Scott H. Medina

Scott H. Medina is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, with affiliations at the Penn State Cancer Institute, One Health Microbiome Center, and Cancer Institute's Next-Generation Therapies program. His research pioneers biomaterials and nanomedicine platforms for therapeutic and diagnostic applications.

His expertise spans drug discovery, phase-changing nanomaterials, peptide assembly, antimicrobial/anticancer peptides, fluorous chemistry, and ultrasound-mediated therapies. He develops fluorine-modified biologics and peptide nanoemulsions to target cancer, infectious diseases, and neurodegenerative conditions, with research directly contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals for health and well-being.

Recent publications reveal dominant trends in ultrasound-programmable nanosystems: peptide nanoemulsions enable non-invasive biofilm debridement, atherosclerotic plaque detection, and amyloid β disruption, while metal-organic frameworks and fluorous protein coatings advance antibacterial and thermostable bioformulation strategies across cardiology, neurology, and infectious disease domains.

Medina secures major funding from NIH (NIGMS, NCI, NIAID, NIDDK) and NSF, leading projects including cellular fate of fluorine-modified biologics (2021-2026), ultrasound contrast agents for cellular immunotherapies (2024-2025), biomimetic peptide aerosols for tuberculosis (2021-2024), and ultrasound-programmable kidney gene editing (2021-2023), plus an NSF CAREER award for phase-changing protein delivery systems (2019-2025).

He directs a multidisciplinary laboratory collaborating with immunologists, infectious disease specialists, and cancer biologists to translate nanomedicine innovations into clinical applications for deep-tissue imaging, targeted drug delivery, and next-generation therapeutics.