Research in Surgery

Laboratory: Maintains a polymer fabrication lab (700 square feet), system assembly clean room (260 square feet), machine shop (1,000 square feet), electronics lab (200 square feet), mock loop test lab (630 square feet), mechanical assembly room (120 square feet) and computer-aided design room (120 square feet) in the Biomedical Research Building. Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center maintains a 1,000-square-foot clinical Hematology, Coagulation and Thrombosis Laboratory section that also supports our research mission.

Animal: The large animal wing of the Animal Research Facility has surgery and surgical support facilities (2,000 square feet), two animal care rooms (1,250 square feet), a radiology suite, holding rooms, and a necropsy room. Office and storage space (800 square feet) are also available. The Department of Comparative Medicine includes histopathology, clinical chemistry and microbiology labs to support research. The diagnostic labs provide rapid hematology, clinical chemistry, serologic and histologic support, and diagnostic bacteriological studies, including antibiotic sensitivity testing for each species of lab animal. A staff of veterinarians trained in lab animal medicine and veterinary pathology provides professional support.

Computer: Computer support provided by Penn State includes internet access, software and license support as well as access to regional supercomputing facilities. The College of Medicine provides support for local networking and data backup. Computer-aided design tools and data acquisition systems in the Division of Applied Biomedical Engineering are PC-based. Licensed software includes Solidworks, Autodesk Simulation CFD, CONVERGE CFD, CAESES, LabView, and Matlab. Several stand-alone PC’s are available for controller software development, data acquisition and analysis, and monitoring of in vivo and in vitro experiments.

Office: Adequate office space is available for both in-person and video conferences, analysis of research data and manuscript preparation. Grant preparation support services and budget administration are available through the Department of Surgery at the College of Medicine. Statistical analysis support is available through the Division of Outcomes Research and Quality within the Department of Surgery and also in conjunction with the Department of Public Health Sciences.

Office: The faculty offices are within an office suite which contains a conference room for collaborating with other faculty that contains 533 square feet. A full-time administrative assistant that assists with scheduling and other duties is available to provide office administrative support.

Computer: The primary computing facility for the department’s faculty and staff is an integrated network of Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh and Sun Solaris computing platforms. Faculty and staff are equipped with Intel-based PC workstations running Microsoft Windows 7 Professional and Mac OS X. All systems on the department’s Ethernet network communicate via the TCP/IP protocol. Print services for the department are handled by several networked HP Color LaserJet Postscript-compatible laser printers with duplex capability. Common statistical and data management packages such as SAS, SPlus, Stata, StatXact, Sudaan, SPSS, Mplus, Genstat, Glim, nQuery, DBMS Copy and Minitab, as well as R, C, C++, Fortran 90 and 77 compilers with associated libraries (including IMSL Math Libraries), and other computing resources are readily available for use in statistical analysis and data management.

Laboratory: Located on the fourth floor of Biomedical Research Building, the laboratory is state-of-the-art and is well-equipped for all aspects of biochemical, molecular biology and molecular genetics research. The laboratory has a total of 1,983 square feet, in four rooms. This includes all of the standard laboratory equipment (i.e., vortexes, stirrers, pH meter, balances, etc.) and an array of molecular biology equipment, refrigerators, freezers, centrifuges, incubators and more.

Computer: Dr. Yochum has a personal computer (Macintosh iMac, with OS X) and a laser printer in his office. The laboratory has 5 additional computers (3 desktop, 2 laptop) assigned to research staff members. All computers are connected through the network, and each has access to the Internet and e-mail. Software available on all computers includes Microsoft office, Adobe photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Graphpad Prism. The computers are also linked to our main campus at University Park. The University Park link affords access to the Biotechnology Institute, which maintains a large variety of protein and DNA analysis programs including the Galaxy pipelines used to map and analyze Next-generation sequencing libraries. The campus Information Resources Technology unit supports the campus website, which includes departmental and programmatic websites. The University computing center supports the email system, financial management system, and the interactive videoconferencing network for the 25 Penn State campuses. The Harrell Library at the College of Medicine is part of the University computing network.

Office: Dr. Yochum has a private office (100 sq. ft.) within the laboratory that is equipped with a desk, a telephone, a small conference table, a white-board, filing cabinets, bookshelves and standard office equipment. The room has high-speed, hard-wired internet access, and access to the internet through the wireless network. The office provides the necessary space for meeting with research team members, analyzing and interpreting results, and preparing manuscripts for publication. The lab office is down the hall from the main Department of Surgery, Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery office suite where the PI has access to color printers, a fax machine and copiers. The secretarial and administrative support team for the department is also located in the main office. The PI has full access to institute secretarial support.

Laboratory: The well-equipped, 2,000-square-foot laboratory has 8 rooms: adjoining 90-square-foot technician’s office, 90-square-foot fellow’s office, 90-square-foot microscope room, three 120-square-foot cell culture rooms, and an 80-square-foot bioprinting room. The laboratory is housed with multiple computers for use by lab personnel.

Office: Dr. Ravnic has a separate office within the Division of Plastic Surgery academic suite. The Division has a library/conference room with generous space for group meetings between key personnel. The Department provides secretarial assistance, office supplies and telephone.

Laboratory: A 3D printing program has been established within the Department of Surgery. The 3D printer allows for the rapid conversion of innovative ideas into working prototypes for experimental use in just a few hours. Working in concert with Radiology’s “3D Recon enhanced patient imaging technologies,” anatomical models can first be visualized in 3D and then quickly built to hold in your hands for use as a surgical planning tool, clinical decision adjunct, surgical practice tool or classroom aide.

The Fortus 400mc 3-D printer is located on the fourth floor in the Dept of Surgery research labs. Cost for using the printer is based on an hourly rate with discounts for larger print times.

For details, email 3DPrint@pennstatehealth.psu.edu.

Learn more about our institutional core facilities here.