News
Apr 16, 2026
3D-printed brain sensors may unlock personalized neural monitoring
Soft electrodes designed to perfectly match a person’s brain surface may help advance neural interfaces for neurodegenerative disease monitoring and treatment, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers. Neural interfaces are powered by tiny sensors capable of tracking biophysical signals, known as bioelectrodes.
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Apr 16, 2026
Penn State biochemist Melanie McReynolds awarded Hypothesis Fund seed grant
Melanie McReynolds, Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Early Career Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, has been selected to receive a seed grant from the Hypothesis Fund. The Hypothesis Fund aims to advance scientific knowledge by supporting early stage, innovative research — led by scientists at broad swath of universities — that increases adaptability against systemic risks to the health of people and the planet.
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Apr 15, 2026
Four Huck Trainees Among Graduate Student Award Winners
Four Huck graduate students are among the 42 that have been recognized as outstanding scholars with Graduate Student Awards by the Office of the President and the Fox Graduate School.
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Apr 14, 2026
Plant scientists receive $1.96M NIH grant to study plant-bacteria partnerships
A team of plant scientists in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has received a $1.96 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund a study of how beneficial plant-bacteria partnerships evolve, persist, and can be harnessed to improve health and agriculture. This grant, called a Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award, supports a lab's long-term research vision rather than an individual project.
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Apr 14, 2026
WATCH: Science graduate students recap international industry internship
Two Penn State graduate students participated in an intensive six-week internship last summer thanks to a partnership between the Huck Institutes’ One Health Microbiome Center (OHMC) and QIAGEN LLC, a leading multinational provider of diagnostic and assay technologies.
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Apr 13, 2026
Communication, Science & Society Initiative awards four interdisciplinary grants
The Communication, Science & Society Initiative (CSSI), a research partnership between Penn State’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences in the College of the Liberal Arts, has announced the grant recipients from its 2025 request for proposals. The initiative has awarded $52,000 to four projects that bring together teams of life scientists, humanists and social scientists who aim to address multi-dimensional societal problems.
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Apr 10, 2026
Prasad, Taylor, Verma among 31 graduate students to receive awards at 2026 Graduate Exhibition
Praveena Prasad earned first for her poster in Research Poster: Health and Life Sciences and second in the Data Visualization Award. Anthony Talyor earned third place for his poster in Research Poster: Health and Life Sciences while Antara Verma earned first place for Research Poster: Engineering.
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Apr 09, 2026
Huck Distinguished Lecture Series brings leaders in AI, biodiversity and cryo‑EM
This April, the Huck Distinguished Lecture Series will feature two experts who have established themselves as leaders in life sciences applications for artificial intelligence and cryo-electron imaging.
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Apr 09, 2026
Simple vineyard growing practice impacts soil microbiome deep below surface
In an effort to produce more and better grapes at a lower cost and with less environmental impact, vineyard growers have increasingly planted grass between rows of vines. These "groundcovers" root shallowly, but can benefit vineyard soils and reduce the need for herbicide applications. Now, a team of plant scientists in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has found that implementing this practice impacts far more than previously thought. It not only alters the biology and ecology at the surface, where the grasses are planted, but also alters the system far below the surface, the researchers reported in a new study published in Phytobiomes Journal.
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Apr 08, 2026
Martell receives Award for Administrative Excellence
Emily Martell, managing director for the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, has been honored with the 2026 Award for Administrative Excellence. The award, established in 1970, is given to a faculty or staff member whose performance, methods and achievements exemplify the highest standards of administrative excellence.
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