Center for Cellular Dynamics

Supporting research in cytoskeleton and intracellular transport, cellular changes during development and disease, cell-cell communication and interactions, and live imaging

The Center for Cellular Dynamics is a group of Penn State labs whose research is focused on the following:

The cytoskeleton and intracellular transport
Cellular changes during development and disease
Cell-cell communication and interactions
Live imaging

The Center is a place where researchers and students share ideas and expertise, organize events that stimulate creative thinking, and strive to create a more collaborative and exciting research community.

Our members participate in departmental graduate programs, as well as interdisciplinary graduate programs organized through the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.

News

Food, not sex, drove the evolution of giraffes’ long neck, new study finds

Why do giraffes have such long necks? A study led by Penn State biologists explores how this trait might have evolved and lends new insight into this iconic question. The reigning hypothesis is that competition among males influenced neck length, but the research team found that female giraffes have proportionally longer necks than males — suggesting that high nutritional needs of females may have driven the evolution of this trait.

Growing biofilms actively alter host environment, new study reveals

A new study led by Penn State researchers reveals exactly how growing biofilms shape their environments and fine-tune their internal architecture to fit their surroundings.

College of Ag Sciences recognizes faculty, staff for research achievements

Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences lauded outstanding accomplishments in research during the 2023 Research Awards Ceremony, held Nov. 1 at the Hintz Family Alumni Center on the University Park campus.

News

Food, not sex, drove the evolution of giraffes’ long neck, new study finds

Growing biofilms actively alter host environment, new study reveals

A new study led by Penn State researchers reveals exactly how growing biofilms shape their environments and fine-tune their internal architecture to fit their surroundings.

College of Ag Sciences recognizes faculty, staff for research achievements

Novel hydrogel finds new aptamers, or ‘chemical antibodies,’ in days

One double-helix strand of DNA could extend six feet, but it is so tightly coiled that it packs an entire sequence of nucleotides into the tiny nucleus of a cell. If that same DNA was instead split into two strands and divided into many, many short pieces, it would become trillions of uniquely folded 3D molecular structures, capable of bonding to and possibly manipulating specifically shaped molecules — if they’re the perfect fit.