News
Aug 11, 2020
Determining how a coronavirus protein takes over human protein-making machinery
Jean-Paul Armache, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, has been awarded seed funding from the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State to use cryo-electron microscopy to study how an important SARS-CoV-2 protein binds to and takes over the human ribosome — a protein factory in the cell that the virus uses to copy itself.
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Aug 10, 2020
Flavonoids' presence in sorghum roots may lead to frost-resistant crop
Flavonoid compounds — produced by the roots of some sorghum plants — positively affect soil microorganisms, according to Penn State researchers, who suggest the discovery is an early step in developing a frost-resistant line of the valuable crop for North American farmers.
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Aug 06, 2020
Faculty teams awarded seed grants to fund biodevice development
Faculty teams from across multiple disciplines recently received Penn State Biodevices Seed Grants and Grace Woodward Collaborative Research in Engineering and Medicine Grants to support work on the development of biodevices.
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Aug 06, 2020
Penn State Microbiome Center and GALT enter collaboration to advance research
The Penn State Microbiome Center and General Automation Lab Technologies (GALT) announced their collaboration to advance plant pathology, environmental microbiology and human gut microbiome studies.
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Jul 28, 2020
Researchers identify evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2
By reconstructing the evolutionary history of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, an international research team of Chinese, European and U.S. scientists has discovered that the lineage that gave rise to the virus has been circulating in bats for decades and likely includes other viruses with the ability to infect humans.
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Jul 24, 2020
Researchers to examine relation of dysfunctional brain hubs to mental disorders
The National Institutes of Health has awarded Penn State researchers a $1.85 million grant to develop a new way to test if dysfunctions in certain areas of the brain lead to mental health complications and brain disorders. If successful, the research could lead to better mental health treatments.
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Jul 24, 2020
HGSAC Co-Chairs Recognized for Leadership During Challenging Academic Year
A pair of outgoing student leaders were lauded for their efforts to provide career resources and improvement opportunities to their fellow graduate students even as the University cancelled in-person events.
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Jul 21, 2020
Researchers offer solution for one of synthetic biology's biggest problems
A team of Penn State and University of Washington researchers recently developed a new algorithm to help prevent the failure of engineered genetic systems, or organisms engineered to have new capabilities.
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Jul 20, 2020
Gary Thompson leaves his mark on Penn State's agricultural research enterprise
Gary Thompson, associate dean for research and graduate education and director of the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, will step down, effective July 31.
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Jul 15, 2020
Impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on connecting medical providers
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, medical experts suddenly found themselves facing an illness they knew little about and struggling to rapidly learn about how best to prepare and care for patients. With assistance from Penn State’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and the Social Sciences Research Institute, Project ECHO at Penn State was rapidly able to mobilize and provide a platform for sharing much-needed, and ever-changing, information on COVID-19.
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