News
Oct 03, 2022
Disease outcomes differ by new host species in virus spillover experiments
Why has the SARS-CoV-2 virus ravaged the global human population, but many other animal viruses haven't? Using nematode worms as a model, researchers at Penn State conducted a set of experiments to investigate the factors influencing the disease outcomes of virus spillover events.
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Oct 03, 2022
Makova awarded Masatoshi Nei Innovation Prize in Biology
Kateryna Makova, Verne M. Willaman Chair in the Life Sciences and professor of biology at Penn State, has been awarded the Masatoshi Nei Innovation Prize in Biology. The award was established through a generous gift from Masatoshi Nei, emeritus professor of biology at Penn State and Laura Carnell Professor of Biology at Temple University, and his wife Nobuko Nei.
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Sep 14, 2022
Huck graduate students elect co-chairs for new academic year
This year, HGSAC members elected two students to serve as the graduate co-advisers for the Huck Institutes for 2022-23; Plant Biology student Alenka Hafner and Bioinformatics and Genomics student Corrine Smolen.
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Aug 29, 2022
Partner-drug resistance accelerates resistance of first-line malaria drug
A new research collaboration between Penn State, Oxford, and Imperial College London demonstrates that resistance to partner drugs facilitates resistance evolution to artemisinin, the world’s most important first-line drug for the treatment of malaria.
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Jul 12, 2022
Student awarded fellowship to study the genetics of lupus in diverse populations
Keenan Anderson-Fears, a student from Penn State’s Bioinformatics and Genomics doctoral program, is one of six individuals nationally to receive the Gina M. Finzi Memorial Student Summer Fellowship from the Lupus Foundation of America.
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Jul 06, 2022
Graduate students awarded 2022 NASA Space Grant Fellowships
Seventeen Penn State graduate students have received 2022 NASA Pennsylvania Space Grant awards and been named graduate fellows.
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Jul 18, 2022
New machine learning technique shows how drugs can be repurposed
A new machine learning method to model gene expression levels might improve the identification of genes that cause human diseases, according to a new study by Penn State College of Medicine researchers.
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Jun 24, 2022
Climate-associated genetic switches found in plants
Genetic variants that can act as switches directing structural changes in the RNA molecules that code for proteins in plants have been experimentally validated in plants for the first time. The changes to RNA structure can affect the molecule’s stability, how it interacts with other molecules, and how efficiently it can be translated into protein — all of which can impact its function and the traits of the plant.
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May 12, 2022
Microbiologists get grant to study biofilms guarding foodborne pathogen Listeria
Microbiologists in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences have received a $605,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study how microbial biofilms protect Listeria monocytogenes, the bacterium that causes the deadly foodborne illness listeriosis.
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Apr 11, 2022
First European farmers' heights did not meet expectations
A combined study of genetics and skeletal remains shows that the switch from primarily hunting, gathering and foraging to farming about 12,000 years ago in Europe may have had negative health effects as indicated by shorter than expected heights in the earliest farmers, according to an international team of researchers.
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