News
Archive:
12/12/2022
A new model by a team of researchers led by Penn State and inspired by Michael Crichton’s novel “Prey” describes how biological or technical systems form complex structures equipped with signal-processing capabilities that allow the systems to respond to stimulus and perform functional tasks without external guidance.
12/7/2022
Xiaogang Hu, associate professor of mechanical engineering and Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Neurorehabilitation, will lead Penn State’s efforts in the newly funded Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center in Assisting Stroke Survivors with Engineering Technology.
11/30/2022
If you are reading this article on your computer or phone, it is in part thanks to diodes. Diodes are used for a variety of critical electronic functions and are typically rigid. Electronic devices, such as robotics or medical devices, are becoming more flexible as technology advances, so Penn State researchers have developed a fully rubbery stretchable diode that maintains performance.
11/29/2022
Penn State researchers developed a method to manufacture soft, elastic semiconductors and circuits more efficiently.
11/23/2022
Combining machine learning with multimodal electrochemical sensing can significantly improve the analytical performance of biosensors, according to new findings from a Penn State research team. These improvements may benefit non-invasive health monitoring, such as testing that involves saliva or sweat.
11/21/2022
Seven Penn State materials researchers have received the 2022 Rustum and Della Roy Innovation in Materials Research Award, including five in the College of Engineering.
11/18/2022
Fruit flies can quickly compensate for catastrophic wing injuries, researchers found, maintaining the same stability after losing up to 40% of a wing. This finding could inform the design of versatile robots, which face the similar challenge of having to quickly adapt to mishaps in the field.
11/15/2022
A Penn State-led multidisciplinary collaboration may have found a solution for antibiotic resistance in cholestyramine, an oral drug already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to reduce cholesterol levels and remove bile acids associated with liver diseases.
11/10/2022
Using functional MRI and electrophysiology, researchers in the Penn State College of Engineering identified a link between respiration and neural activity changes in the brain. This means taking a deep breath can actually impact one's emotional state — long acknowledged to be effective by mental health practitioners, but never before proven by science.
11/10/2022
Nikki Crowley, assistant professor of biology and of biomedical engineering at Penn State, is the 2022 recipient of the Neuropsychopharmacology (NPP) Editor’s Early Career Award.
10/31/2022
Deb Kelly, professor of biomedical engineering and director of the Penn State Center for Structural Oncology, was featured on an episode of Science with a Twist, a ThermoFisher Scientific podcast.
10/31/2022
Nearly 40 students and faculty members from the Penn State Department of Biomedical Engineering attended the 2022 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting in San Antonio on Oct. 12-15.
10/28/2022
Traditional treatments for lung cancers can have serious side effects throughout the body, but newly developed, highly targeted treatments could reduce damage, according to Penn State researchers. A team led by Dan Hayes, biomedical engineering department head and Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Nanotherapeutics and Regenerative Medicine at Penn State, developed a method that could lead to one such treatment with magnetic nanoparticles that can release a therapeutic payload when stimulated using a magnetic field.
10/25/2022
Meghan Vidt, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and physical medicine and rehabilitation at Penn State, discusses her research in furthering the understanding of mastectomy and reconstruction surgery for breast cancer and the effects these surgeries have on patients.
10/18/2022
Researchers at Penn State have successfully 3D bioprinted breast cancer tumors and treated them in a breakthrough study to better understand the disease that is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide.
10/6/2022
Twenty-eight new faculty members have joined the Penn State College of Engineering since the end of the spring semester. The 17 tenured or tenure-line members and 11 non-tenure-line members represent 12 units and departments and include two new department heads.
9/29/2022
Using the human brain as a model, Penn State engineering researchers developed a synaptic transistor, which uses artificial neurotransmitters to optimize functions. The transistor can be used to enhance the performance of wearable devices and robots.
9/19/2022
In the brain, neural activity usually is followed by increases in blood flow to the active region, a process known as neurovascular coupling. Scientists know that this process is important for brain health, as the breakdown of this process precedes many neurodegenerative diseases, according to Patrick Drew, Penn State professor of engineering science and mechanics and of biomedical engineering. What scientists don’t know is why neurovascular coupling exists at all. Drew proposed possible answers to this question in a review article, “Neurovascular coupling: Motive unknown,” published in Trends of Neuroscience.
