Penn State 2003 Annual Report of Research Activity

A n n u a l R e p o r t o f R e s e a r c h A c t i v i t y F Y 2 0 0 3

Office of the Vice President for research

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Overview ........................... 3

Statistical Snapshot ........ 4Sponsored Research highlights

Making a Difference ......... 6Research that impacts lives

Technology Transfer ......10Seven units, one mission

Impacting Pennsylvania ...12Making life better

Innovation Park ...............14A place to grow

Contacts ..........................15

C o n t e n t s

Eva J. Pell, Vice President for Researchand Dean of The Graduate School

When Evan Pugh, the first president of Penn State, arrived in

1859, he immediately established a laboratory.

As he wrote, no true teacher “contents himself with merely attending to

his classes, and sitting down at ease after he has got them at work. He is

studying constantly himself; making original investigations and publishing

them to the world.” This ethic of study, discovery, and publication has

characterized Penn State since its founding and led to the University’s

recognition as one of the leading research universities in the country.

One dramatic measure of Penn State’s success is the continued rapid

growth in the University’s research expenditures, which in FY 2003 reached a

total of $545 million. What the numbers alone cannot show, however, is how

all that activity impacts daily life.

The highlights presented in these pages tell some of that story. In the

decades of bioengineering and clinical work that allowed a first patient to

walk out of the hospital with a fully implantable heart-assist device; the

rapid well-coordinated response to an exotic viral pathogen that helped save

Pennsylvania’s peach industry; the thinking-antenna technology that could

revolutionize wireless communication; in these and hundreds of other ex-

amples the land-grant mission — bringing cutting-edge research to practical

fruition — lives on.

Penn State faculty members and

their students continue to “make

original investigations and publish

them to the world” — generating

knowledge that serves both Pennsyl-

vania and the nation, and helps in

many ways to improve the quality of

life for all Americans.

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On the cover:A color-enhanced transmission electronmicroscope (TEM) image showsnanocomposite platelets of cadmiumsulfide and silicon dioxide, synthesized byself-assembly at Penn State’s ParticulateMaterials Center. See “Nanoparticles,”page 9. Courtesy James Adair.

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O ver the last 15 years, PennState has enjoyed tremendousgrowth in R&D expenditures,

on a scale that has placed the Universitysquarely in the ranks of the nation’s topresearch institutions. From a total of $192million in FY 1988, expenditures have in-creased 184% to $545 million in FY 2003.According to National Science Foundationdata for 2001, the latest year available, PennState ranked 11th among all U.S. universi-ties in R&D expenditures. An indication ofthe wide-ranging quality of the University’sresearch program is that in ten of the fieldsranked by the NSF, from chemical engineer-ing to sociology, Penn State appeared amongthe top five institutions.

The funding for research expenditurescomes primarily from federal, industry, andfoundation sources, and is spent mostly inPennsylvania, providing an important boostto the state’s economy. This year, for the firsttime, expenditures from federal agenciesreached $300 million, with significant in-creases from several major sources includingthe National Science Foundation, up 20%to $42 million; the Department of Energy,up 37% to $12.5 million; the Departmentof Defense, up 9% to $116 million; and theDepartment of Health and Human Services,up 4.6% to $86 million.

Contemporary research is rarely conduc-ted by single investigators, or even in nar-rowly defined fields. One of the things thatmakes Penn State unique is the strength ofits interdisciplinary research efforts. Histori-cally, this interdisciplinarity has been clear-ly evident in the area of materials research.The Materials Research Institute incorpo-rates faculty from the colleges of Earth andMineral Sciences and Engineering, theEberly College of Science, and the AppliedResearch Laboratory into a research pro-gram that is ranked first in the nation. TheUniversity’s other strategic initiatives houselarge-scale collaborative efforts in the PennState Institutes of the Environment, theHuck Institutes of the Life Sciences, andthe Social Science Research Institute, includ-ing the Children, Youth, and Families Con-sortium. Together, these four interdiscipli-nary areas accounted for $333 million inresearch expenditures, over 60% of theUniversity’s total expenditures.

Another historic strength at Penn State,defense-related research, has assumedmore importance than ever in the contextof an intensified national effort to promotehomeland security. The Applied ResearchLaboratory, established in 1945, is PennState’s largest single research unit, withannual research expenditures in excess of

$100 million provided primarily by the U.S.Navy. In addition, in 1999, the Marine CorpsResearch University was founded at PennState to support the educational, research,and technical-assessment requirements ofthe U.S. Marine Corps and the other armedservices as they face the technological chal-lenges of the twenty-first century.

Long a leader in industry-sponsored re-search, Penn State ranks third nationally inthis category, behind only Duke and MIT inthe 2001 NSF tally. It isn’t surprising, then,that the University has made rapid recentgains in the area of intellectual property.According to a study published by MIT’sTechnology Review, Penn State’s patent acti-vity increased by 175% between 1997 and2002, the highest percentage gain of anyU.S. university. The increase in patents,coupled with their relevance — measuredin the number of times patents are cited —moved Penn State from 31st to 14th in thenation in technological strength.

By combining traditional strengths withbold new initiatives, Penn State has posi-tioned itself to lead the way in solving theproblems of the twenty-first century.

O v e r v i e w

The new Life Sciences building at University Park will house Centers of Excellence in plant biology, neurosciences, developmental biology, and toxicology and carcinogenesis.

