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Bioengineering

Refining data into knowledge, turning knowledge into action
paris perdikaris graphic

Homepage image: No one type of medical imaging can capture every relevant piece of information about a patient at once. Digital twins, or multiscale, physics-based simulations of biological systems, would allow clinicians to accurately infer more vital statistics from fewer data points.

Refining data into knowledge, turning knowledge into action

Penn Engineering researchers are using data science to answer fundamental questions that challenge the globe—from genetics to materials design.

From Penn Engineering Today

Three Penn faculty named Hastings Center Fellows
Holly Fernandez Lynch, Quayshawn Spencer, and Connie Ulrich.

Holly Fernandez Lynch of the Perelman School of Medicine, Quayshawn Spencer of the School of Arts & Sciences, and Connie Ulrich of the School of Nursing.

Three Penn faculty named Hastings Center Fellows

Holly Fernandez Lynch, Quayshawn Spencer, and Connie Ulrich have been named Hastings Center Fellows for deepening public understanding of complex ethical issues in health, health care, science, and technology.
​​​​​​​Two Penn seniors named 2022 Rhodes Scholars
Raveen Kariyawasam and Nicholas Thomas Lewis

Two Penn seniors have been awarded 2022 Rhodes Scholarships for graduate study at the University of Oxford, Raveen Kariyawasam (left), from Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Nicholas Thomas-Lewis, from Kimball, Nebraska. Kariyawasam is in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wharton School, and Thomas-Lewis is in the College of Arts and Sciences.

​​​​​​​Two Penn seniors named 2022 Rhodes Scholars

Two Penn seniors have been awarded Rhodes Scholarships for graduate study at the University of Oxford, Raveen Kariyawasam, from Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Nicholas Thomas-Lewis, from Kimball, Nebraska.
‘Encrypted’ peptides could be wellspring of natural antibiotics
Microscopic view of an amino acid chain.

‘Encrypted’ peptides could be wellspring of natural antibiotics

An interdisciplinary team of Penn researchers have used a carefully designed algorithm to discover a new suite of antimicrobial peptides, or naturally occurring antibiotics, in the human genome.

From Penn Engineering Today

Penn is establishing a $100M center to focus on the intersection of engineering and biomedicine

Penn is establishing a $100M center to focus on the intersection of engineering and biomedicine

A planned Center for Precision Engineering for Health, housed in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, will focus on developing biomaterials for personalized medical treatments. “Engineering solutions to problems within human health is one of the grand challenges of the discipline,” Dean Vijay Kumar said. “Our faculty are already leading the charge against these challenges, and the Center will take them to new heights.”

Penn establishes the Center for Precision Engineering for Health with $100 million commitment
Microscopic  biomaterials.

The Center for Precision Engineering for Health will bring together researchers spanning multiple scientific fields to develop novel therapeutic biomaterials, such as a drug-delivering nanoparticles that can be designed to adhere to only to the tissues they target. (Image: Courtesy of the Mitchell Lab)

Penn establishes the Center for Precision Engineering for Health with $100 million commitment

The Center will conduct interdisciplinary, fundamental, and translational research in biomaterials that can create breakthroughs in improving health care and saving lives, including nanoparticle technologies to improve storage and distribution of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.

Evan Lerner

Penn engineers will develop on-demand, on-site mRNA manufacturing
emulsions of oil and water separated by a layer of nanoparticles.

Bijels, or bicontinuous interfacially jammed emulsion gels, are structured emulsions of oil and water that are kept separated by a layer of nanoparticles. Penn Engineering researchers will develop a way of using them to manufacture mRNA-based therapeutics. (Image: Penn Engineering Today)

Penn engineers will develop on-demand, on-site mRNA manufacturing

With an NSF grant, Penn Engineering researchers are developing a new manufacturing technique that would be able to produce mRNA sequences in a way that removes the need for cryogenic temperatures.

From Penn Engineering Today

Smart dental implants
diagram of tooth with metal screw attaching it to gum with words smart dental implant

A “smart” dental implant could improve upon current devices by employing biofilm-resisting nanoparticles and a light powered by biomechanical forces to promote health of the surrounding gum tissue. (Image: Courtesy of Albert Kim)

Smart dental implants

Geelsu Hwang of the School of Dental Medicine and colleagues are developing a smart dental implant that resists bacterial growth and generates its own electricity through chewing and brushing to power a tissue-rejuvenating light.

Katherine Unger Baillie

New engineering approaches to address unmet oral health needs
Three images of circles and squiggles representing microbes and fungi

Time-lapsed fluorescence imaging captures how fungi can be killed precisely. Such approaches can improve how tooth decay-causing biofilms might be targeted. (Image: CiPD)

New engineering approaches to address unmet oral health needs

With a new NIH training grant, awards, and new faculty and publications, the recently launched Center for Innovation & Precision Dentistry is leveraging technological advancements to improve oral health.

Katherine Unger Baillie