About

Paul Griffin is a Research Professor at Penn State's Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering. His role involves advancing research in the field of industrial engineering, with a focus on areas related to manufacturing, operations, and analytics. As a faculty member, he contributes to the department's mission of excellence in research, education, and outreach, supporting the development of innovative solutions and the training of future engineers.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Political Science
• Medicine
• Virology
• Internal medicine
• Business
• Biochemistry
• Public relations
• Biology
• Nursing

Selected publications

• “Smart” harm reduction vending machines to improve public health: Evaluating the utilization

  Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment · 2026-04-24

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Low-barrier methods, including vending machines (VMs), for dispensing harm reduction (HR) items have become popular in the United States. Technological advances have enabled VM's advanced features (e.g., interactive touchscreens, client registration, cloud-based data collection). This report describes the evaluation outcomes from two "smart" VMs (sVMs) in community settings with the goal of reducing harms related to substance use, especially opioids. METHODS: Two sVMs, placed in central Pennsylvania's communities (one outside an urban hospital's emergency department; another inside a community organization's lobby in a small city), dispensed free HR items and provided information on, and linkages to, healthcare, social welfare, and other community services. Data on sVM utilization, collected from May 2024 to May 2025, were analyzed using descriptive statistics; test of proportions was used to compare the data across the two sites. RESULTS: Over one year, 2321 clients accessed the two sVMs, with an additional 4472 sessions with non-registered individuals viewing items or resources. The sVMs dispensed 11,327 items to 2321 registered clients, with hygiene kits (n = 3454), wound care kits (n = 1674), and safer sex kits (n = 1553) being most common. The sVMs dispensed 2755 drug testing strips and 1906 naloxone doses. Furthermore, 396 registered clients obtained information on existing resources/services. Across a total of 14,867 sessions, significant differences in usage were noted between the two sVMs. CONCLUSIONS: Interactive sVMs can effectively dispense HR items and connect individuals to services, thereby having the potential to improve individual and public health. Contextual factors, such as location, may influence utilization.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Metagenomics: a new frontier for routine pathology testing of gastrointestinal pathogens

  Gut Pathogens · 2025-01-18 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Accurate and comprehensive identification of enteropathogens, causing infectious gastroenteritis, is essential for optimal patient treatment and effective isolation processes in health care systems. Traditional diagnostic techniques are well established and optimised in low-cost formats. However, thorough testing for a wider range of causal agents is time consuming and remains limited to a subset of pathogenic organisms. Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) allows the identification of all pathogens in a sample in a single test, without a reliance on culture or introduction of target selection bias. This study aims to determine the ability to routinely apply mNGS testing, in comparison to traditional culture or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based tests, for the identification of causal pathogens for gastrointestinal infections. RESULTS: The performance of mNGS, PCR and microscopy, culture and sensitivity (MCS) assays was established using 2,619 prospectively collected faecal samples from patients with symptomology indicative of infectious gastroenteritiss. Commonly experienced pathogens including Aeromonas spp, Campylobacter spp, Salmonella spp and Giardia spp, in single and co-infected patients, were used to establish test outcomes. When testing for these organisms, using the combined result from either or both PCR and MCS testing as the comparator, the mNGS assay had clinically acceptable sensitivity (89.2-100%). Further, the mNGS assay detected 14 additional enteropathogens, that were either not detected or not tested, by initial PCR/MCS testing. CONCLUSIONS: The advantage of mNGS compared to other syndromic testing systems is the broad range of detectable targets and the ability to interrogate samples without clinician informed or assay specific bias. With the development of newer sequencing assays, it is now feasible to test for a wide range of target organisms in a sample using a single mNGS test. Overall, the mNGS based approach enabled pathogen detection that was comparable to conventional diagnostics and was shown to have the potential to be extended for the detection of many pathogens and genes of clinical interest. In conclusion, the mNGS assay offers an easy, sample to answer workflow with rapid detection of enteropathogens and has the potential to improve diagnosis, therapy and infection control precautions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Follow-up and Outcomes of Infants Perinatally-exposed to HIV in a Low-prevalence Setting: The Multicenter Children’s HIV Exposure Study 2

  Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society · 2025-12-01

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVE: To investigate the follow-up and outcomes of HIV-exposed infants in a setting of low HIV prevalence. STUDY DESIGN: This was a multicenter, retrospective study of live-born infants of women known to be living with HIV, at 9 tertiary pediatric centers in Australia and New Zealand from 2009-2025. Antenatal, perinatal, and postnatal data, and outcomes at clinic visits to 18 months of age were collected, including co-morbidities, development, and HIV results. RESULTS: Six hundred sixty-eight infants were born from 657 pregnancies to 530 women living with HIV. Two (0.3%) infants were HIV-infected. Regarding preventative interventions, 612/616 (99.4%) pregnant women received combination antiretroviral (ARV) therapy, 660/661 (99.8%) infants received ARV prophylaxis, and 543/568 (96%) exclusively formula fed. A total of 94/588 (16%) born <37 weeks, 106/600 (18%) had birth weight <2500 g, and 26/642 (4%) had congenital abnormalities. HIV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing was done for 621/668 (93%) within 2 weeks, 598/664 (90%) at 6 weeks, 582/657 (89%) after 3 months, with a combined total of 643/657 (98%) infants having at least one post 6-week HIV PCR result. At 18-month follow-up, 24/426 (6%) had developmental delay and 47/426 (11%) had at least 1 comorbidity. A total of 577/668 (86%) infants were confirmed as HIV-negative by either negative antibody or 2 negative PCR tests over the age of 6 weeks. CONCLUSIONS: The perinatal transmission rate of 0.3% was extremely low. While the majority of infants were followed up well, the proportion of infants with developmental delay and co-morbidities highlights the need for improved engagement, even in a low-prevalence setting.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Metagenomic Sequencing Enables Clinically Relevant Identification of 176 Targets from Faecal Samples

  Research Square · 2025-07-10

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• XFG could become the next dominant COVID variant. Here’s what to know about ‘Stratus’

  2025-07-08

  preprint1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• QuLTSF: Long-Term Time Series Forecasting with Quantum Machine Learning

  2025-01-01 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Flying optically pumped magnetometers for navigation and sensing

  2025-10-28

  articleOpen access

  The increasing prevalence of semi-autonomous aerial platforms, commonly referred to as “drones”, coupled with rising demands for autonomous operation, has accelerated the development of advanced sensing and situational awareness technologies. One persistent challenge is achieving reliable navigation in the absence of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), particularly for airborne platforms constrained by Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) limitations. Optically Pumped Magnetometers (OPMs), in conjunction with magnetic map matching, offer a potential solution; however, their effectiveness is degraded by magnetic interference originating from the host platform. We report the hard-iron and soft-iron distortions inherent to a multi-rotor drone and quantify the magnetic noise introduced by its motors. We observe that motor-induced noise frequency exhibits a linear relationship with throttle input, whereas the overall noise magnitude does not. Further, interactions among multiple motors produce modulated noise components. Additionally, this noise correlates strongly with pilot control inputs and appears consistently across different sensors, enabling improved identification and mitigation of platform-induced magnetic disturbances.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Win Ratio Analyses of Piperacillin-Tazobactam Versus Meropenem for Ceftriaxone-Nonsusceptible <i>Escherichia coli</i> or <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i> Bloodstream Infections: Post Hoc Insights From the MERINO Trial

