News
Jun 08, 2026
Materials lab in national program to develop wearable eye health system
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has awarded up to $75.8 million to four research teams through its Ocular Laboratory for Analysis of Biomarkers (OCULAB) program. Researchers from Penn State will develop biosensors for the Closed-Loop Sensing and Microdosing for Dry Eye and Systemic Disease Management (COSMIC) team led by Lacristat, a California-based ophthalmology company.
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Jun 04, 2026
Huck seeks grad students for immersive facility assistantships
The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences is seeking applicants for four half-time (20-hour) graduate assistantships within Huck Core Facilities during the fall 2026 semester. Graduate assistants will be placed in a single Huck core facility, chosen by the student, for hands-on experience with that facility’s technologies and applications. The assistants will contribute to projects involving the development, optimization, or application of methods and technologies within the selected facility
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Jun 01, 2026
Q&A: New text to serve as reference for advances in plant development
Hong Ma, professor of biology and J. Lloyd Huck and Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair in Plant Reproductive Development and Evolution at Penn State, is the co-editor of a new book, Regulation of Plant Development, recently published by Springer Nature. The book presents a synthesis of recent advances in plant vegetative growth and diverse aspects of reproductive development; serves as a comprehensive resource for students, postdocs and researchers in plant development; and provides an integrated reference for scientists advancing genetic improvement of crop plants for sustainability, according to Ma and co-editors.
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Jun 01, 2026
Q&A: Are plants the key to solving energy and food crises worldwide?
Changing market conditions are increasing the need for cost-effective ways to produce biorenewable chemicals, biofuels and materials that can serve as alternatives to oil-based products. According to Costas Maranas, Robert V. & Gloria H. Waltemeyer Chair and Donald B. Broughton Professor of Chemical Engineering at Penn State, solutions to these problems could come from applying tools used in synthetic biology to plants and their microbial partners across the globe.
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Jun 01, 2026
Four researchers win data harmonization competition
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) National Synthesis Center for Emergence in the Molecular and Cellular Sciences (NCEMS) at Penn State has awarded four researchers from across the world for their efforts in building machine learning-based approaches to streamlining publicly available datasets for reuse. The researchers — two individuals and one team of two — won a competition hosted by the center and designed to showcase data harmonization solutions.
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May 29, 2026
Third Center for RNA Molecular Biology Symposium brings together researchers
Since 2009, the Center for RNA Molecular Biology has provided a space for researchers across Penn State to gather to share ideas, develop skills and foster collaboration. What started as a joint lab meeting in 1998 has since grown into a center that is composed of a diverse group of faculty, graduate students and postdocs from departments including biochemistry and molecular biology, chemistry, biology and chemical engineering.
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May 28, 2026
Penn State student wins international award for sourdough microbiome research
Quinn Burnett, a fourth-year food science student in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, was recognized for her research on how sourdough starter microbiomes affect the digestibility of breads at the IPA World Congress + Probiota 2026 conference earlier this year in Dublin.
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May 27, 2026
Common protective soybean seed treatment may not increase profitability
Many soybean farmers use seeds treated with fungicides to ward off disease, but the profits from these increased yields might not offset the cost of the treatment in most cases, according to a study published in Scientific Reports by researchers at Penn State.
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May 27, 2026
STAIR Leadership Summit aims to fill unmet need in research administration
Penn State and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) recently partnered to address gaps in the research ecosystem through resource sharing, strategic partnerships, and workforce development, culminating in the first Skilled Training in Administration and Institutional Research (STAIR) Leadership Summit held last month.
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May 22, 2026
Q&A: Ebola outbreak and public health emergency
This week, the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency due to an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The outbreak, which has already killed more than 100 people, took longer to identify as the virus species is different than the species typically responsible for Ebola outbreaks. There is no vaccine for this species of Ebolavirus, but researchers are testing the effectiveness of a vaccine for a different species of the virus, according to Ebola expert Nita Bharti, associate professor of biology and Lloyd Huck Early Career Professor at Penn State.
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