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Statistical Snapshot

Federal Research Expenditures, 1988-2003

88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03

194

226

263 275288 293

317344 348 353

374393

440

472

507

545Total Research Expenditures, 1988-2003

Fiscal year

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Fiscal year

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$85,894,000

$14,312,000

$12,494,000

$16,690,000

$41,972,000

$20,030,000

$115,638,000

$108,991,000

$84,194,000

$14,982,000

$52,208,000$85,220,000

$15,182,000

$57,145,000

$41,242,000

$76,189,000

$9,678,000

Research Expenditures by Performing Unit

Expenditures from Federal Agencies

$307,030,000

$83,939,000

$73,711,000

$80,351,000

Sources of Research Funding

Industryand Other

Commonwealth ofPensylvania

University

Federal

USDA

DOE

NASA

NSF

Other

Departmentof Defense

Department ofHealth andHuman Services

EPA = $3,272,000Commerce = $898,000Education = $2,045,000Interior = $1,254,000Transportation = $4,922,000Other Federal = $7,639,000

OtherColleges

Arts & Architecture = $920,000Communications = $93,000Education = $6,223,000Information Sci & Tech = $2,508,000Law = $261,000Smeal College of Business = $4,977,000

AgriculturalSciences

Applied ResearchLaboratory

Other

Earth &MineralSciences

Engineering

Medicine

Health &HumanDevelopment

Eberly Collegeof Science

Altoona College = $406,000behrend College = $3,185,000Berks-Lehigh Valley College = $192,000Capital College = $3,210,000Commonwealth College = $1,486,000Penn College = $1,073,000International programs = $126,000

FY2003 Total - $545,031,000 NSF National Rankingsfor FY2001

1 Johns Hopkins U $999,246,000

2 U CA Los Angeles $693,801,000

3 U of WI-Madison $604,143,000

4 U of Michigan $600,523,000

5 U of Washington $589,626,000

6 U CA San Diego $556,533,000

7 U CA San Fran $524,975,000

8 Stanford U $482,906,000

9 U of Penn $469,852,000

10 U of Minnesota $462,011,000

11 Penn State $458,066,000

12 U CA Berkeley $466,273,000

13 Cornell U $443,828,000

14 MIT $435,495,000

Rankings based on NSF Report, “AcademicResearch and Development Expenditures:Fiscal Year 2001”

FY2003 Total - $545,031,000 FY2003 Total - $307,030,000

Liberal Arts

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A Better Head StartWhat’s the best way to prepare pre-schoolchildren for later success in school?

That question drives a national researchinitiative announced last December by U.S.Health and Human Services SecretaryTommy Thompson. With HHS funding,

investigators at eight institutions aroundthe country will conduct studies over thenext five years aimed at making sure child-ren enter kindergarten ready to learn.

One of those institutions is Penn State,where distinguished professor of psychologyKaren Bierman directs the $5 million Head

Over the next hundred years, global warm-ing is likely to challenge regional ecosystemsand economies to adapt to changing clima-tic conditions. Human and environmentalimpacts will depend greatly on decisionsmade at the local level with regard to infra-structure and land-use planning. The Con-sortium for Atlantic Regional Assessment(CARA) is a multi-university project aimedat helping decisionmakers across the mid-Atlantic region predict the combined impactsof climate change, population growth, land-use patterns, and other factors on their localareas, and then tailor planning and policiesaccordingly.

Funded by the U.S. Environmental Pro-tection Agency, CARA involves researchersfrom Penn State, Carnegie Mellon, RhodeIsland, and the Virginia Institute of MarineScience working to assess crucial climate-change impacts — on food supply, waterquality, recreation and tourism, ecosystems,public health, transportation, and otherareas — and to make that informationwidely accessible through a user-friendlywebsite. The site will contain a regional cli-mate service including current and histori-cal climate data and projections of futureclimate; information about local and region-al land use and land cover; and socio-eco-nomic information, such as populationdensity, industry, income levels, and trans-portation networks. Case studies of selectedproblems faced in the region’s coastal andinland areas will be developed with the helpof local stakeholders and presented asdecisionmaking tools.

These resources will be highly integrated,

Making a Difference

so that data ondifferent factorscan be combinedeasily to generatemaps and projec-tions for specificlocations andinstances. Super-imposing layers ofinformation usingGeographic Infor-mation Systems(GIS) will helplocal leaders visu-alize the interac-tions among mul-tiple factors andapply the latest

scientific knowledge to the decisions theymust make — decisions that will determinethe future quality of life in their communities.

To learn more, see http://www.cara.psu.edu/.

Tools for Managing ChangeStart REDI (for Research-Based, Develop-mentally Informed) project.

In partnership with Head Start programsserving underprivileged children in Blair,Huntingdon, and York counties, Biermanexplains, an interdisciplinary team of PennState researchers from the University Parkand York campuses will implement and eval-uate an enrichment program based on thelatest developmental research and designedto enhance both social-emotional and lang-uage-literacy competencies. A sample of320 children will be followed from age threethrough the first grade, half of them follow-ing a standard Head Start curriculum, andthe other half taught according to the REDIprogram, featuring story-based lessons, spe-cific teaching strategies aimed at develop-ing core skills, and take-home materials forparents.

For the social-emotional curriculum,Bierman notes, “we’ll be using a pre-schoolversion of PATHS (Providing AlternativeTHinking Strategies),” a program developedby Penn State researchers Mark Greenbergand Celene Domitrovich which is designedto facilitate the development of self-control,emotional awareness, and interpersonalproblem-solving skills. “Good pre-schoolteachers teach these things,” Biermanacknowledges, “but it’s usually done asconflicts emerge. PATHS is a prevention pro-

gram that teaches childrenalternatives to acting out.”On the language and literacyside, she says, “There’s been alot of research in the last tenyears focused on the develop-ment of core language skills,including the ability to hearsounds, recognize patterns,and understand and producesophisticated grammaticalstructures, like past and futuretense. The curriculum we’veput together is intended tofacilitate a more systematicand intensive exposure tothese skills.

“This isn’t going to be ‘Head Start asyou’ve never seen it,’” Bierman stresses.“We’re taking what is already a very strongdevelopmentally based program and enrich-ing it, to see if we can make it even better.”

To learn more, see http://csc.la.psu.edu/.

