Neuroscience Institute News | Neuroscience Institute

Feb 25, 2025

GPCR Assay Service Center Opens at Penn State College of Medicine

New facility will enable Penn State researchers to perform large-scale drug screening and signal transduction monitoring

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Thomas Gould and Carlos Novoa in Gould's laboratory at Penn State University Park. Credit: Dennis Maney / Penn State. Creative Commons

Feb 20, 2025

Young adults may be more vulnerable to nicotine addiction than the middle aged

People in their late teens and early 20s may be more sensitive to nicotine and more susceptible to nicotine addiction than middle aged adults, according to a new study in mice from researchers in the Penn State Department of Biobehavioral Health.

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A research team at Penn State has developed generative models much like ChatGPT to create accurate birdsongs, which could improve understanding of the structure of birdsong and its underlying neurobiology and lend insight in the neural mechanisms of human language. Credit: Zachery Jin. All Rights Reserved.

Feb 14, 2025

ChatGPT for birdsong may shed light on how language is wired in the human brain

Just like ChatGPT and other generative language models train on human texts to create grammatically correct sentences, a new modeling method by researchers at Penn State trains on recordings of birds to create accurate birdsongs.

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Robert Sainburg Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Feb 12, 2025

Sainburg named fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology

Robert Sainburg, professor of kinesiology and neurology at Penn State and Dorothy F. and J. Lloyd Huck Distinguished Chair in Kinesiology and Neurology, was recently named a fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology.

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Jan 29, 2025

WATCH: Tracking disease progression in technicolor

The Laboratory for Materials in Medicine is advancing the imaging capabilities by developing contrast agents to target specific molecules and processes that may reveal more about disease progression than traditional scans.

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Yongsoo Kim, associate professor of neural and behavioral sciences at the Penn State College of Medicine, is leading a new five-year, $17.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Mental Health. Credit: Jason Plotkin / Penn State. Creative Commons

Jan 23, 2025

$17.9M NIH grant to research neurodevelopment disorders

Illuminating key biological pathways that underlie neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, is the goal of a new five-year, $17.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health to a national team of researchers.

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Tao Zhou, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics, received a five-year, $660,000 CAREER award from the U.S. National Science Foundation to develop stretchy, injectable hydrogel electrodes to treat spinal cord injuries. Credit: Poornima Tomy / Penn State. All Rights Reserved.

Jan 24, 2025

NSF CAREER Award supports pursuit of ‘soft’ solutions for spinal cord injuries

Engineering science and mechanics researcher Tao Zhou to develop stretchy, injectable hydrogel electrodes to treat spinal cord injuries.

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The biosensing platform developed by Penn State engineering researchers incorporates two-pass laser induced graphene with commercial transistors to simultaneously test for SARS-CoV-2 and vitamin C. Credit: Heshmat “Amir” Asgharian / Penn State. All Rights Reserved.

Jan 22, 2025

Biosensing platform simultaneously detects vitamin C and SARS-CoV-2

Penn State engineering researchers have developed a portable and wireless device to simultaneously detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and vitamin C, a critical nutrient that helps bolster infection resistance, by integrating commercial transistors with printed laser-induced graphene.

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Orfeu Buxton, Elizabeth Susman Professor of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State, will present the 2025 Pattishall Research Lecture, “Sleep Health Across the Life Span,” on Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 3 p.m. in the Edna Bennett Pierce Living Center (110 Henderson Building). Credit: via Getty Images; A Mokhtari and Annandistock. All Rights Reserved.

Jan 21, 2025

Feb. 5 lecture to discuss how sleep health affects daily life, long-term health

Orfeu Buxton, Elizabeth Susman Professor of Biobehavioral Health, will present the 2025 Pattishall Research Lecture

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Through a series of experiments, the research team led by Scott Medina, right, William and Wendy Korb Early Career Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Penn State, replaced the water-based solution commonly used in protein-based medications with a perfluorocarbon oil and tested five different proteins with a range of health-related functions such as antibodies and enzymes. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Jan 17, 2025

Discovery could eliminate need to refrigerate vaccines and protein-based drugs

A new storage technique can keep protein-based drugs and vaccines stable without keeping them cold. The discovery, led by researchers at Penn State, could eliminate the need for refrigeration for hundreds of life-saving medicines like insulin, monoclonal antibodies and viral vaccines.

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