9/19/2022
On Sept. 28 at noon, Xiaojun (Lance) Lian, associate professor of biomedical engineering, will be featured on The Symbiotic Podcast.
9/16/2022
Yun Jing, associate professor of acoustics and of biomedical engineering, and Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, the James L. Henderson, Jr. Memorial Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, were featured in the January/Februrary issue Radiology Today.
9/7/2022
Amir Sheikhi, assistant professor of chemical engineering and biomedical engineering, and his team's research were recently featured in a BioTechniques article.
9/7/2022
A Penn State-led team of interdisciplinary researchers has developed techniques to improve the efficiency of CRISPR-Cas9, the genome editing technique that earned the Nobel Prize in 2020.
8/29/2022
Students taking a leadership course in Penn State’s School of Engineering Design Technology, and Professional Programs placed in the Airport Cooperative Research Program, a national engineering competition that aims to solve problems and inconveniences common to airports.
8/24/2022
Penn State researchers have developed a novel nanoengineered granular hydrogel bioink that could be used to to develop biomaterials that can be three-dimensionally (3D) printed as complex organ shapes, capable of hosting cells and forming tissues.
8/18/2022
Penn State chemical engineering researchers used micro- and nanoparticles created from the organic materials like corncobs and tomato peels to capture rare earth elements from aqueous solutions.
8/16/2022
Peripheral nerves are responsible for moving muscles, sensing temperatures and even inhaling and exhaling; yet they comprise fragile fibers vulnerable to disease and injury. To maximize healing for the easily damaged nerves, Penn State researchers are using a five-year, $2.14 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Nation Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to develop a biodegradable nerve scaffold that aims to employ folate and citrate in novel ways.
8/12/2022
A team of multiple principal investigators that includes Jian Yang, professor of biomedical engineering at Penn State, received a four-year, $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop biodegradable nanomaterials that will take pictures and deliver medicine to combat peripheral arterial disease.
8/5/2022
Penn State researchers have developed a take-home, saliva-based test with the same level of sensitivity as the PCR, with results that send to a smart phone within 45 minutes.
7/13/2022
Sailahari V. Ponnaluri, a doctoral candidate in the Penn State Department of Biomedical Engineering, earned a 2022 Oral Abstract Award from the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs (ASAIO). She was recognized at the annual conference in Chicago on June 9.
7/11/2022
Nikki Crowley, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Penn State, has been awarded a five-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health, to study the neurobiology of binge alcohol drinking.
7/5/2022
Aida Ebrahimi, assistant professor of electrical engineering in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and of biomedical engineering, has been selected as one of 13 researchers from seven multidisciplinary teams to receive a 2022 Scialog: Microbiome, Neurobiology and Disease Award. The $55,000 grant will allow Ebrahimi to conduct research to expand the understanding of the gut-brain axis.
7/5/2022
Cunjiang Yu, Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and associate professor of biomedical engineering, recently was featured in a Happy Valley Industry Q&A
7/1/2022
Hui Yang, professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering and of biomedical engineering, was named to the annual SME 25 Leaders Transforming Manufacturing list.
6/30/2022
Sensors are a step closer to sniffing out various gases that could indicate disease or pollution, thanks to a Penn State collaboration. Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics in the College of Engineering, and Lauren Zarzar, assistant professor of chemistry in Eberly College of Science, and their teams combined laser writing and responsive sensor technologies to fabricate the first highly customizable microscale gas sensing devices.
6/24/2022
Eight Penn State engineering graduate students received the Diefenderfer Graduate Fellowship in Entrepreneurship for the 2022-2023 academic year.
6/22/2022
Dan Hayes, Penn State alumnus, professor of biomedical engineering, Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Nanotherapeutics and Regenerative Medicine and director for the Center of Excellence in Industrial Biotechnology, named new head of the Penn State Department of Biomedical Engineering.
6/13/2022
Sydney Gibbard, a biomedical engineering student, explains how Invent Penn State has helped fund her nonprofit, Girls Code the World.
6/13/2022
A Penn State-led collaboration has created artificial skin that mimics both the elasticity and neurologic functions of cephalopod skin. Made entirely of rubber, this material has potential applications for neurorobotics, skin prosthetics, artificial organs and more.
