years, the students, faculty and alumni of Thomas Jefferson University have been innovators and creators, pioneers and problem solvers. Jefferson researchers have made discoveries and applied new knowledge in impactful ways across a broad range of disciplines and professions.

Today, Jefferson is a research powerhouse that has more than tripled external grant funding over the past decade. Last year, Jefferson researchers were granted more than $193 million in sponsored research awards. And the university holds over 1,000 patents for new drugs, software innovations, medical devices and diagnostic tools.

Jefferson's world-class scholars and investigators work across the research spectrum from bench science to clinical and applied studies — in fields ranging from the life, physical and social sciences to arts and humanities, business, design and public policy. They are developing more effective ways of treating disease, designing industrial processes and architectural methods with reduced environmental impact, driving new opportunities for equitable economic development, and working to overcome disparities in health care and public health.

Now entering Jefferson's third century, they are continuing to redefine possible.

Here are just 10 specific examples of how Jefferson researchers are striving to improve human health and wellbeing and to protect our world’s natural systems.

1. Asthma rescue inhalers are a lifesaver for many people, but not if the inhaled medicine stops working when a follow-up asthma attack constricts muscles around their airways. Jefferson researchers have discovered a method for ensuring that the medication stays active — and is more effective for everyone.

2. A disease is newly ravaging endangered Caribbean green sea turtles. Thought to be caused by environmental stressors, the disease spurs tumors to bloom over the turtles’ bodies. Ultimately, the turtles are unable to see, swim, or eat — and they die. An expert in how physiological stressors affect organisms, Dr. Manuela Tripepi is doing hands-on investigations to learn if changes in turtles’ feeding grounds have made them susceptible to the disease.

3. Research has shown that spending time in nature can help people feel better and even lower risk of premature death. The Park in a Truck initiative led by Jefferson landscape architecture program director Kimberlee Douglas helps urban communities turn vacant lots into low-cost, high-quality green spaces in under-resourced neighborhoods. The collaborative initiative works to improve environmental, social and physical health while supporting residents’ own revitalization and reinvestment efforts.

4. Erica Wilkins, PhD is studying the implications of slavery’s residual impact on African Americans’ mental health. She wants to know if that impact contributes to African Americans’ underutilization of mental health treatments — and if it connects to the fact that, when treatment is sought, it is often inadequate. She hopes to use those explorations to bring about improvement of therapies for African American individuals and couples.

5. Jefferson researchers have created the first three-dimensional map of the heart’s little brain — offering an unprecedented look at the cardiac nervous system. By providing insight on the spatial and functional role of the heart’s neurons, this map can provide new clues about how to tackle the complexities of heart disease.

6. A new machine learning algorithm can help identify lung-cancer patients likely to develop long-term heart problems as a side effect of the radiation therapy they receive. Developed by a Jefferson research team, the approach could ensure that at-risk patients are identified early and closely monitored for emerging heart problems.

7. Can immersive arts reduce stress? That’s one provocative question being studied at the Jefferson Center of Immersive Arts for Health, which has been exploring if an environment filled with calming images and sounds will enhance wellbeing in people who experience it. Research based on recent immersive-arts installations — such as one in a space mimicking a hospital waiting room — suggests the answer is “yes.”

8. Engineering professor Radika Bhaskar, PhD is working to create a sustainable alternative to Styrofoam, using mycelium — the root structure of mushrooms. In the lab, the mycelium can form a dense, particle board-like structure strong enough to serve as packaging material. Her group is collaborating with an urban agriculture company to develop a more sustainable approach to food packaging.

9. Jefferson researchers may have unlocked the “gut-brain axis,” the communication system connecting our digestive and nervous systems. They’ve discovered that one cell type may act as a conduit between the brain and the gut — and that cell could provide a way to treat the chronic visceral pain suffered by many people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and other gut conditions.

10. Jefferson’s Hien Dang, PhD received a Cancer Moonshot Award. She was one of just 11 researchers across the country to receive the prestigious federal award, which will support her search for therapies for tough-to-treat cancers in patients who have been historically disadvantaged.

This content was paid for and created by Thomas Jefferson University. The editorial staff at The Chronicle had no role in its preparation. Find out more about paid content.