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Keystone SummitRepresentatives of Pennsylvania’s four majorresearch universities gathered at UniversityPark last April to kick off a major initiativeaimed at helping the state and thenation strengthen homelandsecurity.

Penn State, the Univer-sity of Pennsylvania, theUniversity of Pitts-burgh, and CarnegieMellon Universityhave formed theKeystone Alliance,combining theircomplementarystrengths to providePennsylvania’s re-sponse to the U.S.Department of Home-land Security’s educationand research needs. Build-ing on successful past partner-ships in the life sciences, system-on-a-chip technologies, and nanotechnology,the four partners plan to extend collabora-tions into a range of important areas in-

Voices of DiscoveryThe year 2003 marked the bicentennial ofone of American history’s defining events:the three-year overland expedition ofMeriwether Lewis, William Clark and theirCorps of Discovery. In celebration, PennState’s University Park campus hosted amajor scholarly conference.

From perspectives in history, art history,political science, literature, philosophy,anthropology, education, and the life sci-ences, “Lewis and Clark: The UnheardVoices,” explored the racially and culturallyambivalent elements of the expedition andits aftermath, with special attention to thevoices of the Native Americans, AfricanAmericans, and others who often go un-heard in traditional narratives of the journey.

The event, co-sponsored by the Collegeof Arts and Architecture, the College ofEducation, the Office of Outreach and Co-operative Extension, and the Institute forthe Arts and Humanities, included artinstallations, library exhibitions, a recital,and the premier performance of York: TheVoice of Freedom, an opera composed byprofessor of music Bruce Trinkley, withlibretto by Jason Charnesky, a graduatestudent in English.

Invited speakers included biologistDaniel Botkin, writer Barry Lopez, artistJaune Quick-to-See Smith, and WilmaMankiller, the first female principal chief of

cluding biology, biomedicine, agriculturalsciences, engineering, information manage-ment and security, and public policy.

“Together, we have strengths that noone could bring individually,”

said Robert McGrath, asso-ciate vice president of

research and directorof strategic and inter-disciplinary initia-tives at Penn State.

At the Alliance’sinaugural summit,keynote speakerCharles McQueary,undersecretary for

Science and Tech-nology in the U.S.

Department of Home-land Security, spoke of

the importance of bridgingthe gap between the cutting-

edge research currently underway atthe country’s national laboratories anduniversities and the development of usabletechnologies by the private sector. Priority

the Cherokee nation, who gave the confe-rence’s keynote address.

Both the conference and the opera thatwas its centerpiece grew out of a 1998 can-tata that Trinkley and Charnesky had com-posed about Meriwether Lewis. As they re-searched that composition, Trinkley andCharnesky realized the richness of thestories surrounding the expedition andbecame interested in developing a largermusical piece to be presented for the bi-centennial, in conjunction with an aca-demic conference.

“We wanted to have a conference thatwould address important issues and at thesame time would reach out both to theUniversity community and to the commu-nity at large,” Trinkley said.

York: The Voice of Freedom tells the story ofWilliam Clark’s African-American slave,York, who was treated as an equal memberof the Corps of Discovery until the expedi-tion ended, when he was forced back intoslavery. The opera was filmed and laterbroadcast on Penn State’s public televisionstation, WPSX.

To learn more, see http://lewisandclark.outreach.psu.edu/.

areas McQueary mentioned include borderand transportation security, emergency pre-paredness and response, chemical, biologi-cal, radiological and nuclear countermea-sures, and information analysis and infra-structure protection.

Penn State projects featured at the sum-mit included research into new sensor tech-nologies for detecting and monitoring bio-toxins, pathogens, air quality, underwatersurveillance, and chemicals; a new type ofvehicle barricade, and helmets equippedwith noise-limiting sensors for use in emer-gency rescue; research on improved struc-tural design and materials for blast surviv-ability of buildings, ships, bridges, andother essential infrastructure; and work onprotecting water resources, food supplies,and cyberspace security.

Keith Martin, director of PennsylvaniaHomeland Security, noted, “Security is notgoing to be a part of life; it is going to be away of life for Americans.”

To learn more, see https://homeland.psu.edu/.

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LionHeartedIn November, Gayle Snider, a 36-year-oldman from York, Pennsylvania, marked fourmonths at home with his Arrow LionHeartTM

— a totally implantable heart-assist deviceconceived of and developed at Penn StateCollege of Medicine in conjunction withArrow International of Reading. Snider,the first U.S. recipient of the device to bereleased from the hospital, celebrated witha trip to Dover International Speedway inDover, Delaware to watch a NASCAR event.

In the same month, Penn State Hersheycardiologist John Boehmer presented theresults of the first clinical trial of the device,which is powered by wireless electronic trans-mission. The study followed 23 patients inEurope from October 1999 to December2002 and showed a low incidence of infec-tion and only three device failures in 17.3years of support time. “LionHeart has a lowerinfection rate than other heart-assist devicesthat require lines or cables protrudingthrough the skin,” said Walter Pae, Penn

Repelling an InvasionWhen plum pox virus was identified in AdamsCounty, Pennsylvania peaches late in 1999,researchers and extension agents from PennState’s College of Agricultural Sciences swunginto action. Working closely with colleaguesfrom the U.S. Department of Agriculture andthe Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture,these experts played an important role in de-fusing a potentially serious economic threat.

Plum pox is a devastating disease of stonefruits. Although it poses no danger to consu-mers, it can ruin the marketability of plums,peaches, and apricots, and severely curtailyields. Widespread in Europe, the virus wasdetected in Chile in 1992, but had neverbeen seen in North America. The AdamsCounty outbreak posed an immediate threatto Pennsylvania’s $25 million-a-year stonefruit industry, and also to the nation’s,valued at $1.8 billion.