6/7/2022
A method of highly accurate and sensitive virus identification using Raman spectroscopy, a portable virus capture device and machine learning could enable real-time virus detection and identification to help battle future pandemics, according to a team led by Penn State.
6/6/2022
A research team led by Penn State and the University of California, Los Angeles, developed a novel surface treatment for medical devices such as catheters to help prevent hospital infections from bacterial films that can form on these devices.
6/1/2022
A new study by Penn State researchers shows that ‘variant’ complexes of a protein implicated in ALS pathology form in separate pathways, a discovery which may make it easier for drug developers to design therapies to target the more harmful variant.
5/25/2022
The College of Engineering recently awarded six Multidisciplinary Research Seed Grants to faculty members, including one in partnership with the College of Health and Human Development and another with the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.
5/23/2022
Amir Sheikhi, assistant professor of chemical engineering and biomedical engineering, discusses nanomaterials research to combat the severe side-effects of chemotherapy drugs.
5/19/2022
Penn State announced academic promotions for tenured and tenure-line faculty members at the University, including 33 in engineering. The promotions will take effect on July 1.
5/19/2022
An international research collaboration has discovered how to exploit certain defects to protect confined energy in acoustics systems. Their experimental approach provides a versatile platform to create at-will defects for further theoretical validation and to improve control of waves in other systems, such as light, according to principal investigator Yun Jing, associate professor of acoustics and of biomedical engineering at Penn State.
5/10/2022
Fruit flies synchronize the movements of their heads and bodies to stabilize their vision and fly effectively, according to Penn State researchers who subjected flies to virtual-reality flight simulators. The finding appears to hold true in primates and other animals, the researchers say, indicating that animals evolved to move their eyes and bodies independently to conserve energy and improve performance.
5/5/2022
Combined ultrasound and photoacoustic (USPA) imaging can provide structural, functional and molecular information of deep biological tissue in real time, but its quantitative performance is affected by several unknown tissue parameters.
5/2/2022
The National Science Foundation has selected five current Penn State College of Engineering students as 2022 awardees for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program and one College of Engineering student for an honorable mention.
4/20/2022
The first round of projects to receive seed funding from the Patricia and Stephen Benkovic Research Initiative has been announced.
4/20/2022
The Penn State Materials Research Institute has announced the 2022 recipients of seed grants that will enable University faculty to establish new collaborations with partners outside their own units for the exploration of transformative ideas for high-impact materials science and engineering.
4/18/2022
Kara Miller has been named the spring 2022 student marshal for biomedical engineering.
4/12/2022
An international Penn State-led team is bioprinting bone, along with two growth factor-encoding genes that help incorporate cells and heal defects, in the skulls of rats.
3/30/2022
The Penn State College of Engineering has added 15 faculty members this semester, with 11 tenured or tenure-line members and four non-tenure-line members.
3/30/2022
Eleven Penn State engineering graduates will be honored on April 4 at the College of Engineering’s Outstanding Engineering Alumni Awards ceremony at Hyatt Place State College. Charlie Blenko, an undergraduate student majoring in civil engineering, will serve as the event’s emcee.
3/30/2022
Researchers at Penn State are at the leading edge of the field now known as additive manufacturing, working to advance the capabilities of 3D printing with a goal of addressing pressing problems in human health, housing and transportation, among other areas.
3/30/2022
In the 2023 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Engineering Programs rankings released today (March 29), engineering at Penn State University Park ranked No. 32 overall, advancing one place from last year’s report, and No. 18 among public institutions. Seven engineering specialty disciplines offered by the College of Engineering also climbed in the rankings, and eight are now ranked in the top 20 nationally.
3/25/2022
Steve Spadt, chief technology officer for the American College of Physicians, has been named one of 11 recipients of the 2022 Outstanding Engineering Alumni Award by the Penn State College of Engineering.
3/25/2022
Cunjiang Yu joined the Penn State College of Engineering as the Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering on Jan. 1. Yu received his doctorate in mechanical engineering at Arizona State University and completed a three-year post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
3/21/2022
An inhalable "aerogel" loaded with DNA that encodes for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein successfully induces an immune response against COVID-19 in the lungs of mice, according to new research conducted at Penn State. The team said its aerogel could be used to create an inhalable vaccine that blocks SARS-CoV-2 transmission by preventing the virus from establishing an infection in the lungs.
