Molecular Cellular And Integrative Biosciences News | Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences

H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak has caused mass die-offs in wild birds, farmed poultry and even wild mammals. New research suggests that widespread immunity to H1N1 seasonal influenza virus may explain why exposure to H5N1 bird flu causes only mild symptoms in humans. Credit: Opla/Getty Images. All Rights Reserved.

Jul 23, 2025

Seasonal flu immunity protects against severe illness from bird flu in ferrets

A study in ferrets — which have remarkably similar respiratory systems to humans — suggests that widespread immunity to H1N1 seasonal influenza virus may explain why exposure to H5N1 bird flu causes only mild symptoms in humans.

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Jasna Kovac, left, and Seth Bordenstein, right, are the co-program directors and authors of the BIOMS grant. Credit: Huck Institutes for the Life Sciences and Eberly College of Science / Penn State. Creative Commons

Jul 22, 2025

$2.6M NIH grant to fund new microbiome sciences training program at Penn State

The internationally recognized One Health Microbiome Center (OHMC) in the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State is the recipient of a new National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to train doctoral students in biotechnological innovation, industry advancements and interdisciplinary microbiome research.

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The researchers simulated corn production in 38,572 locations under the six nuclear war scenarios of increasing severity. Because of the crop’s global significance, the researchers chose to model corn’s collapse in a nuclear winter to represent the expected fate of agriculture overall. Credit: crisserbug/Getty Images. All Rights Reserved.

Jul 21, 2025

Simulating the unthinkable: Models show nuclear winter food production plunge

A team led by researchers at Penn State have modeled precisely how various nuclear winter scenarios could impact global production of corn — the most widely planted grain crop in the world.

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Nanyin Zhang, the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Chair in Brain Imaging and professor of biomedical engineering, of electrical engineering and of engineering science and mechanics; Patrick Drew, professor of engineering science and mechanics, of biomedical engineering, of neurosurgery and of biology; and Nikki Crowley, associate professor of biology and of biomedical engineering, Huck Early Career Chair in Neurobiology and Neural Engineering and director of the Penn State Neuroscience Institute at University Park, received a three-year, $1.2 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to gain insight into the purpose of dreams. Credit: Keith Hickey/Penn State. All Rights Reserved.

Jul 17, 2025

When dreams turn dark: Neuroscientists to study nightmares and mental health

Dreams, and likely nightmares, are experienced universally across humans and animals, but neuroscientists still do not know why. Now, with a three-year, $1.2 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Penn State will study the underlying mechanisms of nightmares and their relationship with anxiety-related mental health disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

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Credit: Keith Hickey / Penn State. Creative Commons

Jul 16, 2025

Optical tweezers help elevate single-molecule research at Penn State

The instrument, supported by a new NIH infrastructure grant, uses laser light to ‘tweeze’ tiny objects like DNA molecules and proteins.

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Graduate student Chad Smies and postdoctoral scholar Jiyeon “Joan” Baek manipulate a solution that will be used to visualize protein expression in the mouse brain. Credit: Michelle Bixby / Penn State. Creative Commons

Jul 14, 2025

The breadth of the brain

Researchers in the Penn State Neuroscience Institute study the brain’s many aspects in a variety of ways, with implications from mental health to aging and disease.

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Researchers reconstructed a high-resolution 3D image of a tick-borne Powassan virus. Credit: Courtesy of the Hafenstein lab at the University of Minnesota. All Rights Reserved.

Jul 10, 2025

Structure of tick-borne virus revealed at atomic resolution for the first time

Rates of the Powassan virus infections — which can cause seizures and paralysis — are increasing across commonwealth, nation.

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Eating pistachios as a nightly snack for 12 weeks altered which bacteria lived in the digestive system of people with prediabetes, according to a new study by researchers at Penn State. Credit: Jose Calatrava Cano/Getty Images. All Rights Reserved.

Jul 07, 2025

Nighttime pistachio snacking may reshape gut microbiome in prediabetic adults

Eating pistachios every night for 12 weeks altered bacteria in the gut, according to new study.

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Four emerging leaders in science and innovation have been selected for the inaugural Next-Gen Innovators Fellowship at Penn State. The cohort includes a tenured faculty member, a recent doctoral graduate and two current Penn State graduate students. Credit: Curtis Chan / Penn State. Creative Commons

Jul 07, 2025

Four selected for inaugural Next-Gen Innovators Fellowship at Penn State

Four emerging leaders in science and innovation have been selected as the inaugural fellows in Penn State’s Next-Gen Innovators Fellowship program, an initiative designed to close critical training gaps in research translation and technology commercialization.

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The findings challenge previous beliefs that scientists can make assumptions about bees’ nutritional needs based on what they choose to consume, according to the researchers. Credit: Neringa Normantaite/Unsplash. All Rights Reserved.

Jul 02, 2025

What a bumble bee chooses to eat may not match ideal diet

A new study led by researchers at Penn State suggests that what bumble bees choose to eat may not line up with their ideal nutritional needs.

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