News

Hot-spring bacteria reveal ability to use far-red light for photosynthesis

Bacteria growing in near darkness use a previously unknown process for harvesting energy and producing oxygen from sunlight, a research team led by Huck Institutes faculty scientist Donald Bryant has discovered.

Ben Franklin's TechCelerator turns promising research into startups with promise

Research-to-startup program helps build entrepreneurship among scientists including Huck Institutes faculty researchers Tony Jun Huang and Gong Chen.

Elyse E. Munoz receives the ASM Robert D. Watkins Graduate Research Fellowship

Elyse E. Munoz, a Ph.D. graduate student in the Huck Institutes' genetics program was named a 2014-2017 recipient of a Robert D. Watkins Graduate Research Fellowship.

Zombie ant fungi manipulate hosts to die on the 'doorstep' of the colony

A parasitic fungus that must kill its ant hosts outside their nest to reproduce and transmit its infection, manipulates its victims to die in the vicinity of the colony, ensuring a constant supply of potential new hosts, according to researchers at Penn State and colleagues at Brazil's Federal University of Vicosa.

Pygmy phenotype developed many times, adaptive to rainforest

The small body size associated with the pygmy phenotype is probably a selective adaptation for rainforest hunter-gatherers, according to an international team of researchers that includes Huck Institutes faculty scientist George Perry, but all African pygmy phenotypes do not have the same genetic underpinning, suggesting a more recent adaptation than previously thought.

Training program for kinesiology, physiology students receives $1.3M grant

Penn State's Department of Kinesiology and Intercollege Program in Physiology, part of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, have received a $1,353,144, five-year pre-doctoral training grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Native bacteria block Wolbachia from being passed to mosquito progeny

Native bacteria living inside mosquitoes prevent the insects from passing Wolbachia bacteria -- which can make the mosquitoes resistant to the malaria parasite -- to their offspring, according to a team of researchers that includes Jason Rasgon.

Dorothy B. Huck: January 15, 1923 - August 9, 2014

The Huck Institutes are deeply saddened by the loss of our friend and benefactor Dottie Huck.

Flores bones show features of Down syndrome, not a new "hobbit" human

Detailed reanalysis by an international team of researchers including Robert B. Eckhardt suggests that the specimen, known as LB1, does not represent a new species.

Scientist uses giant spectrometer to search for cure for cancer

Working with the ScholarSphere " essentially a gigantic MRI on stilts " Scott Showalter is moving closer to the biomedical breakthrough he so desires: to help find a cure for cancer.