UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As a reconstructive microsurgeon by training and translational researcher by mission, Dino Ravnic is no stranger to building bridges: between disciplines, campuses and even tissue layers. He has spent the last decade helping shape a cross-campus ecosystem for regenerative medicine that reaches from Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center to Penn State Harrisburg and to the heart of the University Park research community.
“I think the research we’ve built over the last seven or eight years is pretty astounding,” said Ravnic, a professor of surgery who holds the Huck Chair in Regenerative Medicine and Surgical Sciences at the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. “It has enormous potential for clinical translation.”
Ravnic joined the Penn State College of Medicine in 2013 as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon with a deep interest in improving patient outcomes. He said his clinical work in reconstructive surgery quickly revealed opportunities to integrate engineered materials into surgical practice. He began collaborating with University Park faculty almost immediately, as he sought to connect clinical practice with scientific innovation. These early partnerships, many through the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, revealed a shared interested in translation work and laid the groundwork for an expanding ecosystem of interdisciplinary projects in tissue repair.
“There were a lot of like-minded people at the Ph.D. level doing the basic science and engineering around tissue engineering,” he said. “At the time, some were affiliated with Huck and some were not. Over time, as our projects developed, many of them became Huck faculty.”
These collaborations eventually evolved into a more formal initiative. Ravnic and his colleagues launched a regenerative engineering program supported by the Huck Institutes, which brought in external speakers and helped build an interdisciplinary network of faculty across Penn State. Today, Ravnic and his team are working to formalize regenerative medicine and engineering teams across the University with the goal of supporting long-term, clinically impactful innovation.
As the collaborative research in tissue engineering grew more complex, Ravnic made an unusual decision for a practicing surgeon: He enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Penn State. Already holding master’s degrees in public health and in stem cells and regeneration, he said he saw the Ph.D. as a necessary step to fully understand and contribute to the engineering side of the research.
“It was really about being able to understand the engineering aspects more deeply and speak the language,” he said.
Through coursework in biomaterials, stem cell biology and biofabrication — areas that intersect directly with his clinical and research focus — he built a foundation that allows him to more effectively collaborate with faculty from engineering and materials science.
Despite a demanding clinical schedule, Ravnic said he remains deeply committed to cross-campus collaboration, regularly traveling from Hershey to University Park to stay engaged with research teams.
“All the collaborators I work with are essentially my friends,” he said. “That makes it easy.”
At the center of Ravnic’s research is the challenge of vascularization — how to help bioengineered materials form blood vessels once implanted. His lab develops strategies to encourage vascular growth within hydrogels and other biomaterials, many of which are already used in reconstructive surgery.
“We are developing the next generation of the host-biomaterial interface for vascularization,” he said. “I call it vascularized tissue engineering.”
Ravnic’s approach blends clinical expertise with technical innovation. He has designed a new surgical instrument to improve vascular outcomes, holds several patents and continues to explore commercialization opportunities with industry collaborators.
“There is real potential to help shape how existing products evolve and perform in clinical settings,” he said.
In 2024, Ravnic was named a Huck Leadership Fellow, a role designed to give midcareer faculty a broader view of the life sciences enterprise and help shape strategic collaboration across Penn State.
“The fellowship really allowed me to step back and see the whole spectrum,” he said. “There are so many areas of science I would not otherwise be exposed to.”
The experience also expanded his role as a leader. Ravnic now serves as vice chair of research in the Department of Surgery at the College of Medicine, where he is working to unify and grow the department’s research portfolio. Some of that work overlaps with his own lab’s focus, but much of it involves supporting other specialties and connecting them to broader opportunities at University Park.
“My goal is to synergize what we have in the Department of Surgery with what is happening at University Park,” he said. “We want to build something integrated and lasting.”
This integration is already underway. With collaborator Ibrahim Ozbolat, professor of engineering science and mechanics at Penn State who also holds the Huck Chair in 3D Bioprinting and Regenerative Medicine, Ravnic is preparing to scale up regenerative research, bringing their work one step closer to clinical trials.
“We are getting closer and closer to human application,” Ravnic said. “The hope is to create a long-standing framework for regenerative medicine at Penn State.”
Another key example of this interdisciplinary approach is Ravnic’s collaboration with chemical engineer Amir Sheikhi, the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Early Career Chair in Biomaterials and Regenerative Engineering and associate professor of chemical engineering and of biomedical engineering at Penn State, to accelerate vascularization in tissue repair. This work was published in Small in February 2024.
By combining a novel biomaterial known as granular hydrogel scaffolds (GHS) developed by Sheikhi with Ravnic’s the microsurgical technique called micropuncture the team demonstrated a new platform for guiding blood vessel growth — a critical step, Ravnic said, in regenerating soft tissue rather than replacing it with scar. Supported in part by Huck seed funding and a grant from the National Institutes of Health, the work exemplifies the kind of high-impact, cross-disciplinary science that Ravnic said he hopes to expand through stronger ties between Hershey and University Park.
That long view is shared by Huck leadership. Christina Grozinger, director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology, called Ravnic’s work essential to the institute’s mission.
“Dino exemplifies the kind of translational and interdisciplinary work that Huck was built to support,” Grozinger said. “He brings clinical insight to engineering collaborations, bridges the geographic gap between campuses, and has a clear vision for what regenerative medicine can look like when research and patient care truly inform one another.”
Ravnic credited the people and philosophy of Huck with helping his ideas take root.
“I am really indebted to the Huck,” he said. “It is not just about financial support. It is about the relationships. Huck gave us a platform to build something together that would not have happened otherwise.”
Even the physical distance between Hershey and University Park has become a nonissue. Weekly virtual lab meetings, regular travel and joint experiments across campuses have made seamless collaboration possible — allowing the combination of curiosity, creativity and a desire to see students and trainees carry the mission forward drive the work rather than logistics, Ravnic said.
“It is just fun,” he said. “It is fun to see new things come to life.”
To those just starting their careers or thinking about a leadership role in translational research, Ravnic offered this advice.
“Look for innovation at the interdisciplinary borders,” he said. “Find the ideas that seem like they shouldn’t work. It is often those that move the needle forward.”