News | The Huck Institutes (en-US)

Having a regular, age-appropriate bedtime and getting sufficient sleep from early childhood may be important for healthy body weight in adolescence, according to researchers at Penn State.

Dec 05, 2018

Regular bedtimes and sufficient sleep for children may lead to healthier teens

Having a regular, age-appropriate bedtime and getting sufficient sleep from early childhood may be important for healthy body weight in adolescence, according to researchers at Penn State.

Full Article

Graduate students in the EGR training program’s inaugural group. Credit: Penn State

Dec 03, 2018

Training grant supports graduate students studying gene regulation

A new $2.4 million-dollar program to train graduate students in the area of eukaryotic gene regulation (EGR) has been established at Penn State with funding from the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences of the U.S. National Institutes of Health and from Penn State matching support.

Full Article

Penn State has become the 55th educational institution in the nation to be certified as an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program, designed to marshal the strength of educational campuses for the benefit of pollinators.IMAGE: PENN STATE

Dec 03, 2018

Penn State earns 'Bee Campus USA' certification

Penn State has become the 55th educational institution in the nation to be certified as an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program, designed to marshal the strength of educational campuses for the benefit of pollinators. The University Park campus joins more than 100 other cities and campuses across the country united in improving their landscapes for pollinators.

Full Article

Lizards increasingly rely on camouflage to avoid predators as you move southward across their range, but the presence of invasive fire ants reverses this pattern. IMAGE: LANGKILDE LAB, PENN STATE

Nov 29, 2018

Lizards quickly adapt to threat from invasive fire ants

Some lizards in the eastern U.S. have adapted to invasive fire ants — which can bite, sting and kill lizards — reversing geographical trends in behavioral and physical traits used to avoid predators.

Full Article

A blue Acroporid coral in Lizard Island lagoon off the coast of Australia. New research shows that corals and their microbiomes have coevolved for hundreds of millions of years. IMAGE: F. JOSEPH POLLOCK, PENN STATE

Nov 29, 2018

Corals and their microbiomes evolved together

Corals and the microorganisms they host have evolved together for hundreds of millions of years. Understanding this long-term relationship could add fresh insight to the fight to save the Earth’s embattled coral reefs, the planet’s largest and most significant structures of biological origin.

Full Article

Jordan Hughey has been awarded a scholarship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Minority Ph.D. (MPHD) program.

Nov 28, 2018

BG Student Wins Sloan Foundation Scholarship

Jordan Hughey has added the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Minority Ph.D. award to an impressive list of accolades.

Full Article

Farmers in Angonia, Mozambique, happy with the performance of new varieties of common bean developed by an international partnership of plant scientists that included researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, pose among plants in a bean field. Plant breeding field trials have been conducted with bean growers in multiple regions of the country in southeast Africa. IMAGE: JIMMY BURRIDGE

Nov 28, 2018

Penn State root research results in breeding of improved bean plants for Africa

In the culmination of more than a decade of research on root traits conducted by Penn State plant scientists, about three tons of seed for common bean plants specifically bred to thrive in the barren soils of Mozambique will be distributed there Dec. 11.

Full Article

Nov 27, 2018

Katriona Shea Named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Katriona Shea, professor of biology and Alumni Professor in the Biological Sciences has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Full Article

Jian Yang with Ph.D. student Chuying Ma displaying a bendable citrate-based material for bone repair. IMAGE: WALT MILLS / PENN STATE

Nov 26, 2018

Citrate-based biomaterial fuels bone healing with less rejection

A material based on a natural product of bones and citrus fruit, called citrate, provides the extra energy that stem cells need to form new bone tissue, according to a team of Penn State bioengineers.

Full Article

Wood frogs rely on sound to find mates and reproduce, but many breeding ponds are located near noisy roads. A new study reveals that traffic noise is stressful to frogs and impairs the production of antimicrobial peptides — an important defense mechanism against pathogens like the chytrid fungus. IMAGE: LINDSEY SWIERK

Nov 21, 2018

Traffic noise stresses out frogs, but some have adapted

Frogs from noisy ponds near highways have altered stress and immune profiles compared to frogs from more quiet ponds — changes that reduce the negative effects of traffic noise on the amphibians.

Full Article