The first step to corralling the disease wasmaking growers aware of the danger, andthe symptoms. A massive survey of orchardsled to quarantines of affected areas. To era-dicate the disease, infected and surround-ing trees had to be destroyed.

At the same time research efforts wereinitiated to determine how plum pox spreads.Penn State plant pathologist John Halbrendtset up a lab at the University’s fruit researchand extension center in Biglerville to testweeds and other plant species as potentialreservoirs of the disease. Viral epidemiolo-gist Fred Gildow began experiments to de-termine which of dozens of aphid specieswas responsible for spreading it. EconomistsJay Harper, Tim Kelsey, and Martin Shieldscontributed an impact analysis that helpedconvince the state legislature to reimbursefarmers faced with losing their livelihoods.

The rapid response worked. After some1,200 acres of stone fruit orchards were re-moved in Adams, Cumberland, and Yorkcounties in 2000 and 2001, levels of infectionhave dropped to almost nothing. Intensivesurveys show no presence of the disease out-side the limited outbreak area. Continuedefforts are expected to eliminate plum poxfrom the U.S. over the next few years.

In 2002, the multi-agency team was offici-ally recognized by U.S. Secretary of Agricul-ture Ann Veneman for effectively limitingthe spread of plum pox “by building aninclusive team of university, state, federal,and agricultural industry personnel.”

To learn more, see http://sharka.cas.psu.edu/.

Making a Difference

State Hershey professor of surgery and prin-cipal investigator for the European trial.“Because there is nothing through the skin,it also allows patients to detach from thepower source for short periods to bathe orswim, improving their quality of life.”

Based on the results of the European trial,Arrow International reported, it has receivedauthorization to market the device withinthe European Economic Area as a “destina-tion therapy,” i.e., for permanent implanta-tion. A U.S. trial of the device is currentlyunderway.

The Arrow LionHeart — the first totallyimplantable left ventricular assist device ca-pable of taking over the entire workload ofthe left ventricle — is intended as a long-term therapy for patients with end-stageheart failure who are not candidates forheart transplantation. Such patients makeup the overwhelming majority of the 400,000to 700,000 new cases of heart failure diag-nosed in the U.S. each year.

The technology behindthe Arrow LionHeart wasdeveloped by an interdis-ciplinary Penn State teamled by professor of surgeryand bioengineeringGerson Rosenberg, whowas honored in 2002 asDesign News Engineer ofthe Year.

To learn more, see http://pennstatelionheart.com.

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Keys to the GenomeThe sequencing of the human genome, com-pleted in 2000, was a landmark achievementin human history. But knowing the genome— that string of three billion base pairs, theentire directory of our genetic information— is only the beginning.

The great challenge for today’s genomicsresearchers is to deduce which among theDNA sequences in that vast string are func-tional, and which sequence does what. Oneway to do that is by comparing DNA sequences,both within and between species. Such pain-staking analysis, at such a scale, relies entirelyon advances in bioinformatics, the combina-tion of computer science and molecular bio-logy. Researchers at Penn State’s Center forComparative Genomics and Bioinformatics,part of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences,are actively involved in developing the compu-tational tools and databases that will benecessary.

One of these tools, known as BLAST, hasbeen called the most frequently used pro-gram in biology. Developed by Webb Miller,professor of computer science and engineer-ing at Penn State, along with colleagues atthe National Center for Biotechnology In-formation and the University of Arizona,BLAST, for Basic Local Alignment Search

NanoparticlesImagine a sphere so small it would take10,000 copies lined up to span the width ofa human hair. Within its curved shell is acavity filled with fluorescent dye. Inhaledor injected into the body, this tiny, glowingparticle, tagged with a cell-specific label, at-taches itself only to tumor cells or to whiteblood cells, effectively pinpointing a tumoror an infection.

Materials chemist Jim Adair and doc-toral student Sarah Rouse, working withspectroscopist William White and bio-medical engineer Christopher Siedlecki,are making these nanoscale compositesat the Penn State Particulate MaterialsCenter (PMC).

A National Science Foundation In-dustry/University Cooperative ResearchCenter, the PMC’s mission is to developnew and better ways of manufacturingand processing powders and other par-ticulates used in industries rangingfrom protective coatings to cosmetics.In all of these industries, precise con-trol of particle size, shape, chemistry,and dispersion in solution are vitallyimportant. “The processes we develophave to be efficient, reliable, and simpleenough to be easily adopted,” says Adair,

the Center’s director. The fluorescentspheres, called nanocomposite particles,are an example of a growing focus on nano-particulates, which Adair calls “the future,in both inorganic and biological applica-tions.”

Fluorescent labeling is a widely used tech-nique for medical diagnostics and biologicalimaging. Fluorescent tracers are also used

to track environmental contaminants. Today,tracers are typically made by attaching a pro-tein tag onto a molecule of fluorescent dye.But to do so without destroying the molecule’sability to fluoresce, Adair says, “is a complicatedproblem of organic chemistry.” Instead, heand Rouse found a way to create a compos-ite particle using a self-assembly techniquethat causes silicon dioxide molecules to ar-

range themselves around an opencore. “What you end up with is acore full of dye with a protectiveshell around it,” Adair explains.“Attaching a label to that nice cleansilica surface is chemically very easy.”

So easy, in fact, that the same core-shell technology could be useful formany different applications. Onelikely possibility, Adair says, is as atargeted delivery system for chemo-therapy. “You could create a particlethat will bind to cancer cells only,with a timed-release coating thatwould deliver the drug exactly whereand when you want.”

To learn more, see http://www.mri.psu.edu/centers/pmc/.

Tool, is actually a suite of programs that al-lows for fast, accurate comparisons betweensequences of DNA or proteins. The 1990paper that described BLAST was the mostcited research paper of the last decade. Newversions of BLAST developed in Dr. Miller’sgroup are now used to align the entiregenomes of human, mouse and rat.

