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Four research teams from across Penn State were awarded seed grants to their advance biodevice-related projects. Image: iStock/@ipopba

By Tessa M. Pick

Interdisciplinary research teams from across Penn State recently received seed grants from the Penn State Biodevices Seed Grant program and the Grace Woodward Collaborative Research in Engineering and Medicine Grant program to fund their work in advancing biodevices.

The Penn State Biodevices Seed Grant program, administered by the Penn State Center for Biodevices in the College of Engineering, supports research collaborations among engineers, scientists and clinicians. The program funds research focused on biodevices that improve human and animal health. The College of Engineering, the College of Medicine, the Materials Research Institute and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences provide funding support for the program. 

“The Center for Biodevices is very pleased to support these seed grant projects,” said Mary Frecker, Riess Chair of Engineering and director of the Center for Biodevices. “They are exactly the kind of cross-disciplinary, cross-campus collaborations we seek to promote. We look forward to the discoveries the teams will make that will enable key advances in biodevices.” 

The Grace Woodward Collaborative Research in Engineering and Medicine Grant program, administered by the College of Engineering and the College of Medicine, supports research focused on advancing the fields of life sciences and medicine. The two awarded teams will develop and study interventional biodevices for use in human clinical medicine. 

“The opportunity to leverage the Grace Woodward Collaborative Research Grants to further the mission of the Center for Biodevices has been key to the initial momentum of the Center for Biodevices,” said Sarah Bronson, associate dean for interdisciplinary research and associate professor of cellular and molecular physiology in the Penn State College of Medicine. “Similarly, aligning the processes of the two funding mechanisms, the Grace Woodward Collaborative Grants and the Penn State Biodevices Seed Grants, provides increased visibility and scientific rigor.” 

The recipients of the Penn State Biodevices Seed Grant are:  

  • Jason Moore, associate professor of mechanical engineering; Joshua Winder, staff physician; Randy Haluck, staff physician; and Paris Von Lockette, associate professor of mechanical engineering, for their project, “Novel Single Incision, Free Motion Laparoscopic Surgical System.” 

  • Ibrahim Ozbolat, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics and biomedical engineering; Thomas Samson, associate professor of plastic surgery; Francesco Costanzo, professor of engineering science and mechanics, mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering; Douglas Cavener, professor of biology; and Srinivas Koduru, assistant professor of surgery, for their project, “High-throughput Bioprinting of Islets for Fabrication of Pancreatic Devices for Type 1 Diabetes.”

The recipients of the Grace Woodward Collaborative Research in Engineering and Medicine Grants are: 

  • Daniel Cortes, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; Vitaly Gordin, staff physician of pain medicine; Jason Moore, associate professor of mechanical engineering; and Thomas Neuberger, associate research professor and director of the High Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging Facility, for their project, “New Radiofrequency Ablation Procedure for Facet Joint Pain.” 

  • Mehdi Kiani, associate professor of electrical engineering, and Andras Hajnal, professor of neural and behavioral sciences, for their project, “Gastric Vagal Stimulation to Reduce Adverse Behavioral Outcomes of Gastric Bypass.”

Read the full news story here: 

https://news.psu.edu/story/663376/2021/07/08/research/penn-state-research-tea...