Health and medicine

WATCH: Tracking disease progression in technicolor

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 14:03:24 -0500

Penn State Professor Dipanjan Pan and his team are advancing the imaging capabilities by developing contrast agents to target specific molecules and processes that may reveal more about disease progression than traditional scans.

Videos may be more effective than handouts for conveying health information

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 11:14:50 -0500

Videos may be more effective than handouts when educating family medicine patients about ways to improve their diet, according to new research from scientists in the Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences and the Penn State College of Medicine.

NSF CAREER Award supports pursuit of ‘soft’ solutions for spinal cord injuries

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 10:07:48 -0500

Tao Zhou, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics and of biomedical engineering in the Penn State College of Engineering, earned a five-year, $660,000 U.S. National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award to develop injectable and stretchable hydrogel electrodes to treat spinal cord injuries.

Researcher from Ukraine studies and displays resilience

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 08:02:36 -0500

Community engagement and social support are the most important factors for building resilience and a healthy life among forced migrants, according to new research led by Yaryna Andrushko, postdoctoral scholar in the Penn State Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center who is also a forced migrant.

$17.9M NIH grant to research neurodevelopment disorders

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 01:24:54 -0500

Illuminating key biological pathways that underlie neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is the goal of a new five-year, $17.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health to a national team, led by researchers at Penn State.

Biosensing platform simultaneously detects vitamin C and SARS-CoV-2

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 14:54:50 -0500

Penn State engineering researchers have developed a portable and wireless device to simultaneously detect vitamin C and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, by integrating commercial transistors with printed laser-induced graphene.

Feb. 5 lecture to discuss how sleep health affects daily life, long-term health

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 14:08:19 -0500

Orfeu Buxton, Elizabeth Trenton Susman Professor of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State, will present the 2025 Pattishall Research Lecture, “Sleep Health Across the Life Span,” on Wednesday, Feb. 5, at 3 p.m. in the Edna Bennett Pierce Living Center. Sponsored by the College of Health and Human Development, the lecture is free and open to the public.

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

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 11:49:39 -0500

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.

Penn State industrial engineering grad student named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 10:01:46 -0500

Industrial engineering doctoral candidate Kevin Mekulu has been named to the 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the category of health care. He was selected for his work in improving screening for cognitive impairment with his artificial intelligence-based technology, which he developed through his startup, DementiAnalytics.

Q&A: Keeping on track with New Year’s resolutions

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 10:00:00 -0500

Every year, when the calendar flips to a new year, people reflect and set resolutions for the coming year. But by the second half of the month, some have started to abandon their goals. In this Q&A, Melissa Bopp, professor of kinesiology at Penn State, shared tips on how to set realistic goals and what to do to avoid backsliding on New Year’s resolutions.

Fewer delays, more launches of cancer drugs in higher income countries

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 05:09:12 -0500

The development of new drugs is critical in treating cancer — if people have access to them. A team co-led by Penn State researchers identified cancer drugs launched between 1990 and 2022 and found that countries with higher gross national income per capita typically had more launches and shorter launch delays.

Predicting the progression of autoimmune disease with AI

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 13:56:04 -0500

Knowing who may progress along the disease pathway is critical for early diagnosis and intervention, improved treatment and better disease management, according to a team led by researchers from the Penn State College of Medicine that has developed a new method to predict the progression of autoimmune disease among those with preclinical symptoms.

Alum’s undergraduate research drives passion for healthy transit

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 04:15:18 -0500

Women and gender non-binary students’ likeliness to walk or bike in campus settings was almost 30% lower than their male counterparts, despite the known benefits of bicycling. Emily Dzieniszewski, a 2021 Penn State graduate, recently published her undergraduate research on this topic.

Pet dogs often overlooked as spreader of antimicrobial-resistant Salmonella

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 03:39:02 -0500

A team of researchers from Penn State have found that household dogs are an overlooked transmission point for Salmonella, a pathogen that can cause diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps, with some infections potentially having life-threatening complications. However, they said, better awareness of the risk and proper hygiene could potentially help mitigate cross-species infections.

Berks Senior Spotlight: Diana Stoltzfus

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 13:53:04 -0500

Diana Stoltzfus has certainly made the most of her college experience at Penn State Berks, from conducting research on the effects of virtual reality on exercise, to earning a 4.0 GPA, to being a star player on the women’s volleyball team. She will graduate as student marshal during Berks' fall 2024 commencement ceremony, set for 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 21, at the Santander Arena in Reading. The title of her commencement speech is "The Power of Perseverance."

New treatment for dairy cows could help fight antibiotic resistance, study finds

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 14:26:15 -0500

A concentrated sugar solution could be just as effective as antibiotics at treating a common infection in dairy cows, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.