News

Series to raise awareness of characterization resources available at Penn State

Penn State researchers are invited to attend “After Café,” a casual, applications-centric series designed to raise awareness about the range of characterization assets available at the Materials Characterization Laboratory

Researchers assemble 51 animal genomes using publicly accessible workflows

Using a new set of tools, an international research collaboration including scientists from Penn State, Rockefeller University and Johns Hopkins University have reconstructed genetic blueprints for 51 species.

$1.9M NIH grant to support research on impacts of the microbiome on human health

To help understand how complex communities of microbes impact human health, the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Science has awarded a five-year, $1.9 million Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award to Jordan Bisanz

How does Zika virus replicate and transmit from mother to fetus?

In 2015, an outbreak of Zika virus, driven by a heavy rain season and subsequent boom in the virus’s host mosquito population, caused thousands of babies in Brazil to be born with severe birth defects.

Newly identified protein helps flowers develop all the right parts

Flowers rely on a newly identified protein to develop properly with all of their organs, according to the research team who made the discovery.

Start up your research: Apply now for March I-Corps Short Course

Penn State’s NSF I-Corps Short Course is accepting applications for its virtual March cohort. The no-cost program helps researchers test a startup idea through customer interviews and educational programming on the lean startup methodology

Noted anthropologist Joanna Setchell to deliver 2024 Darwin Day Lecture

Joanna “Jo” Setchell, professor of anthropology at Durham University in England, will deliver a lecture titled “Sexual Selection and the Differences between the Sexes in Mandrills (Mandrillus Sphinx)” as part of this year’s annual Darwin Day celebration

Proteins in milk — not just fat — may help reduce oral burn from spicy food

Spicy food lovers know that milk can ease the oral burn, but why? Some believe that fat is the soother, with whole cow’s milk reducing the bite more than low-fat cow’s milk or plant milks

Edge habitats along roads and power lines may be key to conserving rare plants

Edge habitats created by natural or human-caused disturbances provide prime opportunities for encouraging the establishment and reproduction of rare native plants, the researchers reported in a new study published in Plant Ecology

Xiaogang Hu, right, the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Neurorehabilitation and associate professor of mechanical engineering, will lead a $4 million grant from the U. S. National Science Foundation to make robotic protheses more useful for people living with amputations. Long Meng, left, a postdoctoral scholar in Hu's lab, will participate in the research. Credit: Kate Myers/Penn State. All Rights Reserved.

$4M grant funds project to make robotic prostheses more like biological limbs

Prosthetic hands that incorporate robotics can perform dexterous self-care tasks, but they are often hard to operate, requiring a user’s constant attention with a limited number of hand functions. With a five-year, $4 million U.S. National Science Foundation grant, Penn State researchers aim to make robotic protheses more useful for people living with amputations.