By Stephanie Baringer Imagine this: you are at a family gathering and your mom sees your newest tattoo and starts to interrogate you on the purpose of your new ink masterpiece. In a mix of excitement and internalized teenage angst you exclaim, “But mom, you don’t understand! This tattoo could save my life!” Maybe that … Continue reading Biosensing Tattoos Your Mother Would Approve Of
Biomedical
Aspirin and Its Evolution Across Decades
By Hannah Johnson Figure 1: A box of aspirin.[6] When you have a headache, a fever, or inflammation, the usual response to obtain relief would be taking an NSAID (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug), such as aspirin or ibuprofen. While these are common over the counter (OTC) drugs that are often found in a person’s medicine cabinet, … Continue reading Aspirin and Its Evolution Across Decades
Predicting Alzheimer’s Disease: The Rise of Novel Biomarkers
By Rebecca Fleeman Why are some diseases easy to diagnose and others aren’t? For instance, we can get a COVID rapid test and have a result in hours, whereas a disease like Alzheimer’s requires numerous tests over several months to make a diagnosis. Simply put, COVID is an infectious disease, caused by one single known … Continue reading Predicting Alzheimer’s Disease: The Rise of Novel Biomarkers
Getting to the Heart of the Problem: The Penn State Heart Legacy
By Victoria Silvis Since the first successful kidney transplant in 1954, organ transplantation has become an increasingly common procedure with over 39,000 occurring in the United States in 2020.1,2 While the pancreas, heart, and liver were the next organs to be transplanted in the 1960’s, organ procurement was a challenge, as the United Network for … Continue reading Getting to the Heart of the Problem: The Penn State Heart Legacy
The Knee Jerk Reflex: More Than A Simple Medical Test
By Mariam Melkumyan If you have ever been to a primary care physician, they have almost certainly used a little hammer to tap your knee to test for your knee-jerk reflex. In response to this tap, your leg likely jerked a little, hence the name of the reflex. This simple test is used to assure … Continue reading The Knee Jerk Reflex: More Than A Simple Medical Test
Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT): An Explanation of the Syndrome and its Impact on Learning
By Rachel Kallus, Psy. D How often do you feel tired, spacy, confused, and in your own world as you get through the day? The answer is probably quite different if you are a college student, overnight shift worker, new (or not so new) parent, or a vacationer on the beach. Despite different answers, we … Continue reading Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT): An Explanation of the Syndrome and its Impact on Learning
Not Your Average Neuron: Neurons From Your Blood
By Kalin Z. Salinas Would you believe if I told you that your blood could be used as a new form of medicine in the future? Physicians often recommend annual blood tests because they may reduce your risk of various diseases by allowing you to gain information about your overall health. What if I told … Continue reading Not Your Average Neuron: Neurons From Your Blood
What’s Diss? Explaining my (diss)ertation titled “Investigating the Wnt/MYC axis in the pathogenesis of Crohn’s disease”
By Stephen Matthews, Ph.D. This article is based on the dissertation of Dr. Stephen Matthews who defended his thesis at PSCOM on June 2, 2021. TL;DR: Genetic variants can be linked to diseases through genome-wide association studies. While some variants are found in protein coding genes, many are found in non-coding regions of the genome, … Continue reading What’s Diss? Explaining my (diss)ertation titled “Investigating the Wnt/MYC axis in the pathogenesis of Crohn’s disease”
Chasing the Dream of the Dermal Regenerator
By Julia Simpson Adventures exploring the Final Frontier make for entertaining television – the enduring success of Star Trek since the original series’ airing (1966-1969)1 testifies to that – but for the characters navigating often tumultuous interspecies politics, adventure can be a dangerous business. Fortunately for those characters, by the time Star Trek: The Next … Continue reading Chasing the Dream of the Dermal Regenerator
Key to a Healthy Mind is a Glass of Wine
By Savanna Ledford Anti-inflammatory properties of wine may protect you from Alzheimer’s Disease. From Olivia Lerche, Daily Express The Power of Wine Research has shown that wine, the drink of choice for some when unwinding from a mentally exhausting day, may have a larger role for our health. What would you think if I … Continue reading Key to a Healthy Mind is a Glass of Wine
Lions Talk Science 