Research: Health Science and Biotechnology
Nanobiotechnology at Penn State
The emerging field of nanobiotechnology combines expertise in the physical sciences, biology, engineering, and medicine. At Penn State, faculty expertise in these fields is brought together through the interdisciplinary research missions of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and the Materials Research Institute.
Together, these institutes provide seed funding for collaborative research in areas such as biological and chemical sensing, drug delivery via nanoparticles, high frequency ultrasound sensing at the cellular level, lab-on-a- chip technologies, and the development of nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes, silicon nanowires, and zinc oxide nanorods for advanced genomics, proteomics and drug discovery.
The application of nano techniques and tools to human health has the potential for enormous returns in the near to mid term, approximately five to fifteen years. New methods for delivering targeted anticancer drugs via functionalized molecule-sized particles will avoid the side effects of chemotherapy by releasing drugs only within the tumor over a controlled period; biosensors on the battlefield or emergency room will monitor key enzymes and send wireless signals that provide real time information about traumas and injuries; new antimicrobial nanosilver coatings for surgical instruments, implants, and dressings will reduce the risk of hospital-related infections; advanced electroactive polymers and nanocomposites will be developed as artificial muscles; microsurgical tools small enough to perform sutureless surgery on the eye or in orthoscopic devices within the body will be created from powdered metal nanoparticles.
Each of these advances in healthcare is currently being developed by Penn State scientists and engineers in collaboration with clinicians at The Penn State Milton S. Hershey College of Medicine. The results of their collaboration are exhibited to industry and the Penn State community each year in the highly successful CrossOver program, a two-day event that attracts many of the nation's most successful biomedical companies to the University Park campus.
In 2008, groundbreaking will begin on an ambitious Materials/Life Science complex that is designed to provide the most advanced tools of nanotechnology, and bring together the most talented researchers in the materials and biological sciences in one central location to generate the kind of collaborative research that nanotechnology enables. This synthesis of nano and bio technologies at Penn State is expected to provide large-scale pay offs in the coming decade.
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Related Institutes & Centers
Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences
Faculty: Health Science and Biotechnology
- Adair, James H.
- Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
- (814) 863-6047 - jha3@psu.edu
- http://www.matse.psu.edu/faculty/adair
- Allara, David L.
- Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
- (814) 865-2254 - dla3@psu.edu
- http://www.chem.psu.edu/directory/dla3/
- Research Keywords: Self-Assembly; Bio/Chem Sensing; Biointerfaces; Nanoplasmonics; Molecular Electronics
- Banavar, Jayanth R.
- Distinguished Professor of Physics
- (814) 863-1089 - jayanth@phys.psu.edu
- http://www.phys.psu.edu/people/display/index.html?person_id=19
- Research Keywords: Nanofluidics; Proteins; Genetic Networks
- Demirel, Melik C.
- Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics
- Pearce Development Professor
- (814) 863-2270 - mcd18@psu.edu
- http://www.esm.psu.edu/people/directory/resume.php?id=mcd18
- Research Keywords: Biomaterials; Nanofabrication and Nanomaterials; Protein Engineering; Sensors; Simulation and Modeling
- Ewing, Andrew G.
- Professor of Chemistry
- (814) 863-4653 - age@psu.edu
- http://www.chem.psu.edu/directory/age
- Research Keywords: Single Cell; Lipid Domains; Artificial Cells; Membrane Materials
- Hancock, William O.
- Associate Professor of Bioengineering
- (814) 863-0492 - wohbio@engr.psu.edu
- http://bioeng.psu.edu/faculty/Hancock.html
- Keating, Christine D.
- Associate Professor of Chemistry
- (814) 863-7832 - keating@chem.psu.edu
- http://www.chem.psu.edu/directory/cmd8
- Research Keywords: Biosensors; Nanoparticles; Optical Properties; Assembly; Bioconjugates
- Kester, Mark
- Professor of Pharmacology
- (717) 531-8964 - mxk38@psu.edu
- http://www.fred.psu.edu/ds/retrieve/fred/investigator/mxk38
- Kester, Mark
- Professor of Pharmacology
- (717) 531-8964 - mxk38@psu.edu
- Lakhtakia, Akhlesh
- Charles Godfrey Binder Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics
- (814) 863-4319 - akhlesh@psu.edu
- http://www.esm.psu.edu/~axl4/
- Research Keywords: Sculptured Thin Films, Optical Sensors, Tissue Engineering, Biomedical Substrates; Chiral and Bianisotropic Materials; Electromagnetics, Acoustics, Elastodynamics; Negative Refraction, Negative Phase Velocity; Carbon Nanotubes, Nano Education
- Pantano, Carlo G.
- Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
- Director, Materials Research Institute
- (814) 863-2071 - cgp1@psu.edu
- http://www.matse.psu.edu/faculty/pantano
- Research Keywords: Electronic and Optical Devices; Thin Film Coatings; Silica; Surfaces and Interfaces; Glass
- Sen, Ayusman
- Distinguished Professor of Chemistry
- Head, Department of Chemistry
- (814) 863-2460 - asen@chem.psu.edu
- http://www.chem.psu.edu/directory/axs20
- Research Keywords: Nanotechnology; Polymer Science; Materials Science; Catalysis; Composites
- Siedlecki, Christopher A.
- Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering
- (717) 531-5716 - csiedlecki@psu.edu
- http://fred.psu.edu/ds/retrieve/fred/investigator/cas38
- Research Keywords: Biomaterials; Medical Devices; Soft Lithography
- Velegol, Darrell
- Professor of Engineering
- (814) 865-8739 - velegol@psu.edu
- http://www.che.psu.edu/faculty/velegol/index.htm
- Research Keywords: Colloidal Assembly; Bottom-Up Assembly; Nanocolloids; Nanoparticles; Charge Nonuniformity
- Wolfe, Douglas E.
- Research Associate and Assistant Professor of Materials
- (814) 865-0316 - dew125@psu.edu
- http://www.matse.psu.edu/faculty_acd/dual/wolfe
- Research Keywords: Nanolayers and Coatings; Multilayer Coatings; Corrosion Resistance; Erosion Resistance; Antibacterial Films