Solving Real-World Problems at Penn Engineering Senior Design News / May 11, 2026 At the 2026 Senior Design Project Competition, student teams presented projects tackling health, accessibility, climate control and more. Read More
Penn Engineers Shine at Venture Lab Startup Challenge News / May 6, 2026 At the annual Venture Lab Startup Challenge, Penn Engineering-affiliated teams took home more than $200,000, winning the grand prize, runner-up prize and much more. Read More
Flavia Vitale Awarded Grainger Foundation Frontiers Grant for Bioelectronics in Tissue Engineering Research News / April 16, 2026 Flavia Vitale has received a $30,000 Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering Grant for collaborative research integrating bioelectronics with engineered tissue. Her work advances precise control of cell signaling to study disease and develop regenerative therapies. Read More
Penn Researchers Earn Honorable Mention in Laude Institute Moonshots Competition News / April 15, 2026 A group of researchers at Penn Engineering, Penn Medicine and the School of Arts and Sciences earned an honorable mention and $100,000 from the Laude Institute for a “moonshot” idea to use AI to build molecular databases for drug discovery. Read More
NSF AIRFoundry: A New Hub for AI-Driven RNA Research News / April 9, 2026 The NSF AIRFoundry, an $18-million facility designed to use AI to accelerate RNA research, has officially opened, broadening access to advanced tools that could advance medicine, agriculture and more. Read More
Sherry Gao Receives NIH MIRA Award to Advance Precision Genome Engineering News / April 2, 2026 From life-saving antibiotics to anticancer drugs, many medicines come from fungi — master chemists with vast untapped potential. Sherry Gao has received an NIH MIRA award to engineer fungal genomes and uncover new bioactive compounds for drug discovery. Read More
Three Penn Engineers Receive Goldwater Scholarships News / April 1, 2026 Goldwater Scholarships are awarded to students planning research careers in the sciences, engineering and mathematics. Read More
Penn Fourth-Year Yash Rajpal Named 2026-27 Luce Scholar News / March 25, 2026 Yash Rajpal, a University of Pennsylvania fourth-year student in the College of Arts & Sciences and the School of Engineering & Applied Science, is one of 16 recipients selected by the Henry Luce Foundation to be a 2026-27 Luce Scholar. Read More
New Lipid Nanoparticle Design Improves Precision of mRNA Vaccine Delivery News / March 24, 2026 Penn Engineers have redesigned a key component of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), the delivery vehicles used in mRNA vaccines, to steer mRNA toward lymph nodes while reducing off-target accumulation in the liver. The modified “aroLNPs” delivered at least tenfold less mRNA to the liver than the lipid used in the Moderna... Read More
New Nanoparticle Could Unlock Universal Immunotherapy for Solid Cancers News / March 18, 2026 Penn Engineers have developed a new type of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) that could one day serve as a universal immunotherapy for cancers that form solid tumors. The particle delivers both mRNA that activates immune cells and a drug that blocks tumor-driven immune suppression. Read More