3/15/2022
Sri-Rajasekhar “Raj” Kothapalli, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, discusses his work to develop a transparent, biocompatible ultrasound transducer chip.
3/7/2022
A Penn State-led team of interdisciplinary researchers developed a method that improved the lifespan and efficiency of CRISPR gene-editing tools after delivery into stem cells. Their findings were made available online ahead of official publication in Bioactive Materials.
2/28/2022
Spencer Szczesny, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and of orthopaedics and rehabilitation at Penn State, earned a five-year, $654,682 NSF CAREER Award for a project titled “Studying tendon cell mechanobiology in the native tissue environment.”
2/28/2022
Justin Pritchard, Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Early Career Entrepreneurial Assistant Professor and assistant professor of biomedical engineering, was quoted in an article published by the Daily Collegian on Feb. 28.
2/28/2022
Nine faculty members in Penn State’s College of Engineering earned National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards. Each project funded ranges in duration from three and a half to five years, with grants from roughly $500,000 to more than $800,000.
2/25/2022
Huanyu “Larry” Cheng, Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Assistant Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State, was named to the 2021 MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 China list.
2/24/2022
Amir Sheiki, Penn State assistant professor of chemical and biomedical engineering and principal investigator for the Bio-Soft Materials Laboratory, and Juliana Dominick, former undergraduate research assistant at Penn State, were quoted in an article published by the Daily Collegian on Feb. 18.
2/24/2022
Penn State engineering researchers created an easier, more exact method to stimulate cells through ultrasound waves by creating a transparent, biocompatible ultrasound transducer chip upon which cells can be cultured and stimulated.
2/23/2022
Six Penn State student startup teams have been selected as finalists in the Invent Penn State Inc.U Competition and are set to compete for $30,000 in funding on “The Investment,” a WPSU Shark Tank-like television production that will be livestreamed during Penn State Startup Week powered by PNC.
2/22/2022
The College of Engineering Bernard M. Gordon Learning Factory showcases for the fall 2021 semester took place virtually from Dec. 10 – 17 and in-person on Dec. 7. Students in the senior capstone design courses presented the culmination of their semester-long projects at the events.
2/22/2022
A Penn State-led research team was inspired by the concept of image compression to develop a research method that could "compress" the size of genetic libraries. They aim to enable simpler experiments on a larger variety of cells to help advance cancer biology, biotechnology and more.
2/22/2022
This semester, there are 11 official Students Teaching Students courses being offered, with topics ranging from the menstrual equity movement and Kid Cudi to domestic violence in the LGBTQ+ community and gendered stereotypes in movies.
2/21/2022
A study led by Penn State researchers shows new ways to view viruses and vaccine components in minute detail using liquid-electron microscopy, a new tool that allows for high-resolution imaging in near-native environments.
2/9/2022
Jian Yang, professor of biomedical engineering, was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society. Fellowships are awarded in recognition of scientifically and socially distinguished achievements in the scientific enterprise, according to the AAAS press release.
2/8/2022
Spencer Szczesny, Penn State assistant professor of biomedical engineering, was awarded the 2022 CMBE Rising Star Award from the Biomedical Engineering Society’s Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Special Interest Group.
2/4/2022
Deb Kelly, professor of biomedical engineering, Huck Chair in Molecular Biophysics and director of the Penn State Center for Structural Oncology, recently had her research highlighted by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
2/2/2022
Now, researchers at Penn State and The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation and the University of California Los Angeles are developing novel biomaterials to target post-stroke immune response and promote new blood vessel and axon — the part of the neuron that carries nerve impulses away from the cell’s processing center — formation at the site of the stroke.
1/31/2022
Penn State engineering researchers, in collaboration with University of Massachusetts investigators, recently received a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to build, model and failure-test customizable dual-switch gene drives that convert cancer cells into a "trojan horse" to kill other cancer cells that have become drug resistant.
1/31/2022
Penn State-affiliated startup spotLESS Materials, which sells its super slippery coating technology as an assistive cleaning product, has raised more than $1.3 million of total venture capital funding to date, including $900,000 in a seed round that closed on Dec. 23, 2021.
1/6/2022
Standard chemotherapies may efficiently kill cancer cells, but they also pose significant risks to healthy cells, resulting in secondary illness and a diminished quality of life for patients.
