News

Graduate student Chad Smies and postdoctoral scholar Jiyeon “Joan” Baek manipulate a solution that will be used to visualize protein expression in the mouse brain. Credit: Michelle Bixby / Penn State. Creative Commons

The breadth of the brain

Researchers in the Penn State Neuroscience Institute study the brain’s many aspects in a variety of ways, with implications from mental health to aging and disease.

A flexible, skin-like sensor can monitor movement and electrical signals inside the body, with the potential to aid healing and bladder control. Credit: Huanyu “Larry” Cheng and Jennifer M. McCann. All Rights Reserved.

Skin-like sensor monitors internal, external body movement, electrical signals

A new skin-like sensor developed by an international team led by researchers at Penn State could help doctors monitor vital signs more accurately, track healing after surgery and even help patients with bladder control issues.

Researchers reconstructed a high-resolution 3D image of a tick-borne Powassan virus. Credit: Courtesy of the Hafenstein lab at the University of Minnesota. All Rights Reserved.

Structure of tick-borne virus revealed at atomic resolution for the first time

Rates of the Powassan virus infections — which can cause seizures and paralysis — are increasing across commonwealth, nation.

Study first author Maureen Kahiu, who earned her master’s degree from Penn State with this research project, maneuvers a light box on a research fairway, used to take closeup photos of turfgrass damage resulting from fungicides that golf course managers use to suppress diseases such as dollar spot. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

Fungicides intended to suppress turfgrass diseases may damage fairways

Golf course managers have much more insight into which fungicides to use to suppress turfgrass diseases, such as the common and costly dollar spot disease, without damaging the grass on their fairways, thanks to a new study by researchers at Penn State.

Postdoctoral fellow Laurel Seemiller studies the biology and long-term consequences of adolescent alcohol usage.  Credit: Michelle Bixby / Penn State. Creative Commons

Q&A: Does adolescent alcohol use impact future risk of addiction?

Postdoctoral fellow Laurel Seemiller studies the biology and long-term consequences of adolescent alcohol usage. In this Q&A, Seemiller spoke about her research and her experience at Penn State.

Jason Keagy, assistant research professor of wildlife behavioral ecology, is shown on the bank of an Icelandic lake holding a fish trap during a collection of threespined sticklebacks in a previous study.  Credit: Janette Boughman. All Rights Reserved.

‘Scialog’ grant to study how rising ocean temperatures affect fish behavior

A wildlife behavioral ecologist at Penn State is part of a multi-institution team that received funding from Scialog: Neurobiology and Changing Ecosystems, a international three-year initiative that aims to spark new science exploring neurobiological responses to rapidly changing environments.

Four emerging leaders in science and innovation have been selected for the inaugural Next-Gen Innovators Fellowship at Penn State. The cohort includes a tenured faculty member, a recent doctoral graduate and two current Penn State graduate students. Credit: Curtis Chan / Penn State. Creative Commons

Four selected for inaugural Next-Gen Innovators Fellowship at Penn State

Four emerging leaders in science and innovation have been selected as the inaugural fellows in Penn State’s Next-Gen Innovators Fellowship program, an initiative designed to close critical training gaps in research translation and technology commercialization.

Eating pistachios as a nightly snack for 12 weeks altered which bacteria lived in the digestive system of people with prediabetes, according to a new study by researchers at Penn State. Credit: Jose Calatrava Cano/Getty Images. All Rights Reserved.

Nighttime pistachio snacking may reshape gut microbiome in prediabetic adults

Eating pistachios every night for 12 weeks altered bacteria in the gut, according to new study.

The findings challenge previous beliefs that scientists can make assumptions about bees’ nutritional needs based on what they choose to consume, according to the researchers. Credit: Neringa Normantaite/Unsplash. All Rights Reserved.

What a bumble bee chooses to eat may not match ideal diet

A new study led by researchers at Penn State suggests that what bumble bees choose to eat may not line up with their ideal nutritional needs.

Credit: Curtis Chan / Penn State. Creative Commons

Eight graduate students receive U.S. National Science Foundation fellowships

Eight Penn State graduate students received U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships for the 2025-26 academic year.