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

Jan 28, 2025

New Annual Summit Focuses on Graduate Student Resiliency

Earlier this month, the Huck Institutes, in partnership with the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School at Penn State, hosted the Inaugural Huck Institutes T32 Summit.

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A led by Penn State researchers compared two treatments for a common uterine infection, called clinical metritis, that can lead to serious health problems for dairy cows. One treatment was based on antibiotics and the other was not. Both treatments had a similar clinical cure rate in mild cases of the disease. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Jan 02, 2025

New treatment for dairy cows could help fight antibiotic resistance, study finds

A concentrated sugar solution could be just as effective as antibiotics at treating a common infection in dairy cows, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.

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New research finds sex-specific regions of the brain can relieve the detrimental effects of chronic stress in male and female mice. Left: Schematic showing a cortical microcircuit with three types of interneurons expressing somatostatin (SST), parvalbumin (PV) or vasointestinal peptide (VIP) and their distinct patterns of innervation of glutamatergic output neurons (PNs), with thin lines representing axons that send chemical signals and the thicker lines of PNs representing dendrites that receive information. There is selective innervation of the distal ends of PN dendrites by axons of SST neurons. Right: Increased activity of SST neurons by genetically induced disinhibition, on top right, or by chemogenetic activation of SST neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex, on bottom right, leads to stress resilience and facilitates the reversal of the detrimental behavioral effects of stress exposure in male but not female mice. Credit: Bernhard Lüscher / Penn State. Creative Commons

Dec 17, 2024

Brain regions that relieve effects of chronic stress in mice differ based on sex

In two new studies, researchers made mice resilient to stress by activating neurons in different brain regions and found that the changes involved are highly sex-specific

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Dec 12, 2024

Relieving chronic stress in the brains of male and female mice

In two new studies, researchers made mice resilient to stress by activating neurons in different brain regions and show that the brain regions and gene expression changes involved are highly sex-specific.

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Through studies on rats, a team of researchers at Penn State has pinpointed the exact moment of loss of consciousness due to anesthesia, mapping what happens in different brain regions during that moment. Credit: Provided by Nanyin Zhang . All Rights Reserved.

Dec 11, 2024

Brain mechanisms underpinning loss of consciousness identified

Rapid activity in three brain regions appears to trigger loss of consciousness, researchers at Penn State find.

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Inhye Kim, an assistant research professor of biomedical engineering at Penn State, works in the lab at the Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Building at University Park. Credit: Poornima Tomy/Penn State. All Rights Reserved.

Dec 09, 2024

Tracking immune cell brain cancer therapies with ultrasound

National Cancer Institute awards biomedical engineering researchers $3.2M to study immune cell-based cancer treatment.

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Aditya Sapre, a doctoral student studying chemical engineering, participates in the 2024 Three Minute Thesis competition. Sapre would go on to take home first place at the Penn State competition last spring. Credit: Jillian Wesner / Fox Graduate School at Penn State. All Rights Reserved.

Dec 06, 2024

Finalists named for Penn State 2024-25 Three Minute Thesis competition

Ten graduate students from eight academic programs have been named finalists for the 2024-25 Penn State Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.

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Penn State and U.S. National Science Foundation representatives cut a ribbon celebrating the official launch of the U.S. National Science Foundation National Synthesis Center for Emergence in the Molecular and Cellular Sciences (NCEMS) with the Penn State Nittany Lion mascot. The NCEMS launch took place on Monday, Nov. 18, and provided information about open calls for working groups, fellowships and internships, as well as a growth trajectory over the next five years. Credit: Keith Hickey/Huck Institutes. All Rights Reserved.

Dec 02, 2024

Heard on Campus: Launch of new center in molecular and cellular sciences, NCEMS

Reception celebrates new NSF-funded National Synthesis Center for Emergence in the Molecular and Cellular Sciences at Penn State.

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Xiaojun “Lance” Lian, associate professor of biomedical engineering and of biology at Penn State, will work on generating universal donor stem cells through genome editing of pluripotent stem cells in his lab. Credit: Kate Myers/Penn State. All Rights Reserved.

Nov 27, 2024

$2.6M grant to advance potential stem cell-based heart disease treatment

Combining stem cells and silicon nanowires in lab-grown tissue has shown promise as a step toward a new treatment for heart disease, the leading cause of death worldwide, according to a multi-institutional research team.

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Nov 15, 2024

Q&A: How do microbiomes influence the study of life?

Microorganisms — bacteria, viruses and other tiny life forms — may drive biological variation in visible life as much, if not more, than genetic mutations, creating new lineages and even new species of animals and plants, according to Seth Bordenstein, director of Penn State’s One Health Microbiome Center within the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.

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