Translational Science And Public Impact News | Translational Science & Public Impact

A flexible, skin-like sensor can monitor movement and electrical signals inside the body, with the potential to aid healing and bladder control. Credit: Huanyu “Larry” Cheng and Jennifer M. McCann. All Rights Reserved.

Jul 10, 2025

Skin-like sensor monitors internal, external body movement, electrical signals

A new skin-like sensor developed by an international team led by researchers at Penn State could help doctors monitor vital signs more accurately, track healing after surgery and even help patients with bladder control issues.

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Postdoctoral fellow Laurel Seemiller studies the biology and long-term consequences of adolescent alcohol usage. Credit: Michelle Bixby / Penn State. Creative Commons

Jul 08, 2025

Q&A: Does adolescent alcohol use impact future risk of addiction?

Postdoctoral fellow Laurel Seemiller studies the biology and long-term consequences of adolescent alcohol usage. In this Q&A, Seemiller spoke about her research and her experience at Penn State.

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Credit: Dani Zemba / Penn State. All Rights Reserved.

Jul 01, 2025

Lab Bench to Commercialization program broadens its scope

Eberly College of Science seed grant program to shift emphasis to earlier development of research, focusing on societal impact and career readiness.

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Dino Ravnic, professor of surgery, Huck Chair in Regenerative Medicine and Surgical Sciences at the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, blends clinical expertise with technical innovation. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Jul 01, 2025

Huck Chair builds regenerative medicine bridge from lab to surgical suite

With support from the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Dino Ravnic advances translational research through cross-campus partnerships.

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The arc of health frameworks grew over time from one that siloed human, agricultural and environmental ecosystems from each other to a One Health structure that focused on pathogen spillovers shaping the risk of disease across ecosystems. An expanded vision of One Health microbiome sciences from Penn State incorporates the ecology of all microbes. It emphasizes that the flow of both disease-causing and health-promoting microbes links humans, environment and agriculture together to shape the sustainability of ecosystem wellness and resilience. This One Health framework intentionally unifies the microbiome sciences to advance core disciplinary theories and principles with cross-system validation and comparative studies, according to the researchers. Credit: Provided by the researchers. All Rights Reserved.

Jun 11, 2025

Q&A: Unifying the microbiome sciences for global health and sustainability

Recently, members of Penn State's One Health Microbiome Center published an article in the American Society for Microbiology’s flagship journal, mBio. In this Q&A, a few of the paper’s authors discussed how the center is leading the charge to breakdown traditional disciplinary silos and expand the One Health focus to include more than just pathogenic microbial threats.

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With a research portfolio encompassing biosensors, synthetic blood, advanced imaging and more, Dipanjan Pan aims to continuously innovate across disciplines. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Jun 04, 2025

Huck Chair in Nanomedicine plans to take research from bench to bedside

As biomedical challenges grow more complex, Penn State’s Dipanjan Pan is pioneering a multifaceted approach to nanomedicine that spans basic research, clinical translation and entrepreneurial deployment.

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Nikki Crowley, left, principal investigator and director of the Penn State Neuroscience Institute at University Park, Huck Early Career Chair in Neurobiology and Neural Engineering and assistant professor of biology and of biomedical engineering, and collaborator, Nanyin Zhang, right, Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Brain Imaging and professor of biomedical engineering, along with other team members, will use a new five-year, $2.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate the long-term effects of excess alcohol drinking during adolescence. Credit: Keith Hickey/Huck Institutes. All Rights Reserved.

Jun 04, 2025

$2.9M grant funds study on long-term effects adolescent binge drinking

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Penn State will use a new five-year, $2,900,000 grant to investigate the long-term effects of excess alcohol drinking during adolescence.

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Treponema pallidum, represented in this illustration as purple corkscrews, is the bacterium that gives rise to syphilis. Credit: Illustration by quantic69/Getty Images. All Rights Reserved.

May 02, 2025

$2.7M NIH grant to fund first comprehensive syphilis test

In collaboration with his clinical partners at Penn State Health, Carle Foundation Hospital and University of Alabama Birmingham, Dipanjan Pan aims to develop a one-step confirmatory laboratory test that can definitively diagnose active syphilis infection within 10 minutes.

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A team led by scientists at Penn State has created a stretchable, rechargeable sticker that can detect real emotions — by measuring things like skin temperature and heart rate — even when users put on a brave face. Credit: Courtesy Yangbo Yuan / Penn State. Creative Commons

Apr 22, 2025

High-tech sticker can identify real human emotions

A team led by scientists at Penn State has created a stretchable, rechargeable sticker that can detect real emotions — by measuring things like skin temperature and heart rate — even when users put on a brave face.

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Urara Hasegawa, assistant professor at Penn State, demonstrates thermogels, special materials that can turn from a liquid into a solid when triggered by heat. New thermogels developed by Hasegawa and her team show promise as a next-generation biomaterials. Credit: Urara Hasegawa. All Rights Reserved.

Apr 09, 2025

‘Patchy’ thermogels show next-gen biomedical material potential, scientists say

Special biomedical materials that can be injected as a liquid and turn into a solid inside our bodies — called thermogels — could provide a less-invasive way to deliver drugs or treat wounds. Scientists at Penn State have developed a new design for these materials that further improves their properties and may hold particular promise for use in tissue regeneration, the researchers said.

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