News | The Huck Institutes (en-US)

Reconstructed 3D image of porous tissue strand using magnetic resonance imaging. IMAGE: OZBOLAT LABORATORY / PENN STATE

Dec 20, 2018

Micropores let oxygen and nutrients inside biofabricated tissues

Micropores in fabricated tissues such as bone and cartilage allow nutrient and oxygen diffusion into the core, and this novel approach may eventually allow lab-grown tissue to contain blood vessels, according to a team of Penn State researchers.

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Living cells, regardless of the type, can be kept around for a long time and because they move constantly, can be photographed repeatedly to create new encryption keys. IMAGE: JENNIFER M. MCCANN / PENN STATE MRI

Dec 19, 2018

Better security achieved with randomly generating biological encryption keys

Data breaches, hacked systems and hostage malware are frequently topics of evening news casts — including stories of department store, hospital, government and bank data leaking into unsavory hands — but now a team of engineers has an encryption key approach that is unclonable and not reverse-engineerable, protecting information even as computers become faster and nimbler.

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A structural model of the compact metal-bound form of the lanmodulin protein, which is 100 million times better at binding to lanthanides — the rare-earth metals used in smartphones and other technologies — than to other metals like calcium. IMAGE: PENN STATE

Dec 19, 2018

Bacterial protein could help find materials for your next smartphone

A newly discovered protein could help detect, target and collect from the environment the rare-earth metals used in smartphones. Two new studies by researchers at Penn State describe the protein, which is 100 million times better at binding to lanthanides — the rare-earth metals used in smartphones and other technologies — than to other metals like calcium.

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Dec 17, 2018

MCIBS student Alex Weiner takes home international poster award

"Endosomes Dock Wnt Signaling Proteins at Dendrite Branch Points to Organize Local Microtubule Nucleation Sites" won first prize at the 2018 Mechanisms of Neuronal Remodelling Conference in Ein Gedi, Israel.

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Dec 10, 2018

Andrew Zydney named recipient of Alan S. Michaels Award

Zydney's work has had a major impact on the design and development of important commercial membrane processes for the purification of monoclonal antibodies, which are used in treating cancer and other immunologic disorders.

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An international research team has identified more than 600 new antimalarial drug candidates from a screen of over 500,000 chemical compounds. Researchers at Penn State then used a method they developed called metabolic fingerprint profiling to determine if 13 of the most potent compounds affect the malaria parasite’s metabolism. The method identifies similar patterns in metabolic response, and revealed that ten of the compounds (red branch) target the same metabolic pathway, the mitochondrial electron transport chain. Credit: Llinás lab, Penn State

Dec 06, 2018

Unprecedented screen of 500,000 compounds reveals new candidates for malaria prevention drug

A new study, published December 7, 2018, in the journal Science by an international team of researchers including two from Penn State, reveals a new set of chemical starting points for the first drugs to prevent malaria instead of just treating its symptoms.

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Vasant G. Honavar, professor and Edward Frymoyer Chair of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Dec 06, 2018

Honavar named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Vasant G. Honavar, professor and Edward Frymoyer Chair of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He was elected by the AAAS Section on Information, Computing, and Communication for his distinguished contributions to research and leadership in data science.

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Having a regular, age-appropriate bedtime and getting sufficient sleep from early childhood may be important for healthy body weight in adolescence, according to researchers at Penn State.

Dec 05, 2018

Regular bedtimes and sufficient sleep for children may lead to healthier teens

Having a regular, age-appropriate bedtime and getting sufficient sleep from early childhood may be important for healthy body weight in adolescence, according to researchers at Penn State.

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Graduate students in the EGR training program’s inaugural group. Credit: Penn State

Dec 03, 2018

Training grant supports graduate students studying gene regulation

A new $2.4 million-dollar program to train graduate students in the area of eukaryotic gene regulation (EGR) has been established at Penn State with funding from the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences of the U.S. National Institutes of Health and from Penn State matching support.

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Penn State has become the 55th educational institution in the nation to be certified as an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program, designed to marshal the strength of educational campuses for the benefit of pollinators.IMAGE: PENN STATE

Dec 03, 2018

Penn State earns 'Bee Campus USA' certification

Penn State has become the 55th educational institution in the nation to be certified as an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program, designed to marshal the strength of educational campuses for the benefit of pollinators. The University Park campus joins more than 100 other cities and campuses across the country united in improving their landscapes for pollinators.

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