HCAR - Hershey Center for Applied Research. South Centrals Pennsylvania's Premier Research Park Located Adjacent to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine.
Artificial Organs and Medical Devices
Researchers in the HCAR community are among the world leaders in the development of artificial organs and medical devices that will extend and improve lives.
Penn State has, for over 25 years, been a world leader in development of artificial hearts and ventricular assist devices. The activities include the development of electrically powered long-term mechanical left ventricular assist devices and artificial hearts, systems intended for long-term support for patients who are not candidates for cardiac transplantation, or who are unlikely to receive scarce donor organs.
Long-term implantable devices present a number of engineering challenges in order to meet the requirements of long life, high reliability, small size, and energy efficiency. Emphasis is placed on interdisciplinary participation in research activities by members of the College of Medicine, the College of Engineering, and the Bioengineering Program.
Penn State has developed a pneumatically powered left ventricular assist device that is now a commercial product, and has been utilized in over 1,000 patients. Penn State has also developed a pneumatically powered artificial heart that has been utilized in four patients at Penn State's University Hospital, The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.
The major focus is now directed on permanent completely implantable systems. Complete system simulation is used to study the interactions among the major subsystems: the cardiovascular system, the blood pump and valves, the electromechanical pump actuator, the implanted controller (hardware and software), batteries, and the transcutaneous energy transmission system.
The left ventricular assist device is in the final stages of commercialization, while the total artificial heart is beginning a two-year test period for qualification with the Food and Drug Administration. Research is funded through the National Institutes of Health, through industrial funding, and through foundation and private support.
Medical Devices
The Biomedical Engineering Institute was formed within the Department of Bioengineering at the Pennsylvania State University in February 1998 with a Special Opportunity Award from the Whitaker Foundation. The primary research focus of the Institute is research and development of medical devices.
The Hershey Medical Center is a unique environment to promote collaboration between engineers, clinicians, and the biomedical industry. Bioengineering faculty working in the departments of Surgery, Orthopedics, Radiology, and Anesthesia are focused on five specific research areas including prosthetic and therapeutic devices, diagnostics and imaging, surgical devices and technology, cardiovascular biomaterials, and orthopedics and rehabilitation.
The prosthetic and therapeutic devices area draws on faculty expertise in design of implanted devices and processes for their evaluation and regulatory approval. Particular topics include the artificial heart and circulatory support devices, vascular grafts and cardiac valve prostheses, orthopedic implants, the artificial lung, the artificial kidney, neurostimulators, cochlear implants, cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators, cardiopulmonary bypass, regulatory processes, clinical trials, and quality systems.
The cardiovascular biomaterials laboratory is under the direction of Dr. Christopher Siedlecki . The research efforts in the laboratory are focused towards understanding the molecular mechanisms responsible for thrombogenesis on implanted cardiovascular biomaterials. The relationships between the implanted biomaterial, the circulating plasma proteins, and the cellular elements of blood are poorly understood, particularly at the molecular and submolecular levels. Dr. Siedlecki's group uses a variety of sensitive analytical and experimental techniques, novel nano- and microfabrication methodologies and mathematical modeling to elucidate these interactions in order to define parameters for the rational development of new biomaterials.
Research in the area of orthopedics and rehabilitation is unique in that an integrative multidisciplinary approach is utilized to address issues of musculoskeletal biology and pathology. Musculoskeletal biology is studied at the molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, and whole animal level. Specific research interests of the faculty include, molecular biology of cartilage development and osteoarthritis, transgenic animal models of musculoskeletal disease, bone and cartilage cell biology, biophysical signal transduction as it applies to orthopedic problems, pathophysiology of age-related and post-menopausal osteoporosis, computational biomechanics, effects of exercise on bone and cartilage, assessment of orthopedic implant function and failure, and matrix metalloproteinase expression in connective tissue.