  Clinical Infectious Diseases · 2024-02-02 · 11 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Clinical trials of treatments for serious infections commonly use the primary endpoint of all-cause mortality. However, many trial participants survive their infection and this endpoint may not truly reflect important benefits and risks of therapy. The win ratio uses a hierarchical composite endpoint that can incorporate and prioritize outcome measures by relative clinical importance. METHODS: The win ratio methodology was applied post hoc to outcomes observed in the MERINO trial, which compared piperacillin-tazobactam with meropenem. We quantified the win ratio with a primary hierarchical composite endpoint, including all-cause mortality, microbiological relapse, and secondary infection. A win ratio of 1 would correspond to no difference between the 2 antibiotics, while a ratio <1 favors meropenem. Further analyses were performed to calculate the win odds and to introduce a continuous outcome variable in order to reduce ties. RESULTS: With the hierarchy of all-cause mortality, microbiological relapse, and secondary infection, the win ratio estimate was 0.40 (95% confidence interval [CI], .22-.71]; P = .002), favoring meropenem over piperacillin-tazobactam. However, 73.4% of the pairs were tied due to the small proportion of events. The win odds, a modification of the win ratio accounting for ties, was 0.79 (95% CI, .68-.92). The addition of length of stay to the primary composite greatly minimized the number of ties (4.6%) with a win ratio estimate of 0.77 (95% CI, .60-.99; P = .04). CONCLUSIONS: The application of the win ratio methodology to the MERINO trial data illustrates its utility and feasibility for use in antimicrobial trials.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Investigation into the restoration of TRPM3 ion channel activity in post-COVID-19 condition: a potential pharmacotherapeutic target

  Frontiers in Immunology · 2024-05-03 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  Introduction Recently, we reported that post COVID-19 condition patients also have Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin 3 (TRPM3) ion channel dysfunction, a potential biomarker reported in natural killer (NK) cells from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) patients. As there is no universal treatment for post COVID-19 condition, knowledge of ME/CFS may provide advances to investigate therapeutic targets. Naltrexone hydrochloride (NTX) has been demonstrated to be beneficial as a pharmacological intervention for ME/CFS patients and experimental investigations have shown NTX restored TRPM3 function in NK cells. This research aimed to: i) validate impaired TRPM3 ion channel function in post COVID-19 condition patients compared with ME/CFS; and ii) investigate NTX effects on TRPM3 ion channel activity in post COVID-19 condition patients. Methods Whole-cell patch-clamp was performed to characterize TRPM3 ion channel activity in freshly isolated NK cells of post COVID-19 condition ( N = 9; 40.56 ± 11.26 years), ME/CFS ( N = 9; 39.33 ± 9.80 years) and healthy controls (HC) ( N = 9; 45.22 ± 9.67 years). NTX effects were assessed on post COVID-19 condition ( N = 9; 40.56 ± 11.26 years) and HC ( N = 7; 45.43 ± 10.50 years) where NK cells were incubated for 24 hours in two protocols: treated with 200 µM NTX, or non-treated; TRPM3 channel function was assessed with patch-clamp protocol. Results This investigation confirmed impaired TRPM3 ion channel function in NK cells from post COVID-19 condition and ME/CFS patients. Importantly, PregS-induced TRPM3 currents were significantly restored in NTX-treated NK cells from post COVID-19 condition compared with HC. Furthermore, the sensitivity of NK cells to ononetin was not significantly different between post COVID-19 condition and HC after treatment with NTX. Discussion Our findings provide further evidence identifying similarities of TRPM3 ion channel dysfunction between ME/CFS and post COVID-19 condition patients. This study also reports, for the first time, TRPM3 ion channel activity was restored in NK cells isolated from post COVID-19 condition patients after in vitro treatment with NTX. The TRPM3 restoration consequently may re-establish TRPM3-dependent calcium (Ca 2+ ) influx. This investigation proposes NTX as a potential therapeutic intervention and TRPM3 as a treatment biomarker for post COVID-19 condition.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• New COVID vaccines may be coming to Australia. Here’s what to know about the JN.1 shots

  2024-09-09

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• James McCarthy

  University of Melbourne

  135 shared

• Suzanne Elliott

  University of Queensland

  49 shared

• Federico Martinón‐Torres

  Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Respiratorias

  48 shared

• Louise Marquart

  46 shared

• Odile Launay

  Université Paris Cité

  40 shared

• Silvana Sekuloski

  QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute

  36 shared

• Jörg J. Möhrle

  Medicines for Malaria Venture

  35 shared

• Katharine R. Trenholme

  QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute

  29 shared

Education

• MBBS, Medicine

  University of Queensland

  2002

• B.Sc. (Hons), Science

  University of Adelaide

  1998

• B. Sc., Science

  University of Adelaide

  1997

Awards & honors

• Allen L and Sharon L S