Medical professionals may soon be able to detect bacteria in patient samples in minutes rather than days thanks to a new approach that traps and tests single cells, according to a team of biomedical engineers.
Cryogenic-Electron Microscopy (cryo-EM) has been a game changer in the field of medical research, but the substrate, used to freeze and view samples under a microscope, has not advanced much in decades. Now, thanks to a collaboration between Penn State researchers and the applied science company Protochips, Inc., this is no longer the case.
The construction of a new multimodal optical microscope, SCATTIRSTORM, that could enable more efficient bioenergy production, is the focus of a three-year, $1.5 million, U.S. Department of Energy grant awarded to three Penn State researchers.
Xiaojun "Lance" Lian, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, was one of three recipients of the College of Engineering's ENGineering for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (ENGINE) grant for "Small Molecule-Based Definitive Endoderm Kit and Pancreatic Progenitor Kit for Stem Cell Research and Therapy." The project focuses on differentiating stem cells into pancreatic beta cells to be used for therapies to treat Type 1 diabetes.
A faster, more cost-efficient, and more accurate method of examining the effectiveness of human pluripotent stem-cell-derived cardiac muscle cells has been discovered, according to researchers from Penn State.
A material based on a natural product of bones and citrus fruit, called citrate, provides the extra energy that stem cells need to form new bone tissue, according to a team of Penn State bioengineers. Their new understanding of the mechanism that allows citrate to aid in bone regeneration will help the researchers develop slow-release, biodegradable, citrate-releasing scaffolds to act as bone-growth templates to speed up healing in the body.
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.
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.
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.
Suspensions of live bacteria in a viscous liquid do not act as expected when spun at certain speeds and now a team of researchers knows why the bacterial aggregation appears to explode when the spinning stops.
Much as a frame provides structural support for a house and the chassis provides strength and shape for a car, a team of Penn State engineers believe they have a way to create the structural framework for growing living tissue using an off-the-shelf 3-D printer.
A flexible, biodegradable optical fiber that can deliver light into the body for medical applications is the latest work of a collaboration between electrical engineers and biomaterials engineers in Penn State's Materials Research Institute.
A toddler running sometimes loses footing because both feet come off the ground at the same time. Kinesin motors that move materials around in cells have the same problem, which limits how fast they can traverse a microtubule in the cell and carry cargo, according to Penn State researchers who have now seen these kinesin motors move using an unusual microscope and tagging method.
Francisco Diaz, associate professor of reproductive biology in the College of Agricultural Sciences, and Pak Kin Wong, professor of biomedical engineering in the College of Engineering, have received a grant through the Grand Challenges Explorations program — an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — to develop a novel approach to contraception.
Whether using embryonic or adult stem cells, coercing these master cells to convert to the desired target cell and reproduce flawlessly is difficult. Now an international team of researchers has a two-part system that can convert the cells to the targets and then remove the remnants of that conversion, leaving only the desired DNA behind to duplicate.
