News

Jan 28, 2025
Researchers recognized for excellence by Institute of Energy and the Environment
The Institute of Energy and the Environment recognized six Penn State faculty members for their research excellence.
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Jan 06, 2025
Fourth annual Big Ten Neuroscience Symposium to convene at Penn State
The Penn State Neuroscience Institute, through the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and the Penn State College of Medicine, will host the Big Ten Neuroscience Annual Meeting on July 21 and 22 at the Nittany Lion Inn in State College.
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Dec 17, 2024
Brain regions that relieve effects of chronic stress in mice differ based on sex
In two new studies, researchers made mice resilient to stress by activating neurons in different brain regions and found that the changes involved are highly sex-specific
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Dec 12, 2024
Relieving chronic stress in the brains of male and female mice
In two new studies, researchers made mice resilient to stress by activating neurons in different brain regions and show that the brain regions and gene expression changes involved are highly sex-specific.
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Nov 14, 2024
Three Penn State researchers awarded scientific grants from Kaufman Foundation
The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation — a supporting organization of The Pittsburgh Foundation, which works to improve the quality of life in the Pittsburgh region — has selected three Penn State researchers to receive scientific research grants. The foundation awards grants to scientists at institutes of higher learning in Pennsylvania who are conducting innovative, fundamental scientific research in the fields of biology, chemistry and physics.
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Sep 11, 2024
Genomic pioneers collaborate to access the inaccessible
A new experimental method allows researchers to dissect how certain proteins, called pioneer factors, can bind to selective regions of the genome that are inaccessible to other DNA binding proteins.
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Aug 22, 2024
Cancer drug could treat early-stage Alzheimer’s disease, study shows
A type of drug developed for treating cancer holds promise as a new treatment for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, according to a recent study by researchers at Penn State, Stanford University and an international team of collaborators.
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Aug 13, 2024
Rewriting the evolutionary history of critical components of the nervous system
A new study has rewritten the conventionally understood evolutionary history of certain proteins critical for electrical signaling in the nervous system. The study, led by Penn State researchers, shows that the well-studied family of proteins — potassium ion channels in the Shaker family — were present in microscopic single cell organisms well before the common ancestor of all animals.
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Jul 08, 2024
Re-engineering cancerous tumors to self-destruct and kill drug-resistant cells
A team led by Penn State researchers has created a modular genetic circuit that turns cancer cells into a “Trojan horse,” causing them to self-destruct and kill nearby drug-resistant cancer cells. Tested in human cell lines and in mice as proof of concept, the circuit outsmarted a wide range of resistance.
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Jun 03, 2024
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.
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