News

Video profile: Marta Byrska-Bishop & Ross Hardison

Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences Ph.D. candidate Marta Byrska-Bishop and faculty researcher Dr. Ross Hardison study genomics and gene regulation in relation to inherited diseases.

Multiple openings for faculty positions

The Huck Institutes, along with the Department of Biomedical Engineering in the College of Engineering at Penn State, seek to hire 3-4 full-time biomedical engineering (BME) tenure-track or tenured faculty members for 2015-16 at the levels of assistant, associate, and/or full professor to continue developing an interdisciplinary cluster in biomedical engineering.

Jim Marden joins Huck Institutes Associate Directors

We are pleased to announce that Jim Marden, Professor of Biology at Penn State, has joined the leadership of the Huck Institutes as an Associate Director.

Femme fatale emerald ash borer decoy lures and kills males

An international team of researchers that includes Huck Institutes affiliates Tom Baker and Missy Hazen has designed decoys that mimic female emerald ash borer beetles and successfully entice male emerald ash borers to land on them in an attempt to mate, only to be electrocuted and killed by high-voltage current.

Learning a second language changes brain anatomy

Neuroscience co-chair Ping Li, along with Huck graduate student and co-author Jennifer Legault, has enableded a new study that provides a framework for understanding anatomical and other changes in the brain that result from learning a new (second) language; the findings indicate that learning a second language provides a powerful platform for positive brain changes in children, adults, and the elderly.

Sugar substitutes not so super sweet after all

The taste of common sugar substitutes is often described as being much more intense than sugar, but participants in a recent study indicated that these non-nutritive sugar substitutes are no sweeter than the real thing, according to Penn State food scientists including John Hayes.

Penn State hosts new National Science Foundation graduate researchers

Penn State is hosting 22 new National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) recipients for the 2014-15 academic year.

Penn State launches new online graduate certificate in applied bioinformatics

Penn State World Campus is offering a new graduate certificate in applied bioinformatics that will train a new generation of biomedical researchers in computational thinking and procedures.

Tilted acoustic tweezers separate cells gently

Precise, gentle and efficient cell separation from a device the size of a cell phone may be possible thanks to tilt-angle standing surface acoustic waves, according to a team of engineers that includes Huck Institutes faculty researcher Tony Jun Huang.

Zombie ant fungi 'know' brains of their hosts

A parasitic fungus that reproduces by manipulating the behavior of ants emits a cocktail of behavior-controlling chemicals when encountering the brain of its natural target host, but not when infecting other ant species, a new study shows.