Another tool, ETOPE, developed by PennState’s Anton Nekrutenko with colleaguesat the University of Chicago, uses alignedsequences of human and mouse DNA tofind DNA segments likely to code for proteins.Other programs find candidates for sequencescontrolling the time and level of gene ex-pression. GALA, developed by Miller andRoss Hardison, director of the Penn StateCenter, is a database that includes anno-tated versions of the human, mouse and ratgenomes, incorporating up-to-date infor-mation about genes, mutations, and associ-ated functions, and sequence conservation.

The computational predictions that thesetools produce are now being tested experi-mentally in laboratories at Penn State andelsewhere, Hardison notes. Using computa-tional predictions to develop hypotheses totest in the laboratory, while a familiar ap-proach for physicists and chemists, is a new

paradigm for biology, he adds. Penn Stateis taking a lead role in this paradigm shift.

To learn more, see http://www.bx.psu.edu/miller_lab/.

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Technology Transfer

F or faculty and students at Penn

State, the opportunity to do relevant

and commercially useful research is an

important component of the educational

experience, and fulfills a central mission

of the University to serve the people of the

Commonwealth. Through the integrated

efforts of the seven Technology Transfer

units, federal, state and industry funds are

transformed into benefits for all. These seven

units cover every aspect of the commerciali-

zation process, from linking industrial

research sponsors with faculty; to patenting

and licensing; to assisting start-ups with

incubation and advice; to providing finan-

cing, counseling, and technical assistance

for small companies and convenient physi-

cal facilities for companies of all sizes at the

expanding Innovation Park.

New technologies researched and licensed

in FY 2003 spanned the breadth of Penn

State’s expertise, including a calf manage-

ment training system for dairy farming, low

temperature crystallization of amorphous

silicon films, computer-decision models for

implementing marketing tactics and stra-

tegies, new treatments for malignant diseases

including leukemia, surgical simulation

software, and human applications of a gel

drug-delivery system.

Economic development efforts supported

non-university companies in every county

in the Commonwealth, in diverse industries

including auto salvage, cell phone and

laptop high-gain antennas, flame retardant

coatings, food processing, website and

e-business up-grading, powdered metals,

tool making, distributed power generation,

environmental compliance, lumber, and

factory-built housing.

To learn more, see http://www.techtransfer.psu. edu/.

Intellectual PropertyOfficeThe Intellectual Property Office managesall intellectual property developed at PennState, assessing the commercial potential ofapproximately 200 University inventionsper year, formulating and implementingpatent and marketing strategies, and nego-tiating license agreements. The U.S. Patentand Trademark Office ranked Penn Stateninth among all U. S. universities in thenumber of patents issued in 2002.

Penn State continues to accept equitypositions in start-up companies throughlicense agreements. Since 1999, Penn Statehas executed a total of 23 equity-basedlicenses.

Penn State’s technological strength asmeasured by the number of patents issuedand the number of times they are citedincreased Penn State’s ranking from 31st in1997 to 14th in 2002 among all U.S. univer-sities according to data reported in MIT’sTechnology Review.

NOTE: Not included in revenue is theequity Penn State holds in start-up andestablished companies.

Industrial ResearchOfficePenn State ranks third nationally in indus-trially-sponsored research funding. With$545 million in total research expendituresand over 2,500 science and technology basedresearchers, the University is a vast reposi-tory of expertise, technology, and facilities.The Industrial Research Office facilitatesthe connection of businesses to Penn Stateresearchers to pursue collaborations andexternal funding opportunities.

Our team of industry-experienced liai-sons works to understand the varied needsand interests of our clients, from small start-up companies to large multi-national organi-zations, and to transfer that knowledge toour researchers and develop linkages thatlead to mutually beneficial long-term rela-tionships. During FY 2003, IRO facilitatedindustry-sponsored research generated by43 companies, totaling $6.4 million.

Research Commercial-ization OfficeThe RCO helps Penn State faculty and staffcreate new companies based on Universityresearch and technologies. It works closelywith Penn State’s Intellectual Property Of-fice. The RCO can identify and securesources of early stage capital such as seedfunding programs, angel investors, venturecapital funds, etc., as well as mentors andpotential management-team members.Space for start-up companies is available inthe Innovation Park at Penn State and inthe Penn State Zetachron Center for Scienceand Technology Business Development, agift of Dr. and Mrs. Wally Snipes and family.

The Penn State-related companies cur-rently in the incubation process are Chiral-Quest, Inc., Accelerated Product Developent,Inc., Fluent Cardiovascular Solutions, IQSResearch & Development, Thermolose,NanoHorizons, Sentech, Sentechbiomed,DIApedia, QuantumBio, BlueSwarf, Chro-motography Associates, LCM, Inc., Dyna-mic Floor Systems, Verifi, AmericanAnalytical, Sinoceramics, and DecisionPro.

Recent graduates are Mitotyping Techno-logies, EIEICO, Centre Ingredient Techno-logies, Keystone Food Science, Salimetrics,and Advanced Interfaces, Inc.

FY 2003

Invention Disclosures .................. 163

U. S. Patent Applications ............ 167

Issued Patents .............................. 71

Revenues ........................ $3.1 million

Cumulative Equity Held................. 23

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Pennsylvania Techni-cal Assistance ProgramPENNTAP helps Pennsylvania companiesimprove their competitiveness by providinga limited amount of technology assistanceand information to help resolve specific tech-nical questions or needs. The program fo-cuses on helping smaller firms that normallydo not have in-house expertise or resources.A network of PENNTAP technical specialistslocated throughout the state assists thesesmall companies by providing advice, infor-mation, and connections to other expertise,resources or programs.

Formed in 1965, PENNTAP is a federal-state-university partnership for economicdevelopment, and one of the nation’s firsttechnical assistance programs. It remains acredible and valuable resource for helpingPennsylvania companies compete and grow.

