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

A multi-institutional team led by Dipanjan Pan, the Dorothy Foehr Huck & J. Lloyd Chair Professor in Nanomedicine at Penn State, recently received a five-year, $2.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to develop the next generation of synthetic blood. Credit: Provided by Dipanjan Pan. All Rights Reserved.

Apr 01, 2025

$2.7M NIH grant to fund next generation of synthetic blood

A multi-institutional team led by Dipanjan Pan, the Dorothy Foehr Huck & J. Lloyd Chair Professor in Nanomedicine at Penn State, recently received a four-year, $2.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to develop the next generation of synthetic blood.

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Sol De Jesus, right, movement disorder neurologist and co-director of the Penn State Health Deep Brain Stimulation Program, performs the health system’s first adaptive DBS activation on patient Deborah Barnhart. Credit: Penn State Health. All Rights Reserved.

Mar 28, 2025

Hershey Medical Center first in Pennsylvania to offer new Parkinson’s treatment

Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center has become the first hospital in Pennsylvania and one of only 23 in the nation to offer BrainSense adaptive deep brain stimulation (aDBS), an advanced treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

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A team led by researchers at Penn State including David Koslicki, associate professor of computer science and engineering and of biology, was recently awarded a five-year project by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Science to work on a project aiming to accelerate drug discovery, with the potential to treat rare diseases. The team seeks to improve NIH's Biomedical Data Translator, which is a network of computer interfaces that take biomedical research questions and provide fact-based responses. The above graph shows a high-level view of the Biomedical Data Translator functionality. Researchers input a question and the system, which includes knowledge bases of scientific research and literature from discoveries, works together to provide a response to the question. Credit: National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Science's Biomedical Data Translator Consortium. All Rights Reserved.

Mar 26, 2025

Translator for biomedical research aims to speed up patient care

$12.8M, five-year project brings together multiple institutions to improve and expand NIH Biomedical Data Translator

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Researchers found that orally administered sevelamer — a dialysis drug — can bind off-target antibiotics, shown being injected into the arm here, in the gut. Off-target antibiotics, or antibiotics that end up in the body away from the point of infection, can contribute to bacteria evolving to develop antibiotic resistance. Credit: Provided by Amir Sheikhi. All Rights Reserved.

Mar 18, 2025

FDA-approved dialysis drug may help fight against antimicrobial resistance

The study, conducted in mice, revealed that sevelamer can successfully remove off-target antibiotics from the gut.

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Credit: Courtesy of the Bisanz Lab / Penn State. Creative Commons

Mar 04, 2025

Synthetic microbiome therapy suppresses bacterial infection without antibiotics

Precise, targeted treatment using limited strains of gut bacteria effectively protected against C. difficile infection, severe symptoms and recurrent infections in mice.

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Photo: Kate Myers, Penn State College of Engineering

Feb 28, 2025

Could 3D-printed air revolutionize bioprinting?

A novel technique for creating voids and channels within bioprinted living tissues could help break the vascularization barrier, unlocking the next generation of medical applications for the technology.

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Through a series of experiments, the research team led by Scott Medina, right, William and Wendy Korb Early Career Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Penn State, replaced the water-based solution commonly used in protein-based medications with a perfluorocarbon oil and tested five different proteins with a range of health-related functions such as antibodies and enzymes. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Jan 17, 2025

Discovery could eliminate need to refrigerate vaccines and protein-based drugs

A new storage technique can keep protein-based drugs and vaccines stable without keeping them cold. The discovery, led by researchers at Penn State, could eliminate the need for refrigeration for hundreds of life-saving medicines like insulin, monoclonal antibodies and viral vaccines.

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Jul 22, 2024

Alternative understanding of brain leads to new treatments for stroke patients

Since the early 20th century, researchers believed that movements on the right and left sides of the body were controlled by the opposite hemisphere of the brain. However, Penn State researcher Robert Sainburg proposed the complimentary dominance hypothesis, which states that both sides of the brain have a role to play in control of both sides of the body.

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The study may provide beekeepers with information to help make decisions about managing their colonies to combat these high colony losses during the winter. Credit: Annie Spratt/Unsplash. All Rights Reserved.

Jun 03, 2024

Combining pest treatments may be key to helping honey bees survive the winter

Winters can be tough on managed honey bee colonies, with beekeepers in the United States reporting that one-third of their colonies die each winter. A new study by Penn State researchers has found that using not one but multiple pest treatments may help bees make it to spring.

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Sep 05, 2023

New updates come to 'Beescape,' an online tool for supporting pollinators

New updates have come to Beescape, an online tool created by a Penn State-led team for assessing the quality of landscapes for supporting bees and other pollinators.

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