Spring 2006
In This Issue:
Focus On BioMaterials
Director's Message
This second issue of Focus on Materials addresses biomaterials and sensors, but the subliminal message is collaboration: collaboration between disciplines, between people, and their collaborative use of new knowledge. Collaboration amongst the life sciences, physical sciences, and information sciences is a mega-trend in academia, and Penn State has been a leader in promoting this approach for its students, faculty, and industrial partners.
There are many challenges and opportunities offered to us by the rapid expansion of knowledge in biology and medicine. A fundamental issue in all of the life sciences is molecular recognition. In this issue, you will see how this kind of knowledge is being exploited by engineers to design chemical and biological sensors for detection and diagnosis in medical and non-medical applications. The students engaged in these projects are working at the interface between life scientists and physical scientists, learning the terminology, the cultures, and the technical challenges of these seemingly disparate fields. Our graduates will be unique and ready to put all this new knowledge to practice in the commercial world.
The people working in these cooperative endeavors cut across all the disciplines and span the practical to the fundamental. On the practical side, there can be no better collaborators for researchers in biomaterials or sensors than the clinicians at the Penn State College of Medicine and Hershey Medical Center. These men and women have patients who need help TODAY. It is probably not so widely appreciated that technology transfer between the laboratory and the real world can be more expedient in the realm of biomedical materials and devices than it is in microelectronic devices and systems where product evaluation is many design iterations and manufacturing process developments away. Thus, it may be surprising to learn about active collaborations between pediatric surgeons and oncologists at our Hershey Medical Center, and engineering graduate students and faculty at University Park.
It will also be obvious that these collaborations feed on themselves over and over again. Biologists who see their knowledge of proteins at work in a sensor for homeland security now see opportunities for sensors in their own research. The engineers who synthesize biomaterials to replace living tissue might see new opportunities for these materials in drug discovery. The design of bioreactors to study bone cancer opens the door to reactors for studying and treating other diseased tissues. And the rapid validation of these medical discoveries can lead to saved lives, better health, and new business opportunities for citizens of the Commonwealth.
Whether it be biology and engineering, art and science, or bugs and homeland security, collaborative activities abound at the Pennsylvania State University. We hope you enjoy reading about the collaborations that are helping to make things happen in biomaterials and sensors, as well as medicine and art.
Sincerely,
Carlo Pantano
Distinguished Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
To access the materials expertise at Penn State, please visit our Materials Research Institute web site at www.mri.psu.edu, or the Industrial Research Office web site at www.techtransfer.psu.edu/iro/.