Ben Franklin TechnologyCenter of Central andNorthern PennsylvaniaThe BFTC of Central and Northern Penn-sylvania provides financial support, techno-logy and management experience, and waysto link public, private, and educational re-sources to strengthen the high technologycomponents of the state’s economy. It is oneof four regional centers of the Common-wealth’s Ben Franklin Technology Develop-ment Authority.

For FY 2003, 38 research projects werefunded with over $3.83 million in BenFranklin funds and $10.27 million inprivate-sector cash and in-kind funds.

Small BusinessDevelopment CenterThe Penn State SBDC is part of a nationalnetwork of more than 950 centers, 16 ofwhich are based at colleges and universitiesin the Commonwealth, whose mission is toprovide business training and consulting toexisting and prospective business owners.

The Penn State SBDC provides consult-ing assistance to small business owners inCentre and Mifflin counties. In addition,the Center’s two Environmental Manage-ment Assistance Program (EMAP) special-ists, one at University Park and one at theWilkes-Barre campus, provide environmen-tal-management assistance to small businessowners in 19 counties in central Pennsylva-nia and 13 counties in the northeasternregion of the state.

During the past year, Penn State SBDCstaff provided over 4,000 hours of consult-ing assistance. MBA candidates working aspart-time SBDC consultants and under-graduate students conducting environmen-tal research and site visits, designing cor-porate identities, and developing othermarketing materials contributed more than1,448 hours of assistance to SBDC andEMAP clients. The Penn State SBDC con-ducted 52 training seminars and assisted284 small-business clients, tracking invest-ments of $2.9 million.

FY 2002 FY 2003

Cases of Technical Assistance480 810

Clients Reported:

Jobs Created or Saved355 670

Economic Benefits$8.3 million $24.0 million

Satisfaction98% 100%

Chiral Questgoes publicIn February 2003, company officialsannounced the merger of ChiralQuest, LLC, and Surg II, Inc. to formChiral Quest, Inc., a public companytrading on the OTC Bulletin Boardunder the symbol “CQST.OB.” Theannouncement reflected a Penn Statemilestone: “Chiral Quest is the firstUniversity faculty start-up company togo public,” said Gary Weber, associatevice president for research and direc-tor of technology transfer.

Chiral Quest’s technology is basedon the discoveries of Penn State chem-ist Xumu Zhang in the area of chiralchemistry. Chiral chemicals exist in twoforms, one the mirror image of theother, like a right hand and a left hand.Over one-third of all drugs now on themarket are chiral drugs, which meansthat of their two forms one is good, theother is often ineffective or even dan-gerous. Zhang has developed asymmet-ric catalysts to synthesize only the pre-ferred form of such chiral compounds.Several families of his catalysts, con-sisting of multiple invention disclosuresand patent applications, were licensedin October 2000 to Chiral Quest LLC, astart-up company in State College,Pennsylvania.

The newly public Chiral Quest, Inc.,offers an array of catalysis products andtechnology, including the Chiral Tool-box™, which are designed to facilitatethe development of chiral molecules.These products are protected underpatents held by the Penn State Re-search Foundation, which also retainsequity ownership in Chiral Quest.

Soon after going public, the new com-pany announced the appointment ofNobel laureate K. Barry Sharpless, W.M.Keck professor of chemistry at the TheScripps Research Institute, as chairmanof its scientific advisory board. LastJune, Chiral Quest opened a laboratoryfacility in Princeton, New Jersey, tocomplement its existing facility in StateCollege, and to provide enhanced pro-duction capacity. Chiral Quest technol-ogy is being marketed to pharmaceuti-cal and chemical companies aroundthe world. Its current capitalizationapproaches $20 million.

To learn more, see http://www.chiralquest.com/.

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Small Business Boosters

Healthy Economy

An independent study released last Septem-ber shows that Penn State’s Hershey campus— including Penn State College of Medicineand Penn State Milton S. Hershey MedicalCenter — is a major economic engine forboth south central Pennsylvania and theentire state. The study, conducted by thePittsburgh-based Tripp Umbach HealthcareConsulting, Inc., determined that the state-wide economic impact of Penn State Hersheyin 2002 was $613 million, and that the cam-pus generated 13,500 Pennsylvania jobs.

“In measuring the overall impact of PennState Hershey, we found it to be an impor-tant contributor to both the physical andeconomic health of Pennsylvania,” said PaulUmbach, who produced the report. Againstapproximately $4.7 million in unrestrictedstate funding received in 2002 for medicaleducation, Penn State Hershey generatedmore than $34.8 million in total state taxrevenue, a return of $7.40 on the dollar.According to Tripp Umbach, the averageU.S. medical school returns $1.45 for everydollar received from its home state.

The report also shows that Penn StateHershey attracts more than $40 million tothe state just from federal sources for itsresearch activities. In 2002, more than $30million of this support remained in thestate’s economy, generating $65 million ineconomic expansion and more than 2,300Pennsylvania jobs.

Penn State Hershey’s statewide impacthas grown dramatically, from $404 million

in 1995 to $613 million in 2002, and is pro-jected to reach $914 million by 2008 as amajor facilities expansion is completed. Thatimpact should translate to 20,000 total jobs.

In May 2003, Penn State Hershey was amajor sponsor of and participant in Innoven-ture 2003, a two-day science and researchexpo held at the Hershey Lodge and Con-vention Center. Over 130 scientific and com-mercial exhibitors presented highlights ofcutting-edge work being done in the lifeand health sciences in central Pennsylvania.Exhibits covered a wide range of topics, fromnew therapies for melanoma skin cancer toheat-stable enzymes for catalyzing industrialreactions.

The event attracted a host of sponsorsincluding the Ben Franklin TechnologyPartners, the Hershey Foods Corporation,the Life Sciences Greenhouse of CentralPennsylvania, and the Technology Councilof Central Pennsylvania.

