By applying the same predictive strategies used in weather forecasting, Penn State’s Steven Schiff is changing the way we approach treatment of infectious diseases worldwide.
Penn State's Steven Schiff is building predictive models for developing countries so doctors can prepare and create personalized treatments where they're needed most.
A new National Institutes of Health (NIH) High-Risk, High-Reward grant will allow Penn State’s Steven Schiff and team to explore a radically changed approach to predicting, preventing and treating infectious disease at the individual level at point-of-care. This venture provides the researchers an opportunity to explore a new way of addressing critical unmet needs, especially in the developing world.
When migraine sufferers see the tell-tale squiggly lines, light flashes and blind spots of a migraine aura, they prepare for a migraine. When researchers see the brain image of an aura, they try to figure out what causes it and if there is a way to stop the start of the migraine. Now an international team of researchers has identified the electrical activity specific to the start of migraines and demonstrated a way to stop it in animal experiments.
Over the past 34 years, rainfall in Uganda has decreased by about 12 percent even though many of the global climate models predict an increase in rainfall for the area, according to an international team of researchers. Rainfall levels in Uganda impact agriculture, food security, wildlife habitats and regional economics as well as the prevalence of certain diseases.
Implanting a shunt or endoscopically reducing intracranial pressure and reducing fluid production are equally effective in treating infants with hydrocephalus caused by brain infections, according to an international team of researchers, but endoscopy may have fewer down-the-line complications.
A first-of-its-kind mouse model could lead to an understanding of how cerebral malaria infection leads to the development of epilepsy in children, and to the prevention of seizures. The model — a way for researchers to simulate the effects of malaria in children by using mice — was developed in a collaboration between researchers at Penn State's colleges of medicine, engineering, science and agriculture.
Steven Schiff, professor of neurosurgery and Brush Chair Professor of Engineering in Engineering Science and Mechanics, has received a $4.1 million National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award, for research aimed at reducing the number of infant deaths from neonatal sepsis in developing countries by identifying the roots of infection, from season of birth to home environment.
Seizures and migraines have always been considered separate physiological events in the brain, but now a team of engineers and neuroscientists looking at the brain from a physics viewpoint discovered a link between these and related phenomena.
The amount of rainfall affects the number of infant infections leading to hydrocephalus in Uganda, according to a team of researchers who are the first to demonstrate that these brain infections are linked to climate.
Eight Penn State faculty members have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The Fellows are Consuelo M. De Moraes, professor of entomology; Jainendra K. Jain, Erwin W. Mueller Professor of Physics; John A. Kelmelis, professor of international affairs; Judith Kroll, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Linguistics, and Women's Studies and director of the Center for Language Science; Beverly Lindsay, professor of education, higher education and comparative and international education; Steven J. Schiff, director, Penn State Center for Neural Engineering, Brush Chair Professor of Engineering, professor of neurosurgery, engineering science and mechanics, and physics; Mauricio Terrones, professor of physics and materials science and engineering; and Darrell Velegol, professor of chemical engineering.
The treatment of hydrocephalus in African children and the effects of climate on newborn infections will be the focus of testimony when Steven Schiff, director, Penn State Center for Neural Engineering, and Brush Chair Professor of Engineering testifies before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, at 2 p.m. on Tuesday (Aug. 2).
Steven Schiff, director of Penn State's Center for Neural Engineering, discusses what insipred him to embark upon a project to improve the quality of medical care in East Africa.
Dr. Steven Schiff, director of Penn State's Center for Neural Engineering, discusses his project to improve the quality of medical care in East Africa.
