In recent months, researchers in Philadelphia and beyond have reported success using gene therapy to treat cardiac problems including heart failure, hardened arteries and atrial fibrillation. Although these successes occurred in animal models — with results in humans being inconclusive, researchers believe the field is close to a breakthrough. "I think cardiac gene therapy has great promise," said Steven Houser, director of the Independence Blue Cross Cardiovascular Research Center at Temple's School of Medicine.

Mother always said, "Take your vitamins." But the question remains about which is the best way to get the daily recommended amounts every adult needs to stay healthy? "When you isolate a vitamin or mineral in a pill, you’re separating it from the other nutrients it may have reacted with in its naturally occurring state — in food," said Jessica O’Neill, a registered dietician at Temple University Hospital. "So your body may not get all the benefits it would reap if you’d just eaten the food to begin with."

Temple President Ann Weaver Hart announced that she will step down in June 2012 to care for her ailing mother. "At Temple, Hart was known as a stable, calm and able force who sought to transform the North Philadelphia campus through her signature Temple 20/20 program," wrote Jeff Gammage of the Inquirer. "Her Temple 20/20 framework envisioned a renewed Temple, vibrant with residential communities of students, centers of academic and research excellence, and hubs of creative enterprise.

As big Pharma continues to shrink through mergers and cuts back on its R&D, it's looking to partner with academic institutions like Temple and its Moulder Center for Drug Discovery Research. Moulder Center Director Magid Abou-Gharbia expects more pharmaceutical companies to get interested in the Moulder Center’s work as its researchers, working alone and with other Temple faculty, make progress on experimental drug projects. "When you have data and intellectual property," he said, "that gets the drug companies more excited."