“Research and technology are the key toan economy that will lead to better health,lower healthcare costs, and substantial eco-nomic growth,” said Jay Moskowitz, PennState associate vice president for healthsciences research and chairman of theevent. “The central Pennsylvania region ispoised to be a leader in this arena.”

To learn more, see http://pennstatehershey.com.

Impacting Pennsylvania

Penn State’s Pennsylvania Technical Assis-tance Program (PENNTAP), dedicated tohelping Pennsylvania businesses improvetheir competitiveness, won two 2003 out-standing project of the year awards from theNational Association of Management andTechnical Assistance Centers (NAMTAC).

Mark D. Toda, PENNTAP’s senior techni-cal specialist in northeastern Pennsylvania,was cited for the best project in NAMTAC’sBusiness Assistance category. Toda helpedCornell Iron Works of Mountaintop, a lead-ing manufacturer of rolling doors, come upwith a more efficient process for developingnew products. After implementing the newprocess, Cornell Iron Works reported $2million in increased sales and the creationof five new jobs.

John Pletcher, PENN-TAP forest productsspecialist, helpedNature’s Blend WoodProducts, a cabinet-door manufacturer inFord City, use a compu-ter simulation of itsmilling operation tojustify the purchase ofa new gangsaw thatincreased yield of pro-duct from raw materialby 10% and saved$124,000 the first yearin material and labor.Pletcher’s subsequentanalysis showed that byadopting minor process

changes and redirecting scrap into usableproducts the company could save an addi-tional $157,000 per year. Pletcher’s workwas honored as best in NAMTAC’s Tech-nology Transfer category.

In 2002, PENNTAP’s e-business assistanceprogram, e-TAP, developed to help thestate’s small businesses with their Internet,website, and information technology needs,completed 340 cases of technical assistanceand provided $6.8 million in economic be-nefits. A new effort aimed at helping thestate’s food-processing industry with needsrelated to food chemistry and safety, shelflife, quality control, packaging and otherissues completed 45 cases of technical assis-tance and provided $2.3 million in benefits.

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Tuned InEver lose the signal in the middle of a cell-phone conversation? Thad Will is tired ofthat all-too-common occurrence. That’sone of the things that drives his interest infinding a market for a new antenna techno-logy that could revolutionize wireless com-munication. Will and three other MBA stu-dents from Penn State’s Smeal College ofBusiness Administration — Jonathan Butz,Krishna Patel, and Sean Raynak — devel-oped a business plan for the new antennathat was good enough to win $35,000 in acontest sponsored by Ben Franklin Techno-logy Partners last June.

The students undertook the project as partof the MBA program’s entrepreneurshipcomponent. Tony Warren, executive direc-tor of Smeal’s Farrell Center for CorporateInnovation and Entrepreneurship, matchedthem with the inventors of the device, pro-fessors Tom Jackson and Doug Werner ofPenn State’s College of Engineering.

Today’s ferrite antennas, Will explains,are based on a decades-old technology thatis increasingly insufficient for the growingdemands of wireless communication. Aferrite antenna sends a signal out in all

directions, and when it finds a source trans-lates the return signal into reception. Thisapproach is much less efficient than an an-tenna that is tuned directly to its source,like a satellite dish. Jackson and Werner,Will says, “have developed a technology thatbuilds on the directional idea. An antennathat is constantly retuning itself.”

The prototype for the new device lookslike a small square cut from a lap-top com-puter screen. It uses pixelized display totransmit radio signals accurately and effici-ently, requiring less battery power than astandard antenna and increasing gain recep-tion three- to six-fold, according to prelimi-nary tests. It could eventually be shrunk tothe size of a postage stamp, small enough tofit easily on the back of a cell phone or aPalm Pilot.

Will and his partners submitted a businessplan based on the invention to the BenFranklin contest, which aims to boost Penn-sylvania’s economy by promoting entrepre-neurship and technological innovation.Winning the $35,000 award has allowedthem to proceed with an intellectual proper-ty search and subsequent patent filings.

FrontaLobe, the company they formed, isnow incorporated and has signed anexclusive licensing agreement with PennState. “Right now we’re awaiting the resultsof prototype testing before we can go outand attract some investors,” Will reports.

Harnessing LightFrom the remote-control clicker that runsyour TV to the surgical laser that splices aligament or slices out a tumor to the liquidcrystal display in your computer, optical tech-nologies — based on the generation andcontrol of light — are all around us. In addi-tion to being increasingly important in dailylife, electro-optics are also the basis for im-aging, weapons, and communications tech-nologies that impact our national defense.

The Electro-Optics Center was establishedin 1999 as a part of Penn State’s AppliedResearch Laboratoryto support the growthof this rapidly evolv-ing field. Created asan initiative of theOffice of Naval Re-search, the EOChas as its mission toimprove the techno-logy and reduce thecosts of electro-op-tical manufacturingthrough applied re-search, technologytransfer, and work-force education.

Currently locatedin a 22,500 square-foot facility in the

West Hills Industrial Park near Kittanning,Pennsylvania, the EOC contains laboratoryand classroom space, and a “teaching factory”for the development of prototypes andprocesses. Last August, U.S. Rep. John P.Murtha (D-PA), who has played a lead rolein bringing the Center to southwesternPennsylvania, unveiled plans for an expanded,45,000-square-foot facility in ArmstrongCounty that will serve as the EOC’s perma-nent home.

The Center’s research is organized in four

core areas: fiber optics, lasers, materials, andnight vision/infrared technologies. Some ofthe technology enabled by the EOC, parti-cularly in the area of night vision, has beenused in the recent conflicts in both Afghan-istan and Iraq. The Center has also devel-oped educational programs for both K-12and adult audiences to address a growingshortage of workers adequately trained inelectro-optics technology.

