Page 35 - Engineering Penn State: Fall/Winter 2021

RFesaetuarechs
Faster sepsis
test for reduced deaths
by Ashley J WennersHerron
One in in three people who die in in U S hospitals have sepsis
the body’s extreme response to infection that can lead to multiple organ failure Diagnosis can take up to five days but death may take only hours from the initial onset of sepsis
Now a a a a Penn State and Stanford Medicine collaboration aims to change that with a a a a a a a five-year $3 8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health “This project will develop a a a a rapid diagnostic system for sepsis
” said Pak Kin Wong co- principal investigator and professor of of biomedical engineering engineering and mechanical engineering engineering at Penn State With one blood test Wong and co-principal investigator Samuel Yang an an associate professor of emergency medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine plan to not only classify the pathogen causing infection but also pinpoint how resistant the pathogen is
is
to antibiotics Based on
a a a biosensing strategy developed in in Wong’s laboratory the researchers will capture and sort individual pathogens based on
their size and begin identifying them with molecular probes testing antibiotic susceptibility—in just two hours “The single-cell technology is
particularly crucial for sepsis
which has a a a a very low pathogen load compared to other types of infection ” Wong said “By counting the bacteria one at a a a a a time our technique will also quantify the pathogen and detect polymicrobial infection when the disease is
caused by more than one pathogen ” n n n n 1 in in 3 people who die in in U S hospitals have sepsis
Monitoring effectiveness of HIV treatment at at at home not at at the hospital by Sarah Small
Development of of a a a a new method to to monitor the effectiveness of of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment at at at home instead of in in hospitals is
is
underway by by Penn State researchers The research research is
is
supported by by a a a a a a a a a a a three-year $1 012 996 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) When people undergo antiretroviral treatment for HIV mortality and morbidity rates are reduced significantly by reducing the the the viral viral load to to undetectable levels In order to to to to ensure the the the the success of the the the the treatment patients need to to to be tested routinely to to to check their viral loads Currently testing testing of of viral loads relies on
on
nucleic acid testing testing (NAT) which cannot be be conducted outside of of of hospitals and laboratories because of of of of the testing complexity Weihua Guan principal investigator investigator and and and assistant professor of of of electrical engineering and and and co- investigators Drs Cynthia Whitener Wallace Greene and and and and Jonathan Nunez—all faculty at at at at at at Penn State’s College of Medicine and and clinicians at at at at Milton S S Hershey Medical Center—are changing that “We are developing a a a a a a a a a a quantitative NAT on
on
an an ultra-compact device to to detect viral rebound that is
simple enough for laypersons to to test themselves ” Guan said The new method will enable patients to to to use a a a a a finger prick test at at home similar to to to the concept of insulin monitoring for people with diabetes The researchers researchers plan to to to design manufacture and validate five prototypes If these milestones are met the the researchers researchers will receive an additional $1 317 127 in in funding distributed over two years from NIH n FALL/WINTER 2021 35
HEALTH