In the last five years, we have doubled the number of faculty by adding 10 brilliant new minds who never cease to amaze me. We are beginning a new search for two more faculty members for the academic year 2019-20. I am seeing more and more innovation and cutting-edge research coming from our faculty, who are making real-world impacts in biomedical health science and technology.  >>

Development of wound dressings made of semi-synthetic biomaterials will be the focus of a five-year, $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Once developed, this new kind of wound dressing would promote faster and more complete healing for the millions of people who suffer from skin wounds.   Receiving the grant are  Yong Wang , professor of  biomedical engineering ,  College of Engineering , and  Na Xiong , professor of immunology,  College of Agricultural Sciences , Penn State.  >>

Two Penn State professors are collaborating to bring real-world solutions to better understand neuroimaging signal through the support of a $3.7 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative grant.  >>

Blood pumps are increasingly a bridge-to-transplant for patients with end-stage heart disease or heart failure, but blood clots and strokes can put patients in peril before they receive a donor heart. Now a four-year, $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health may solve this problem and perhaps open the pumps' use for less-sick patients who could benefit from them.  >>

Penn State researchers have received funding from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to determine how the communication between neurons and blood vessels of the brain changes from postnatal development through adulthood, which would enable the use of hemodynamic imaging to study neural activity, plasticity, and neurodevelopmental disorders in infants, children and animals.  >>

Effective proactive virus discovery to help prevent future catastrophic disease outbreaks is the focus of a four year, $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.  >>

Examining the treatment potential of cardiac cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) may lead to dramatically altering the care of cardiac disease and heart injuries, thanks to a grant from the National Institutes of Health.  >>

Development of a non-invasive liquid biopsy that enables cancer detection and monitoring even when tissue samples are scant or unavailable is the focus of a five-year, $2.3 million National Institutes of Health grant.  >>

A biomimetic nanosystem can deliver therapeutic proteins to selectively target cancerous tumors, according to a team of Penn State researchers.  Using a protein toxin called gelonin from a plant found in the Himalayan mountains, the researchers caged the proteins in self-assembled metal-organic framework (MOF) nanoparticles to protect them from the body's immune system.  >>

The next generation of biomimetic orthopedic implants that incorporate citrate signaling may be possible thanks to a $1.7 million grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health .  >>

Alumni are encouraged to submit news and updates to Jamie Oberdick, communications strategist, at jco11@psu.edu.