Finally, the EOC has established the Elec-tro-Optics Alliance to assist technologytransfer to industry, and to promote U.S.preeminence in the field. The EOA current-ly has 223 members: 178 industrial, 36 aca-demic, and 9 government affiliates.

Over the last four years the existence ofthe Center has played a role in drawing atleast nine new electro-optics-related com-panies to western Pennsylvania and hashelped to generate almost 200 new jobs.“Electro-optics is a rapidly growing industry,and we’re positioning ourselves to be aninternational center,” Rep. Murtha saidrecently. “As the Electro-Optics Centergrows, I think it’ll become even more of amagnet to attract more companies and jobsto western Pennsylvania.”

To learn more, see http://www.electro-optics.org/.

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Innovation Park at Penn State wasadopted by the University’s Board ofTrustees in 1987 as a phased-develop-ment project to assist in the economic

revitalization of the Commonwealth. Locat-ed adjacent to Penn State’s University Parkcampus at the interchange of I-99 and U.S.Route 322, Innovation Park is 118 acresdesignated for business development,including incubating start-up companiesthrough mature corporations, as well asamenities to support businesses and theiremployees. The mission of Innovation Parkat Penn State is to provide space, access toUniversity researchers and facilities, andbusiness-support services that help compa-nies transfer the knowledge within theUniversity to the marketplace and to fostereconomic development.

During FY 2003, Innovation Park hosted41 tenants, incuding 12 in the business incu-bator. In addition to consulting with PennState faculty, park tenants used 96 PennState undergraduate interns and 92 gradu-ate students, and hired 25 Penn State alumni.Four tenants were companies based onlicensed Penn State intellectual property.

Construction continues on three build-

ing projects approved in FY 2002, includingconstruction of an Innovation OutreachBuilding and a privately developed multi-tenant building, and an expansion of thePenn Stater Conference Center Hotel.

The Innovation Outreach Building, whichwill house both Penn State Public Broadcast-ing and the World Campus, Penn State’sweb-based distance education program, willbe complete in early 2005.

The multi-tenant building, a 75,000square foot privately developed facility at328 Innovation Boulevard, will be completein early fall of 2004, the first building to beconstructed in Phase 3 of Innovation Park.Several tenants have already signed leasesfor space in the building. This project alsoincludes an improvement of infrastructureand extension of the boulevard necessaryfor Phase 3. In partnership with theChamber of Business of Centre County,Innovation Park secured grant funds fromthe Appalachian Regional Commission andthe Pennsylvania Infrastructure Develop-ment Program to assist with these improve-ments. The road extension will be completein early fall of 2004 and will provide fouradditional construction-ready building sites.

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The Penn Stater Conference CenterHotel construction will be complete in July2004, with an additional 150 guest roomsbeing added to the facility.

A fourth project, expansion of the Tech-nology Center, is now complete and severalnew start-up companies moved into thefacility as tenants in January. This projectwas undertaken in partnership with the LifeSciences Greenhouse of Central Pennsylva-nia, which provided grant money for theaddition of 2,000 square-feet of wet-labspace intended to provide space for incu-bating life science companies in the Centreregion.

Innovation Park has joined a partnershipwith the economic development offices ofBedford, Blair and Centre counties tomarket the I-99 Innovation Corridor. Withconstruction of the I-99 highway improve-ments, the regional marketing effort is de-signed to highlight the benefits and oppor-tunities of locating business adjacent to theresearch and technology resources availableat Penn State.

To learn more, see http://www.innovationpark.psu.edu/.

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ADMINISTRATION

Eva J. PellVice President for ResearchDean of the Graduate School304 Old Main,University Park, PA [email protected]

Robert T. McGrathAssociate Vice President for ResearchDirector, Strategic andInterdisciplinary InitiativesDirector, Marine CorpsResearch [email protected]

Jay MoskowitzVice Dean for Research,College of MedicineAssociate Vice President for HealthSciences [email protected]

Robert A. KillorenAssociate Vice President for ResearchDirector, Office of Sponsored [email protected]

Ronald J. HussInterim Director of Technology Transfer814-865 [email protected]

INTERDISCIPLINARYRESEARCH

Karen Linn BiermanDirector, Children, Youthand Families [email protected]

William E. EasterlingDirector, Penn State Institutesof the [email protected]

Mark D. HaywardDirector, Social Science Research [email protected]

Laura L. KnoppersDirector, Institute for the Arts and [email protected]

Edward G. LiszkaDirector, Applied Research Laboratory814-865-6343egl4 @psu.edu

Carlo G. PantanoDirector, Materials Research [email protected]

C. Channa ReddyDirector, Huck Institutes of the Life [email protected]

TECHNOLOGYTRANSFER

Karen L. DickinsonDirector, Innovation Park at Penn [email protected]

Jack A. GidoDirector, Pennsylvania Technical AssistanceProgram (PENNTAP)[email protected]

Donna A. HolmesDirector, Small Business [email protected]

Ronald J. HussDirector, Intellectual Property Office814-865 [email protected]

Daniel R. LeriDirector, Research [email protected]

Tanna M. PughDirector, Industrial Research [email protected]

Vic F. RussoPresident/CEO, Ben Franklin TechnologyCenter of Central and NorthernPennsylvania, [email protected]

PUBLICATIONSDavid PacchioliDirector, Research [email protected]

Sanford G. ThatcherDirector, The Penn State [email protected]

For more information, visit our Website at http://www.research.psu.edu/.

C o n t a c t s

This publication is available in alternative media on request.The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admission, and employment without regard to personal characteristics not relatedto ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. The Pennsylvania State University does not discriminate against any person because of age,ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to the Affirmative ActionDirector, The Pennsylvania State University, 201 Willard Building, University Park, PA 16802-2801; tel. (814) 863-0471; TDD (814) 865-3175. U.Ed. RES 04-40